Angel

Chapter 6

The next day passed by pretty slowly. I spent it wrapped in the warmth of my bed, frequently bending over to throw up into the trash can on the floor below. I guess my stomach didn't agree with the food at McDonald's as much as I did.

I was pretty excited to get out of the house and go to art class today. I sat on the olive green couch we had in the living room, my brothers beside me, hypnotized by the TV. After I had almost sat through a full episode of Spongbob Squarepants, I heard a loud knock on the door. I got up and opened it, letting a rush of the hot summer air into the house. Zack and a boy I had never seen before were standing there in front of me. I scanned the boy, taking in all his features. His eyes were green, like mine, except they were speckled with a bit of tan. He had dirty blonde hair, and it looked like he put effort into doing it this morning, unlike Zack. He was an inch or two taller than Zack, who was already much taller than me.

"Vanessa, this is Eli," Zack said. "He's basically my best guy friend. He lives in the neighborhood next to ours." I put my hand out to greet Eli. He took it, might I mention his hand was quite sweaty. "Nice to meet you, Eli," I said with a smile. He returned the gesture, "Nice to meet you too, Vanessa." "Isn't my girlfriend stunning?" Zack asked Eli, his voice filled with amusement. Girlfriend? I don't know how I felt about that. We never made it official, or at least I hadn't, but apparently Zack thought we had. I tried to push the thoughts of the subject away and for the most part, succeeded. I walked out into the heat and shut the door behind me.

We started to walk towards the entrance of the neighborhood. Zack and Eli were a few feet ahead of me, talking about something. I couldn't make out what they were saying, but I didn't care. All that was going through my head was what Zack had called me. Did I want to be his girlfriend? Did I want him to be my boyfriend? I knew I liked him, maybe even loved him. But it was all too much. We met two days ago! I wanted to spend more time with him, get to know him more before I made it official. Zack captured me from my thoughts.

"Vanessa, you okay?" he asked. I looked up from the ground. "Yeah. Why?" How long had I been silent? How long had he been trying to get my attention? "I was just checking," he said as he stopped, waiting for me to catch up and walk beside him. He grabbed my hand and intertwined it with his.

***

He held my hand almost the whole way to our destination. There were only about ten other students besides me, Zack, and Eli. During the class, Mr. Tom, the teacher, who constantly had an unpleasant look on his face for some reason, introduced himself and told us the few rules he had made for us. The rules were stupid shit like, Raise your hand if you have to pee. After that he spent at least an hour talking about the history of painting and his all-time favorite artist, Picasso. So original. We finally got to experiment with acrylic paint after listening to his boring lesson. It's not like I haven't used acrylic paint before, but I was always excited when it came to drawing or painting, considering it was all I did in my free time.

After class, Eli went on his own so he could stop by the record store down the street. Apparently he was really interested in music. He worked at the record store on the weekends. Zack and I decided to go back to my house and hang out in my room. At first I was hesitant, to be in a closed room with a boy I had met only two days ago. But what could go wrong? (Apparently a lot.) As soon as we walked into the cooler air of my house, my mom greeted Zack, smiling more than I had seen her smile in years. "Hello, Zack! Vanessa told me all about you! Would you like anything to drink?" Thanks Mom. I rolled my eyes at her. "Thanks Ms. Lane, but I'm okay," he answered her, a bit of amusement and a bit of nervousness in his voice. "We're going to my room, Mom," I said, grabbing Zack's hand to lead him up the stairs. "Oh! You two have fun!" Mom said, still smiling and watching us go all the way up the stairs and to my room.