Something About Sarah

Chapter 7

Benjamin

“Ben. Benny. Benjamin,” Layla taunted as she sat next to me. “You’ve got it bad.” 

“Ok, then,” I agreed, pushing her off the couch.  I stood up and went to get some water. But, of course, Layla hopped on my back in piggy back form. “Whoa, I’m very unstable,” I joked, spinning my arms like I couldn’t stand up. I started leaning backwards. 

“Don’t you dare land on me,” Layla screamed in my ear. 

“Oops,” I said innocently, as she was squished under me. 

Pushing herself up, she rolled her eyes, and fake-limped to the kitchen. 

“I gotta go,” Layla trailed off.

“Yeah,” I agreed, “You don’t want to keep Derek waiting.”

She smiled guiltily and left. Alone again. 

I dialed up Sarah’s number. It had been a couple days since she asked me to pick her up and I was missing her. 

“Hey, what’s up?” She asked.

“Not much, I was wondering if you wanted to come and watch some movies.” “Sure,” she replied. 

I looked around the house. Paper plates and plastic cups were strewn across the table. When my parents go out of town, I don’t really care to do dishes, so I go for the disposable sort. And Layla liked to eat. Scooping the junk up, I ran to the trash can and dumped it in. There was a knock at the door. 

“Hey,” Sarah said, “I was actually wondering if we could go to a party instead.”

“Sure,” I replied, “Just let me go change.” 

Pulling on a pair of jeans and a nicer shirt, I walked outside and joined Sarah in Pocket Protector. Soon enough, we pulled up at a brick house with tons of cars parked outside. 

“Cool, we’re here,” Sarah said, getting out of the car. We walked inside, and the music was thumping. There was song on that Layla would have described as strobing for the ears. Sarah had been swallowed by the dancing mass, and I couldn’t seem to find her. 

“Hey,” Derek shouted, coming out of nowhere and punching me in the shoulder. Layla was walking with him. 

“How’d you know we were here?” Layla screamed, fighting to be heard. 

“I didn’t, Sarah brought me here.”

“Cool,” Layla said as she bobbed her head to the current rap song. “Whooo!” she called as she ran into the crowd to go high-five someone. “I’m sorry,” Derek called out. If it were anyone else, I probably would have pressed for a better apology than that, but it was Derek, and that’s about as far as he would go. 

“I’m gonna,” he shouted, jerking his thumb at Layla, letting me fill in the rest. 

“Sure,” I said, with a head nod. 

There were some girls dancing in a ridiculous way and laughing hysterically at each other. There were some guys going around drawing mustaches on the faces of the people who passed out. 

I continued to scan the house, looking for Sarah, but I still came up with nothing. 

“Hey there,” someone behind me said. I would’ve disregarded it, figuring it was meant for someone else when I felt an extremely sharp fingernail poke me in the back. 

I turned around. There was a girl with brown hair beside me and she was about a foot shorter than me. I think I remembered seeing her in the hall at school once or twice. Her name was Rachel or something. Not the girlfriend of one of my friends, John. This one was different. 

Before I could be polite and tell her I had somewhere else to be, her lips were on mine. They tasted like sour milk and desperation. I pushed her off of me. 

“Ooooh, playing hard to get?” She smiled. 

Not wanting to deal with this, I walked away. Pissed off with her lack of limits I wandered  through the sweaty mass of people, looking for the one person who could make me feel better. 

Instead, I bumped into Derek. “Have you seen Sarah?” “No,” he called, “I think Layla went to find her.” Way to be helpful Derek. 

“Hey,” I heard a shout, “I was just looking for you.” 

I turned around to see Sarah. “Same here.”

She looked thoughtful for a moment, “Do you wanna get outta here?”

“I thought you’d never ask!”

Hopping into Pocket Protector, we drove back to my house, which looked refreshingly calm and quiet. 

All I had to was say one word. “Movies?”She nodded her head yes and we went back inside. 

While she intently watched some tight-clad superhero, I was as happy as I ever could be. With Sarah by my side.