Taken

Five

" If you have no feelings for me look me in the eye and say you don't. To my face" his eyes held emotion deeper than mine, a void that he wanted me to fill.

———

Throughout the remaining part of the day, my concentration remained on the clock in each class. The tick of the long hand and the chimes as each hour flew past.

Literature AP used to be one of my favorite classes. Matter of fact, a lot of things used to be my favorite things.

Photography.

The beach

Ice cream

Studying

Friends

Olympic National Park

Jeff.

No matter how much I wished to forget him, it was vividly entrenched in my mind how I first met him, in this very class, in the midst of these very people just a day before spring break. Matter of fact it was three days it was rumored that he had broken up with Melody Clayton, one of the most 'elite' girls in the entire senior year. Now that I thought about it , I realized just how naive I was to think that maybe Jeff had actually gotten over Melody in just a few days.

That he actually didn't want her and them being together for a year had all just been to feed into the cliche typical high school standard of the captain of the best basketball team among the high schools in the east of forks dating the daughter to one of the richest alumni of Clayton High School- yes, it's not a coincidence that her surname was the name of the school-.

I remembered how Jeff had sat to the right of me while the teacher had asked us who could remember where we'd stopped last class of our Romeo and Juliet reading.

I remember how I'd scoffed at the thought that he'd expected anyone to recall that when all our minds were concentrated on the 3 weeks we were getting as a break - a chance for those who wanted to retake their SAT's to read- rather than remembering what page we had stopped on in the last class.

"Page 54" Jeff had spoken out. I couldn't help but turn my attention to him, noticing his bored expression as he flipped to the page in his copy before turning towards me.

Like any normal person, I immediately turned away, feeling my cheeks turning into cherry blossoms. I'd heard him chuckle and what my name was. I couldn't forget how I'd had to ask if he was talking to me before replying.

After that class, he'd told me he'd see me around. Me. Saddie Dawlson. The girl who everyone felt was too smart to make friends. The girl whose father was a well known alcoholic and gambler and whose mother slept around with fathers from the school. The girl who hid behind hoodies. The girl who had bruises on her face throughout junior year. The new girl. The girl who only had one friend. The friend in question who asked me to stay away from him when I told her he'd asked me for my number. The friend who I'd accused of being jealous so naively.

The friend who i'd abandoned when Melody's friends became my friends.

The only friend who now wanted nothing to do with me.

—————

The class came to an end at exactly 3:25, just five minutes till the end of school for the day. As I attempted to pack my things and put it into my worn out bag, when maya, a used to be former friend "mistakenly" bumped into me while leaving with one of her friends who I'd only met once or twice during parties the basketball team had thrown during the fall break when I'd just newly began dating Jeff. I heard the red head say something along the lines of "I never thought she was that kind of girl" while maya looked back to offer what seemed like a form of sympathetic look but I quickly looked away.