The Stars Line Up For You

2. a q u i l a

I pulled myself out of bed and headed to my bathroom. I looked at my reflection and groaned. I looked like shit. Probably shouldn't have stayed up watching the stars till one am. Too late now, I thought, and commenced to get ready for another day of school. And seeing him. I sighed and moved on.

"Hi honey! Good morning." Anna said cheerily like she always did.

I squeezed my eyes shut at her loudness and said back, "Hi."

Parker ran in. He got one look at me and inquired, "Are you hung over?"

"No, I am not hung over just tired. You know I don't drink or go to parties Parker." I grumbled while running a hand down my face.

"Ok, ok," He put his hands up in a surrender position. "Bye mom!" He yelled as he set off to school.

"I'm going too, bye Anna."
"Bye honey." She replied but sounded a little disappointed and I already knew why. I had never once called her mom, and I never would. I knew this bothered her, but it wasn't like I was going to change it. I walked to the door, stepped outside, and closed it. Taking a deep breath, I took my skateboard and started riding to school, not wanting to walk today. Not being in the mood.

I rode on the sidewalk to school, not thinking about anything really until I collided face first with another human. Shit, I thought I was the only one, I thought sarcastically, then apologized, brushing myself off.  "It's alright," I heard a deep voice say, probably coming from the man I just brutally knocked over. "Just spacing out," I said, and looked up at his face. I held my breath when I realized that he wasn't a man, well he was, but not quite. He looked about seventeen or eighteen, around my age. "Where have I seen you before?" He asked me, and I mentally rolled my eyes. "I bet you say that to all the girls." I drawled. "No, I just thought I knew you from somewhere," He said, eyeing me suspiciously. I gave him a look and then said, "Well if you'll excuse me, I need to get going." I backed up and got on my skateboard again. I had almost turned the corner when I heard the guy yell, "My name's Jack!"

"I don't care!" I yelled back as I rolled around the corner and sped up.

***

I rolled into the school parking lot where I saw Cleo looking very, very worried. "What's wrong?" I asked, confused.  "You know Nathaniel?"
My heart skipped a beat involuntarily. She did not get worried about anything easily in the short time I had known her, and I knew Nate does not get upset or shaken easily enough for it to be whole-school news.

"What happened?" I asked with an accidental edge to my voice. I also knew that when he got upset, he got upset. So I gathered up my courage and walked in the gates with Cleo following cautiously behind me.

I walked into my first period class, which by chance, had him in it. He wasn't there, so I just decided to forget about it, and start working. I walked into my second period class, and he wasn't there either. Which made me realize that I had pretty much every class with him. Oh. But as I went to third period, I knew that something was really wrong because he was not in that class either. I had my lunch after so I wondered if he was just wandering around campus and he would be there. Nobody else seemed to know where he was anyway. I would just have to wait.

Everybody walked to the outdoor cafeteria. It was a cold day, but the sun was still shining. I hated that type of weather, and some odd part of my brain got a feeling that something bad was about to happen.

The whole cafeteria seemed to silence out and the tension in the air was thick. To me it felt almost suffocating. All of the people's eyes were lain on one specific person. A person sitting on one of the tables with a huge bottle of vodka in his hand. I gasped when I saw the red seal clasped in his hand. The bottle was almost gone. I heard other gasps from all around the circle as I assumed they noticed the same thing I did. How much did he drink from this morning? I didn't want to know.

"Wow thanks Des. Thanks for cheating on me with my fucking best friend. So cliche right? Well I guess that's just the way the world works." He remarked then chuckled sadistically.

I could already tell this was going to end with someone getting hurt. Him, or someone else. But I stayed rooted to my spot and could not move. My heart was beating so hard I could feel it in my ears, pounding away at my brain.

"Oh and by the way Julian, why? Do you hate me or something? I can see you lurking in the back. Wipe that scared look off your face. I'm not going to do anything. I don't care anymore." He confessed. "I give up. Des, you can go. I see you next to Julian too. You two are obviously very happy together." He growled. I gasped, shocked. He took another swig of vodka and he looked around the courtyard, trying to find his next victim. My knees almost gave out when I realized.

He was looking at me. His eyes held so much fire and anger. It was almost as he completely forgot the year and a half of warm nights on my porch sharing ice cream sandwiches. All the memories that I still thought about everyday but that he threw in the trash like I was some disgusting creature he hung out with years ago. A stranger. But it was impossible to have that much hate in your eyes for a stranger. My face contorted into a scowl as I became angry. I had done just fine without him the past four years so why did he need to take all of his pathetic, drunken anger out on me? My fists curled up and I stood my ground.

"Ah Rae. 'I'm the victim. Nate was so mean to me.' You know this is one of the reasons I hated you. Don't take that the wrong way, I still hate you. But you know it's fault we're messed up. I'm not going to be the one to fix that. So you need to figure it out." He finished with a merciless smile and sauntered out of the cafeteria, downing the last bit of vodka in the bottle.

The tension in the cafeteria dissipated, but it definitely didn't for me. Everybody was staring at me, some with unwanted sympathy, or confusion, or disgust. I saw Cleo somewhere in the crowd, watching on with a confused expression on her face. I stayed frozen in my spot until I snapped out of my trance, my anger and frustration returning. I sprinted out of the room as fast as I could, viciously wiping the angry tears out of my eyes as I ran in the direction of the woods, or my house, or wherever the hell I needed to go to get away from everything.

***

I managed to calm down after a while, my angry sobbing subsiding to weak hiccups. My feet carried me through the woods to my little overlook, and I had been here so long the sun was starting to set, splashing vibrant oranges and pinks across the sky.

That was interesting, I thought. I was no longer angry, just confused at why he all of a sudden decided to spill his feelings to me now. He was drunk, but still. From what'd I'd heard, he'd been drunk many times before. He became a partier in high school, whereas I never went to a single party.

I didn't know what to do now. It was Friday, so I didn't have to go back to school, thank God. I thought I would just sit here until the sun went down. But now I wasn't so sure. I wanted my warm bed and my music, but I didn't want to go back and be questioned on how I skipped out on school. I got an idea and got out my headphones and plugged them into my phone. I put them in and just started listening to my music.

I started awake when I heard a rustling in the bushes. I took in my surroundings and I noticed that it was pitch black and my phone was dead. The only light was the dim light of the half of the moon shining up in the sky. The stars were hard to see tonight. My head darted in the direction of the noise. I didn't see anything but I heard all the rustling coming from the left side of the trees, where the trail led back to the street. I scrambled up and crept over to where the sound was coming from. It suddenly stopped and I peered around, confused. Then I heard someone speak behind me.

"Hello Rae, long time no see."

***

Hi. I know it's been a long time. Personal issues and writers block. Sorry to anybody who reads this and was waiting for it.

Stay cool, Nicole.

copyright 2016