One Step Away

⊱Chapter 3⊰

"BEEP! ... BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! ... BEEEEEEEEEEP!" my alarm clock screeches at 6 am. I fumble around in my sheets for a minute until I find the book I'd been reading until late last night. Eyes still closed, I throw it at the alarm clock and a moment later it halts its blaring. Still mostly asleep, I open my eyes a fraction and immediately feel the all-too-familiar burning of exhaustion. I had clearly made a mistake staying up so late.

I force myself to get out of bed, only to yelp and jump under the warm covers a second later from the cold shock. Why did I have to leave the fan running last night?! I cower beneath the pleasantly toasty blankets for a few more minutes before reluctantly getting out once again. I shiver and quickly switch the fan off.

Once the room starts warming up, I finally find the motivation to prepare for my first day of senior year. I'm excited to catch up with Tessa after such a long time apart and find out what she's been up to.

After a few long minutes, I finally decide to wear a cute little white blouse with off-the-shoulder straps, a little navy blue jean skirt with white butterflies scattered all around it, my trusty black-and-white converse, as well as some gold hoop earrings, and makeup. I also decide to leave my long golden-brown hair down, but split it into two parts and pull it forward to the front on either side of my head.

I brush my hair one last time, then open my bedroom door and walk into the kitchen to grab some breakfast. My mom's already waiting there with toast and cereal prepared for me. I shoot her a grateful smile and take the food over to our little table-for-two. I tap my phone's dark screen as I lift the toast to my mouth, and find out that it's already 6:50 am. School starts at 8 am sharp every day, Monday through Friday, so I was running out of time. I quickly finish my breakfast and then pack up my school things.

Just before I open the apartment door, I call out to my mom: "I'm heading to school now--love you!" To which she responds with a "Love you too, hun. Have a good day at school!"

⌯

The moment I step off of the subway and onto the platform of the station right by my school, my annual first-day-nerves kick in. My mind shifts to thoughts of all the things that could possibly go wrong today, which makes stepping into the school itself all that much harder.

I wander aimlessly down the hallways, searching for my apparently non-existent locker. 248...255... 263...God damn it. Where is it?? "Having trouble finding your locker?" someone says from behind me. I turn around to see my favorite biology teacher, Mr. Sheid. He grins at me, and I can't help the smile that appears on my face.

"Mr. Sheid! How have you been? I can't believe you're finally back from Sweden!" I exclaim excitedly. He had left the school at the end of my sophomore year to teach science in Sweden for a year. I was told he might end up extending his stay there for another year, and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to see him again before I graduated. When I was taking biology, I would always stay after class or come to school early to get help on my homework or projects, and after a while, the two of us sort of became friends, and grew a mutual respect for each other as student and teacher.

"The Swede students were great, but I knew deep down that I missed my home here, in New York, as well as my amazing students," he says with a wink directed at me. "Now, what's your locker number? I might be able to help you find it."

"Oh. Right. It's 297." I reply.

"The 290's, huh? I think I remember seeing those near the history classrooms." He says, smiling with those sparkles in his eyes.

"Much thanks. Gotta go now, see you around, Mr. Sheid!"

"No problem, Caralyn. Anytime."

I quickly make my way toward the location Mr. Sheid had suggested, and find my locker almost immediately. I heave a sigh of relief and shrug the hefty backpack off my shoulder, unzipping it and unloading all the textbooks and notebooks into my new locker.

"Well, what do we have here?" An all-too-familiar feminine voice calls out from behind me. Turning around with a fat grin plastered on my face, I squeal. "Tessa!" She runs over and pulls me into a suffocating bear hug. "Oof! Your hugs are a bit too snug, bestie, you're gonna kill me someday." Laughing, she gently releases me and steps back.

"You excited to start our last year of high school?" she asks.

"Why wouldn't I be? Of course I am!" I exclaim. "I'm about ready to be done with high school at this point."

Tessa laughs, and then her face becomes serious. "There's so much I have to tell you, but first--Did you ever find that train guy again?"

"No!" I exclaim, my face turning sad. "It sounds stupid, Tess, but we had an instant connection. He almost asked me out, and now he just disappeared!"

"Oh Caralyn," she responds, her face full of sympathy. "we'll hunt the whole city down until we find him. Now come on, let me introduce you to my new boyfriend!" She grabs my arm and drags me over to a tall guy with his back turned to us.

"Nathan!" She calls out as we get closer. He doesn't seem to hear her, so she taps his shoulder. "Babe."

He turns around and grins when he sees Tessa. I gasp, and then quickly cover my mouth before Tessa hears me. It was him. The train guy. He doesn't seem to recognize me. Of all the people in the world Tessa could have dated, it had to be him. Of course. I feel my heart sink, but I know Tessa will be upset if I tell her the train guy is the guy she's dating, so I try to put on a brave face and pretend I know nothing.

Tessa loops her arm with his. "Babe. This is my bestie, Caralyn, and Caralyn, this is Nathan." She turns to me excitedly." So remember when I told you I had to go to the Bahamas with my dad for three weeks with his coworker and his son? Well Nathan is my dad's coworker's son! We clicked almost immediately on the first day and got to know each other during the vacation and on the last day, I finally worked up the courage to tell him I liked him, and he said he felt the same way! He and his dad recently moved here, so he joined my school so we could be together. Isn't it amazing?"

"Yeah, Tess. I'm so happy for you!" I say, trying to keep my act together. I can feel my eyes start to water, and it's getting harder and harder to fight them off. "I need to go to the bathroom--see you at lunch?"

"Yeah, sure!" She turns back to Nathan and goes up on her tiptoes to peck his cheek. He looks at her affectionately, and then pulls her into a kiss. Unable to take it anymore, I quickly turn around and run in the opposite direction. Willing my eyes not to start watering, I barely make it into a stall before I break down crying. I spend the last 3 minutes before class balled up on the floor in my stall, sniffling and crying about my singularity. The bell rings, and I quickly wipe away the tears and fix my hair before I run to my first class, English. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry for making you guys wait so long! I was super busy with school and my personal life that I just didn't have the spare time to write for a while... Hopefully you're enjoying the story so far! I'll try to get the next chapter out ASAP.   :)