Icarus

Chapter 8

Hardwicke, Hardwicke high school

September 1, 2004

Ronnie won the race, I was not impressed when Sam began celebrating and telling me that the both of us were going to date our crushes. "I don't know what you're so happy about Sam! I'm not asking Terrin out!" We had been walking back from the race track for a while now, the reality of what Sam wanted was finally starting to sink in and he was becoming more annoying by the minute.

"Oh come on Rose! You know you want to, besides! It'll make me happier to see you with a boyfriend." If Sam continued to talk about my possibility of dating Terrin I was really going to throw a fit at him and tell him to shut it. I was so tempted to push him out onto the road and into the path or oncoming traffic. Sometimes I wondered how I had come to be friends with someone as stupid as Samuel, if only he knew what I felt I doubt he'd be pushing me to ask Terrin out...he would likely not be speaking to me at all.

"Listen Sam, just because you want a girlfriend so bad does not mean I want a boyfriend! So, just quit it!" I stormed off towards school, this was not how I imagined my morning going. If only Sam could understand that I wasn't interested in being popular or dating Terrin Dawkins then life for me would be so much sweeter and quieter too.

"What crawled up your butt and died? You've been in a bad mood for ages, since I began volunteering at the shelter. Seriously Rose, what's bothering you?" Sighing, I slowed down my pace so that Sam could catch up. The anger and frustration was gone in a single breath and I was left feeling tired, more tired than I often was at ten in the evening.

"It's just you. You and all your talk about Beth and Terrin, Sam I'm happy being single. I don't want to be popular, I don't want to date. I just want to get through high school in one piece and come out the other end sane and happy. So for my sanity will you please just forget about me dating Terrin, I haven't had a crush on him for ages I've had..." I cut myself off suddenly and stalked off towards school, thankful that Sam didn't start yelling after me again.

Good lord, did I almost tell him? I know I had denied the fact to my mom, but I had been thinking long and hard about what she had said on the phone the other night and had come to the conclusion that she was right. My mom was one hundred percent right, maybe it was a mother's instinct or a woman's instinct but I had a full blown, raging crush on my best friend and he didn't even know it.

I doubt Sam would even have cared, he was that caught up in dating Beth that he rarely ever noticed what he was wearing. 

Take today for example, he had socks on that were completely different colors, I'm sure one sock belonged to his younger sister because it was pink and had little white flowers on it. His t-shirt was inside out and had more wrinkles than his grandmother but he was likely in too much of a rush to get to school and see Beth.

"Hey Rose! Come sit with me at lunch okay?" That was strange, Beth never really invited me to sit with her at lunch and I was fine with that. This invitation couldn't come at a worse time as I was sure Sam would push me to take up the offer, I only offered Beth a smile before going to my home room.

Sitting in my usual seat in class I couldn't help but stew in my thoughts, Sam came walking in and sat in a seat that was not his usual. Often he sat right next to me in home room but this morning he had decided on another seat which was confusing and a little hurtful, even if he hadn't meant to hurt me. 

"Morning Sam, your t-shirt is inside out." Our home room teacher greeted Sam, he gave a sidelong look towards me. I knew that if I were standing in front of him that he'd be glaring at me but it wasn't my fault I had gotten side tracked by the argument this morning, if he hadn't pestered me so much I was sure I would have pointed out the fact that he had mismatched socks on and his t-shirt was inside out.