Visions

Chapter 2 : Family Incomplete

I put two wobbly feet inside the door because despite the pleading to put me in another detention instead of this one. I just couldn't face August again after this morning because I knew deep in my mind that he was searching for answers about me. It was hard to keep secrets from someone when every time I stared at him my stomach started acting up. Talking to him came so naturally to me that I feared getting hurt for trusting the wrong person. Why can't my heart just listen to my mind? It has never been an issue before, but for some reason, I keep thinking about him constantly.

My eyes looked around at everyone in the room before I felt my heart flutter again. August was sitting alone in the chemistry room with an old file, it was crusty around the edges and the blue color was faded. He was reading it intently before he glanced up to smile at me. My heart fluttered again and I pushed down the feeling as much as possible.

He changed his clothes after this morning's hot exploding pipes incident, he wore his la lacrosse jacket over his Radiohead shirt and gray jeans. I wondered what his favorite song was before I started walking past him. He grabbed my hand causing me to yelp. He pulled me down to sit next to him and focused on my eyes. I could feel his body heating up as he held my hand before slowly releasing it. My stupid heart was still fluttering as I looked intensely at him.

He didn't speak to me for twelve minutes straight as he was going back and forth over the file that was sitting in front of him. The file had a picture of a young boy who had a small resemblance to August. His curly dark brown hair went a little bit past his ears, but what made me really know that it was him was his eyes. He was born with one green eye and one brown.

I tried to glance at what he was looking at but he kept pushing me away, so I grabbed my bookbag and pulled out my math homework and calculator. I started working on it which caught the attention of August.

"You have a lot of math homework, do you usually get that much?" I turned to stare at him as he and I were taking the same class, despite me being a year under him. I nodded my head at him before rolling my eyes at his words, I scoffed at him which ended up getting me shushed by the teacher. "Smith can really go fuck himself," he says loudly, but the teacher doesn't even respond to his actions.

"You are going to get me in even more trouble," I say quietly to August with my head leaning over the table.

"Ms. Paisley-Bynes, I really hope that you are not talking to Mr. Navarre, otherwise we will have to call your foster parents," the teacher said with anger and distaste filling her voice. She probably hated me the most out of all of the teachers here. When I was about twelve, I accidentally hit her with a shopping cart the last time I was here.

"Why would she be talking to him?" I heard a collection of voices behind and in front of me say before turning around.

"They were in the shower rooms together," Lizzie said as she was in front of me before turning around to face us. I felt the anger inside of me rise before August reached out to touch me, but I moved my body further away from him. He was only going to make the rumors worse.

"At least I am not fucking three guys at once," I said under my breath as I looked down at the table. I heard the chair scrape against the floor and I felt a hard slap across my face. I didn't make a sound instead I touched my face.

"Enough!" I heard from August as he grabbed LIzzie's hand and forced it down. "The bathroom pipes exploded and I went in to check if someone was hurt. Maraline and I are friends. The rumors about what happened in the shower room are false, so leave her alone."

The room went silent for once and I felt a wave of peace before staring at him, but he pointed back to the file. Lizzie turned around and a sigh of relief passed through me because for once this didn't create a fight between us. I couldn't help but wish for this day to be over for Lizzie to bother me like she always does, to be invisible to everyone who matters, and to have a friend who didn't know about me.