If I Knew Then

Chapter 5: Animals and Poetry

I woke not to the alarm that I had set, but to incessant banging on my door. Startled awake, once I realized that I was safe, I groaned and pulled the blanket over my head.

      "Can I come in? Jaxson shouted on the other side of my door.

      "Why?"

      "Let me in and I'll tell you why."

     "But my hair's all gross and my breath is stinky."

     "So?" He sounded like a child. My guardian angel was a five-year-old in the body of a seventeen-year-old. "I've really done my research, Addie. I know more than you think I know about you. I saw your mom's collection of preschool tapes."

      I groaned again. I didn't want to think about that year of dance class that she insisted to record. "Why would you do that?"

      "I had to get a full picture of who I was dealing with?"

     "And how did learning about my kindergarten crush on Sean Timmons help you?"

     "Collateral damage. In case I really need to persuade you."

      My jaw cracked open, staring at the closed door in disbelief. What was he planning that would require blackmail?

      "Are you doing your shocked face?" he asked, and I snapped my jaw shut as if to prove him otherwise.

     "No..."

      "Can I come in?"

      "Are you going to stay out there until I say yes?"

      "Yes."

     I sighed and sat up with the blanket wrapped around my shoulders. "Come in then."

     There was no hesitation. He swung the door open and plopped down on the corner of my bed before I could blink.

     "Are you excited for today?" He beamed madly.

     Was I excited to befriend a group, so that I could then find a way to get a girl the help she needed? A girl who already seemed to dislike me.

     "I'm terrified."

     Jaxson smiled knowingly. "I was too, when I first met Lexi."

     I cocked my head. "You were nervous?"

      He nodded solemnly. "I made a fool of myself. I tore my wardrobe upside down trying to please her." That was hardly anything unexpected. "When I first spoke to her, I walked into her locker door." Ok. That was a little bad. "I smacked my face so hard, that I had a bruise on my face for my days." I was smirking now. "And then in my attempt to recover from my clumsiness I tripped on my own feet." I was full on laughing. "We were alone in the hall, so the squeak of my shows echoed across the dreadful silence."

      It shouldn't have, but thinking about Jaxson embarrassing himself, helped ease some of the churning in my stomach.

      "That's kind of the reason I was hoping to sleep in," I said pointedly. "This way I'd have had less time to stress about it."

      "I had the same thought. I can't imagine how you thought waking at 8:30 would do that."

      "What—" My eyes flew towards my alarm and found the screen unlit. I followed the cable towards the outlet that it was no longer plugged into.

      "I disabled it."

       "Jaxson!"

       "This is the exact kind of panic we were trying to avoid."