#Eddie

#Eddie Chapter 8: December

Chapter 8- December

Amanda was waiting for the ice to melt on her windshield. She had forgotten how cold the month of December could be, when fall has passed, and the heavy winds of winter invade the warmth of the sun's rays. As she sat there, shivering, she thought about Eddie. No matter what, she had to be there for him, even if it hurt her. She felt the heat reach her feet as she pulled the car out of the driveway and headed towards school. School wasn't so bad, except on days like this; when all you wanted to do was stay in a warm bed and sleep it off and just listen to music all day. 

When she got to school, she found Eddie sitting out on one of the benches with a book in his hand. This wasn't an unusual thing for him. He ate books up like they were candy. He had been like that ever since she had known him. He was the definition of bookworm. If they had a picture in the encyclopedia of a "bookworm" Eddie would be the perfect fit for it. She always liked that about him. He wasn't like the other guys at school, who were too busy thinking about girls and bullying other people and coming up with horrible jokes to even care about anything other than that. They were the ones sitting in class with their D averages, being ogled at by all of the girls sheerly for their brawn. Amanda always chose brains over brawn, though. She had enough sense to see through the "fake nice" personalities that lurked in the hallways of this school.

"Hey, what are you reading?" she said, approaching him.

"Nothing" he said, as if trying to hide the book from her view. Curious, she picked it up out of his hands and examined the cover.

"Poetry? That's interesting, I never pegged you for the poetry reading type."

"I don't know, it's just something I was looking into."

"You can't just look into poetry, Eddie. You have to let it look into you. You have to open yourself up to all the experiences it can give you" she replied stoically.

"It sucks the air out of your lungs" she said.

"Is that a poem you wrote?" he asked.

"No, but it would be a darn good one if I had a pen and paper with me." Amanda said, chuckling.

Amanda had been writing poetry on and off again since about the 6th grade. She has decided a long time ago that she wanted to go to college and become a writer, despite what others thought of her poetry. She had a small journal that she carried with her everywhere. It was full of recent poetry, mostly about love, heartache, heartbreaks, the usual teenage topics. They were mostly about Eddie, but she didn't tell him that. She had never even showed him any of her poetry, she was too scared to. She couldn't bear the thought of him rejecting her. It was just too hard. It was that fine line between being good friends, and having a crush on your best friend, which was a hard line to draw.

"Meet me for lunch?" Amanda said, as the bell rang for first block.

"Sure," he said, shoving the little poetry book in his backpack.

As they parted ways, Amanda watched Eddie disappear down the math hall. Even when they were gone, she still felt this connection to him. It grew even stronger every day, but she didn't know how to explain it to him. He would probably think she had lost her mind. It's not like things would ever change between them. They were constants; always there for each other. That's why she was hoping one day she would be brave enough to tell him how she really felt about him. As the second bell rang, her heart began pounding. She rushed down the hall. She was never late. This whole thing had gotten her so mixed up. She hurriedly jogged down the hallway and ducked into her science class, just in time for her not to be noticed by the teacher. She just slid in the back and sat next to Sam, who had a smirk on her face.

"Late?" she said.

"Shh!" Amanda hissed back. "Eddie and I just got a little caught up."

"Caught up...hmm?" Sam said, smirking.

Sam knew all about how Amanda felt. It was blatantly obvious to anyone who spent any time around Amanda and Eddie. Sam still didn't get how Eddie had not seen this after all these years.

Sam just shook her head as they began their lab work. Amanda tried to concentrate, but there was only one thing on her mind, 24/7, every single day, no matter what, like a broken record skipping over and over: Eddie.