[1] EXPOSED

1.9 - The Letter

            Where do I even begin? I guess I could start with the fact that I am completely furious right now over what happened last night. I never wanted to admit that my parents were right about Jake, because part of me still disagreed with them. I love Jake as a person and he’s been a great guy to me. It’s just that my parents don’t deserve me as a daughter because no matter what, I always manage to get myself in trouble. Sometimes, trouble finds it’s way to me.

The next day at school, things were a little better, probably because my first two classes were easy and I was pretty much by myself. I sat in second period, which was my Algebra II class, and drew a few pictures on my notes instead of actually taking them. Who takes notes in math anyways?

            “Instead of drawing, Jewel,” my teacher, Mrs. Anderson said, “You should probably write this down. It’s going to be on your test on Wednesday.”

            I bit my lip and dropped my pencil. I was called out again. I felt like everything I did I was wrong. I couldn’t even draw some pictures without being wrong. It was the most frustrating feeling in the world.

            The only other person I knew in this class was Robert from Earth Science and he sat right in front of me in this class just like he did in the other one. He looked back at me and shook his head sarcastically, and then he laughed it off as if he were kidding. If last night didn’t suck so badly, I would have laughed with him, but it just pissed me off even more. Maybe I shouldn’t be so angry anymore.

            I wasn’t even angry, though. I was just hurt by the one person I loved. It was a different kind of hurt that was similar to how I felt with Phoenix when he hurt me. No matter who I choose, I end up getting hurt. It’s never a win for me; I always end up losing something.

At lunch, Jake and Nathan managed to find me at a table in the back. Jake seemed to be in a better mood than he was in this morning. He was even cracking jokes with Nathan about something Allie said in the hallway.

            “Cheer up.” he tickled me a little and then gave me a bite of his cookie.

            “I’m trying.” I faked a smile and chewed the chocolaty bite of goodness before swallowing it down and taking a swig of skim milk. It was crazy how fast he could pretend last night didn’t happen.

            Matt sat down next to me after he got his tray and placed another cookie on my plate. “I figured you need it,” he told me.

            “Thanks…” I nodded. I remembered when I first saw Matt in detention and thought he was just some punk who got in trouble all the time. He was actually nice. A lot of these people my parents warned me to never hang out with were actually really sweet. It seemed like the ones they wanted me to be friends with were the ones who weren’t.

            “I hate Mondays, man,” Nathan tried to start off a conversation.

            “Yeah, me too,” Matt took a bite of his sandwich, “But today hasn’t been too bad, has it?” He picked up a fallen pickle slice and put it at the side of his plate.

            “Could be worse,” I shoved the rest of the cookie in my mouth and got up to throw my tray away.

            “You should go kiss her,” Nathan patted Jake on the back and they both watched me from the table.

            “Right here?” Jake turned to face him, “I don’t want to embarrass her.”

            “I think she needs it,” Matt chimed in. They all watched as I got back to the table and I wondered what they had said while I was up.