"May
the
bridges
I
burn,
light
the
way."
It had been a few days since I had last spoken to Nathan, at least directly. I saw him around, and I felt like in the hallway he looked for me as much as I looked for him. He wasn't hard to spot. He had light skin and vivid blue eyes, and dark hair he always pushed up in the front. Being hella tall helped him too. When I did see him, I looked away.
Grade A socialization. He was usually with his friends Matt and Will, two seniors I made friends with. Most of the time they just picked on me for being short, and they always messed with me at my soccer and tennis practices. To me they were too tall, and now Nathan walking with them made it look like a trio of giraffes.
Nathan was in a lot of my classes, and most of my arrangement classes, since I had advanced.
Advanced basically meant I was learning 2x as much, twice as fast with double the homework, and double the stress. The good thing about it was that we had short classes, got to spend a lot of time with 10th grade, that was Nathan's grade, and we didn't really have to listen to teachers. We just showed up to the class, got our reading articles, or watched our videos, and did our work. 30 minutes later it was off to the next class. The advanced group was Anthony, Isaac, and me. I was actually shocked, Anthony was obviously a hard worker and tried for everything, but Isaac and I? We hardly tried, but still did good.
However they decided it, I was glad. My grades were harder to keep up but it was worth it. I liked learning, I don't care how lame that sounds. Learning new stuff was always exciting, and I really liked history from the 1950's-1990's.
I was so glad to be home after a long day at school. We learned nothing new, and it was just boring. I was totally tired and didn't feel like doing homework. I opened my notebook and took out a pen. I tried to start English, but I just needed a break for a little while. I rested my head on my desk and closed my eyes.
Something bright was on the other side of my closed eyes. I opened them and looked for the source. I grabbed my iPod.
"What's up?" Read the text that lit up my iPods black screen. That's what I had seen. I unlocked my iPod and opened the text. It was Grace, a beautiful, smart blonde I had met at camp over the summer. We were shy towards each other at first, but we became good friends, and have been best friends since. She seemed nearly perfect, but never thought of herself that way. Grace was quiet and reserved, but once she got comfortable she turned into the most fun person ever, and I was happy for her being my distraction.
"Broobs!" I texted back excitedly. It was a nickname we had given each other after spellcheck failed me, again. I couldn't even remember what I was originally trying to write. As I was texting Grace, another text came up.
"James: hey I was just wondering..." I let my finger hover over the text for a moment before opening it. James and I hadn't always been friends, actually, I wasn't so sure we were friends now. We just talked sometimes.
I opened the text, waiting for Grace to reply to my long paragraph about my day.
"Hey I was just wondering if you could text Angela..."
I closed the chat.
Nope. I want even going to read the whole thing.
Take care of that yourself. Not my problem. I hated drama.
I saw another text pop up.
"James: ?"
Dammit.
I typed a snippy response:
"Talk to her yourself. I don't want any misunderstandings or anything, plus her and I don't really talk."
Sent. Delivered. Read.
James is typing...
"Y not?"
I sighed.
"Because she's YOUR girlfriend and it would be awkward talking to her."
Read.
James is typing...
"Lol y? ;)"
I put my head down on my table. How much more annoying could he be? I did smile though. He was making my mood a little better.
"Listen, I'm busy." I really was, busy being tired and avoiding homework.
Delivered. Read.
James is typing...
James is typing...
James is typing...
I was sick of waiting. Whatever he was writing, I could read later. Meanwhile, Grace had replied to my text with some wise words and her day recapped. In caps. She wasn't having a good day, again.
I felt bad. She deserved so much better than what she had.
What she had:
A stressful family and family drama,
A huge school full of fake friends and more drama,
Evil ex-boyfriends and drama,
And regular boys with drama.
Oh yeah, that's another awkward thing about James, he was her ex. That's how him and I had originally started talking.
Actually, I cussed him out over text about being a bad person and how he should've put more effort into him and Grace. Somehow that transferred into a relationship, that was currently hanging on by a thread.
Grace had dealt with general sadness and loneliness through the day. She had been talking to a boy name Dillon from another school, but she didn't think it would go anywhere. I warned her not to get into anything long distance. It never worked out.
My iPod dinged. Another text.
James: "okay fine but I was..."
Whatever. I was procrastinating anyway. Why not read it?
James: "okay fine but I was just wondering if you could text her 'it's 6:30 and James still loves you.' She'll understand."
"Alright," I texted back. It was a cute thing, but I really hated talking to other people about their relationships. I was grateful for James, but I couldn't really talk to him. Things were too weird between us.
"Oh hey..." Came another text
"I know you and Jon just broke up, and honestly he's crazy to do that, but I just wanted to say I'm here for you if you ever need a friend or someone to hold you...?"
Never mind, I REALLY hated talking about relationships. Period.
"Thanks but no thanks. Save that for Angela."
Read.
James is typing...
"Haha okay, but the offer's always open ;)"
Eh, he was just being nice, I should just accept it.
"Okay."
I closed his chat.
Grace wasn't replying. Maybe she was going to eat dinner? Or a shower?
I stared at the blank paper in front of me.
"I'll do it tomorrow," I said quietly, shoving it back in my bag.
I wanted music, I needed music, something energizing. Something peppy. I went to my music app. Illegally downloaded. I was a pirate.
Just kidding. It was just iTube.
I scrolled through my songs list.
"What the..." I said as I furrowed my brow.
All my music was at the bottom of a new playlist, and there were 37 new songs downloaded. Did I download these?
I played one.
No. I did not download this. It was in French.
"French?" I said aloud, "French? French music? Wtf!?"
Then I remembered, Nathan had taken my iPod. Who knows what else he did on it.
I left the music playing as I did a quick scan through my data. Everything seemed the same, nothing else was changed.
I left the music playing as I scrolled lazily through Instagram. I actually liked it, and I spoke a little French so I understood some of it. I got to one song that was almost all new to me. I went to iTube to see its name.
"Sexy sushi"
Oh. My. God.
I covered my mouth. I wanted to laugh and yell at the same time.
What. The. Hell?!
I immediately took a screen shot of my new playlist and sent it to Grace.
"OMFG look at this! Some French boy at school took my iPod and put some weird cool French music on it! Listen to some of these!"
The text sent but didn't deliver. Her phone was off. She was busy.
I browsed through the music some more before reaching he end of the playlist. There was a link. I clicked it and it sent me to my notes app.
Typed in French read: mon nom est Nathan Bonhomme. Je suis 15. Je suis en 10e année. Je suis nouveau cette année, et je aimerais vraiment apprendre à vous connaître. voici mon kik et le numéro de téléphone. nous devrions parler un peu plus.
It translated to his information. Age: 15, grade: 10th, name: Nathan Bonhomme, number and kik... He asked to talk sometime.
I made a half smile. I should be a little creeped out buy this, but it was cute. He was cute. Even if he did hack into my iPod and download weird music onto it. He was new and cool and cute. I couldn't help myself. I had just gotten out of a bad relationship and this is exactly what I needed right now. I did kind of like him. Just a little.
My iPod lit up with another text.
It was Grace.
"OMFG what a creep!?"
I smiled,
"Don't worry, he's cute." I replied still smiling.
Somehow Nathan had made my bad day, not so bad anymore.
Grace and I were now texting furiously back and fourth about him.
And I couldn't help from smiling.
