Off The Deep End (On Hold)

Chapter Two

Two-

After school I met up with Georgia and since I had everything in my bag, we headed right out to the parking lot. Georgia never takes anything home. I’m surprised she hasn’t dropped out yet.

“Where’d you park your car?” Georgia whines. “It’s hot!”

“By the baseball diamond,” I answer. We walk down the sidewalk to my car. When we finally reach it, we both hop in and I start the engine. Georgia cranks up the local pop station on the radio and we speed down the road to her house. By the time we reach her house on the same side of town as mine, it’s about 3:45pm. I pull into her driveway and park behind Blayne’s Plymouth. We go inside and immediately head straight for her room which is upstairs. We sit on her bed, gossiping about all of the stupid preps in our grade and eating some Cheetos straight from the bag until we hear a knock at her door.

“Yeah?” she calls to the person on the other side.

The door opens and her mom pokes her head in. I’ve always liked her mom, but she always seems really stressed out and mad at Blayne. In fact, I’m pretty sure her and Blayne haven’t had a pleasant conversation in over a year. “Honey,” she says and then stops when she sees me. She gives me a weak smile. “Oh, hey Evie. I had no idea you were even over tonight. You spending the night?”

“If it’s okay with you,” I say.

She shakes her head as if the thought is ridiculous. “Of course it’s fine with me. You guys can order a pizza if you’d like tonight.” She turns to Georgia. “Your dad and I are going out tonight for his work, again, and won’t be back until late. Behave yourselves and don’t annoy your brother, got it?”

We nod our heads in agreement.

“Alright. Love you, rugrats,” she says with a smile. Then, the door closes and it’s just Georgia and I again.

Georgia flops over, laying on her back, sprawled out on her bed. “I really don’t want to go downstairs to ask Blayne what kind of pizza he wants.” I don’t say anything. “Whatever. I’ll just order without asking him.”

I stop her, knowing this will just piss off Blayne. “No,” I say. “That’ll just piss him off.”

“I guess you’re right.” She pauses, then looks up at me hopefully. “Would you maybe want to go ask him? You have more energy than I do. Plus, I think he likes you more than he likes me.”

My head snaps up to look at her. That’s when I realize she didn’t mean much by that last statement. “S-sure,” I say, quickly scrambling to my feet from where I had been sitting on the bed. “I’ll go ask him now.”

“Thanks, Evie,” she purrs. “Love you!”

I roll my eyes. “Love you, too.” Then I disappear into the hallway. Halfway down the staircase, I realize what I actually just agreed to. I can hardly say two words to this guy, let alone ask him what kind of pizza he may or may not want. At the end of the staircase I stop, about to retreat back to Georgia’s room when I hear him on the phone in the kitchen. Curiosity getting the best of me, I walk hesitantly towards the kitchen, listening to him. He must be on the phone as he’s cussing at the person on the other line, sounding angry. I watch him hang up the phone, exasperated and am about to turn the other way when he suddenly turns around and asks,

“Oh, Evie?”

I stop. My heart starts to beat fast and my palms get sweaty. I turn around slowly, worried he’d think I was listening in on his conversation.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you come in,” he starts to say apologetically. His voice is like butter, the way it leaves his lips so smoothly and softly.