Sleeping with Strangers

In the begining

Sleeping With Strangers
For Shirley Picazo

Maria

My feet tap on the floor, my mind wonders to wear I am not even pretending to listen to the teacher. I pick up my pencil and drop it at the top of the desk and watch it slowly roll towards me, the repeating it, over and over again. Trying to make the time in this class go faster, but every time I turned to look at the clock it seemed to have barley moved. Only five minutes had passed and I had given up on trying to learn in this extremely boring environment. I gently lay my head on the table when I hear the door open, and shut softly.
The sound of my Biology teachers high-pitched voice echoes through out the room,
" Attention everyone we have a new student his name is Alejandro Mendez. Please do your best to make him feel welcomed."
My heart skipped a beat when she said his name. The name felt familiar to me, almost as familiar as knowing that two plus two equals four.
I raise my head gently and slowly trying not to make a sound. Almost as if I didn't make a noise I wouldn't be seen, which I realize is not true. I know this because when I turned around to take a peek at this "Alejandro Mendez" he was already looking at me. His dark brown eyes poured into mine. We held the glance for several moments, until finally I broke the glance and quickly turned around to face the other way. My breath quickened, almost as if starting into his small oval eyes took all my breath away. In ways it did, because it didn't even take me half a second to recognize him, it was Alejandro Mendez my long lost ex boyfriend whom I thought I would never get the chance to see, again.
It was only moments later when I felt tapping on my shoulder, when I turned around it was him. He was sitting in the desk be hide me. My stomach automatically churned. I tried to stay calm and confident while looking at him. He had changed, he had gotten slightly taller and lost all of his baby fat from middle school. He had an increase in acene and had some scars on his cheeks, but when he smiled I could barely notice. His eyebrows are thicker, his hair was cut shorter. He was also had hair under his chin and was growing sideburns.
"Your Maria Olmer right?" He asked me.
"Yea", I said not directly making eye contact with him but looking at his journal that he had just placed on his desk.
"You remember me?" He said using his hands to express his words by placing them on his chest.
Yes.
"No," I lied, " sorry I don't" I tried to turn back around to resume my work that I was suppose to be doing before he came into the classroom to avoid having to talk to him, but he grabbed my arm stopping me from doing so.
" Come on" he smirked, " How can you say that you don't remember me, we used to go out in 6th grade remember?"
My cheeks automatically felt hot, I was flustered and embarrassed for trying to lie when it was so obvious that I knew who he was. He knew that I knew, and he was testing me. Instead of going on and on with this sharade I gave in.
" oh!" I said," Now I remember you!" I said trying to play it off as if I had actually forgotten and had just remembered.
"You have changed!" He exclaimed
" You have too." I tell him forgetting about the work i was suppose to be doing.
" I mean look at your hair!" He said brining his hand to my hair touching it and running his hands through it, " it's red!" He refers back to when I had brown hair in the 6th grade.
My insides begin to tremble, while Alejandro pulls on my hair. My breaths get quicker and chills run up my back, when he lets go the feelings of pleasure slowly decrease.
"You've grown.." I say
He looks me up and down, " I seen some parts of you have grown too" he smirks and adds a wink at the end. That's when I knew that the feelings I had for him almost 6 years ago were starting to come back. The wink, it changed everything. It took me back to the day we went on our first date to McDonalds.

......

We were both fat, our guts hung way over our belt and after every step we would have to stop to breath and catch our breath. Our fingers were shaped like sausages and when we held hands our "sausage" fingers would lose circulation and we would have to Break the he every six minutes. It took us a little over 20 minutes to walk three blocks, not only because we walked really slow but also because of traffic. When we had gotten into McDonalds the smell of grease salt and oil hit me, making my mouth instantly water with suspense. My stomach had begin to rumble and grumble. He had took my hand and guided me into the line with him. I lean on him, his hands were wrapped around my waist. His fingers tapped and rubbed into my skin. His hands travel up my shirt and under the lining of my kaki pants. When we had finally made our way to the front of the line Alejandro had order for me.
"Two big Mac's, two large fries and a large vanilla shake."
"Will that be all for you?" The cashier ask.
"Yes ma'am" Alejandro told the tall cashier lady.
"Nine, twenty-five." She told him.
Alejandro removed his hands from my waist and dug into his deep pockets. He pulled out his wallet and opened it. He pulled out a twenty dollar bill and handed it to the cashier. She took it and gave him back his change. We waited two minutes and then out order had arrived.
We had sat towards the back of the restaurant, by the window. We were there for hours, talking about life and childish things. We shared the vanilla shake, like how the couples did in the Romantic movies. I could've said the date was perfect until the end when he said-

......

"Look," Alejandro said, knocking me out of my day-dream, "I'm sorry for leaving you."
My throat began to dry up, almost as if I had just came down with strep-throat, only I hadn't, just the memory of him had frightened me so much. That it was a involuntary action that took place on my part.

......

"Maria," he said changing is view from his precious French fries to me, " I can't stay here anymore."
At first I thought he was talking about the fast-food joint so I replied with, "it's okay, we can go to a park or something."
"No, no, no" he said back to me slightly frustrated shaking his head back and fourth. " I mean I can't stay here anymore, in this city." He paused, took a long breath, " I can't stay here with you Maria. I have to go."
The tears had hit me instantly, I pleaded and begged him not to leave me. He wouldn't look at me, he looked out the window.
I grabbed his hand across the table and tried to get him to look at me and hear me out. He wouldn't move.
After five minutes of trying to get his attention. I gave up. We sat in bitter silence for what seemed like forever. The tapping of his foot and the sound of the cashier saying
"Order up!" Was the only noise that I could hear.
Finally I said, "Can I at least know why?"
He turned from the window and looked at me, "Family problems" he told me," don't worry about it."

...

"It's okay," I told Alejandro," you and family problems, I understand."
And that's when the bell rang, releasing us onto the next class. The bell changed everything, it was like we had just been awaken from a trance. Everything I saw was like it wasn't real, everyone got up in unison and walked out of the classroom leaving me alone sitting on my chair.
" Maria!" Miss Jankes whistled, "get to class, your going to be late!"
It took me several seconds to stand up, my legs felt numb and they stung with every step I took. When I made it out of the classroom, I turned to the left and I saw him again. He was already looking at me. He was leaning against the wall, next to my next class. Law. He smirked at me. I turned around to avoid him seeing me blush. By the time I had turned back around, he was gone.