An Average Girl

Blissful Afternoons

That following Monday we both acted like it never happened, we didn’t talk about it and thankfully everything went back to normal. The whole weekend I was a tense bundle of nerves, paranoia filling my veins with all the possibilities of what was to follow. I wondered if he would tell Greg what had occurred or if I should tell Iris. Ultimately that single question Matt posed in the darkness stayed in the closet that night, forgotten like an old album in the attic.

The month had passed quickly, a lot faster than I thought it would. Between school work and my new friends, I couldn’t really say what happened to bring me to this moment. My mother had gotten better too. I’m not really sure if it’s a positive change but she’s no longer crying in her room all day. Actually I haven’t seen her in a while; she stays at work most of the time now, occasionally leaving money in the kitchen for food and what not. I’m not sure which I prefer more. All I can do is hope that one day, she too will return to normal.

What a strange thing the word normal is. Normal has no definitive definition, it’s relative to everything. A relation to what is deemed the most abundant and socially acceptable. I use the word normal with hesitant caution, because I fear that the current situation is actually what the majority of us find normal.

School had ended about twenty minutes ago, and we were all sitting in the plush green grass at the back of our school waiting for Matt to finish with soccer practice. He was running laps with the rest of his team to warm up before they did any scrimmages. There were a lot of sexy men on the field, and when the shirts started coming off, it became harder and harder to divert my eyes. Damn, what fine specimens of men does Matthew hang out with?

Jokingly I did a cat call, whistling low then high down to the boys on the field, causing Lucy, Honey, Greg, Iris and Christine to chuckle at my antics.

“Down girl, behave,” Honey chided me.

“There will be plenty of time to get dirty with boys at Jake’s party tomorrow night. Are you guys all going?” Iris asked everyone. A party was the perfect thing right now. I had been dying to get drunk and waste away the night in a blur of colours, sweat, and laughter.

“I’m down for sure,” I replied eagerly.

“I can’t, I’m taking Honey out on a date that night… and to be honest I’d rather spend it with her than you losers,” Greg informed us, causing Iris to stick her tongue out at him and Honey to grin brightly at his reply.

“I hate surprises, but yeah. Maybe next time,” Honey added on to Greg’s statement. Greg was leaning against the trunk of the tree we were seated around, with Honey in between his legs. The sun hit her hair, giving it golden auburn highlights that looked gorgeous.

“I wish I could, but my brother is taking me to a concert. It’s going to be so frickin’ awesome. You should all be jealous that none of your siblings are as cool as mine,” Lucy chimed. Lucy’s brother Evan was home for the week visiting, and he surprised her with tickets to go see Fall Out Boy and she had been jumping with excitement all week since she had found out. Evan went to Colombia, and was pretty smart; he was studying biochemistry and was in his third year. I was little envious of their relationship to be honest, I wish I had a brother who cared for me as much as Evan did for Lucy. Personally, I had never met Evan but the way Lucy raved about him, made it impossible for me to think of him as anything but caring.

“Yeah right, my sister is way cooler than your brother,” Iris taunted back. But before the two of them could get into a ‘who has the coolest sibling’ war, Christine interrupted them.

“Enough children, I’m going to the party. What about you Iris?” Christine asked, changing the subject back.

“Of course, I’ve been hoping to catch Sean’s eye for while now and this is the perfect opportunity,” Iris gushed. Iris had been sort of crushing on Sean for the past couple of weeks. I say sort of just because I don’t think she wants a relationship him, but rather just to know that he’s into her too. Iris is the type of girl, who doesn’t want a man in her life just for the sake of having one, but I’m sure if someone asked her out, then she wouldn’t say no. It’s just that she’s not the type of girl to go looking for a deep meaningful relationship where she may not find one.