The Transfer Student

The Transfer Student: Chapter Eleven

                                                                        ~Adrian~

Bella hadn't come home last night, and after sending far too many unanswered texts I gave up. Could she have seen?...nah. Well...maybe, God I hope not. 

Bella's dad walked into the kitchen like a zombie, his salt and pepper hair standing up like the feathers of a cockatiel...only worse. He groaned and grumbled about being old and perpetually sore but smiled when he saw I had made coffee. The man had taken to making me cook with him when Bella didn't, and had taught me how to make an amazing rue, not to mention the shrimp alfredo. All in all he was a good guy.

Bella's mother was a little high strung, but she was cool in the way most mother's aren't when they're kids are in their teens. What with her ripped jeans, boots, and True Blood t-shirts.

I assumed she was still sleeping when Mr. Rossi made two cups and shuffled back down the hall to their bedroom.

Now that I was alone, I sat down at the counter and put my head in my hands. Bella must have seen, there was no other explaination for her absense, and she wasn't the type of person to leave me at school without a ride either.

My eyes stung. Shit. The only girl to ever make me cry and I wasn't even sure if I should be upset yet.

I was so rude to her when I first came here, angry at my mother and father for fighting all the time I had signed up for the transfer program without a second thought, and the day before I left for Louisiana, Elaine, my girlfriend, had broken up with me.

So of course I felt like shit when I arrived. I had forced myself to be poilte to Mr. and Mrs. Rossi, but then I had saw Bella. It wasn't like love at first sight or anything, but...maybe it was her bad attitude toward me and mine, or her foul language, or the fact that she ignored my good looks and refused to put up with my bullshit. She struck a cord in me.

She made me nervous, but also happy. After we had gotten used to each other it had been a lot a fun messing with her, throwing food, ensnaring her in a blanket and throwing her over my shoulder to run around the house, taking care of the horses, making sense of our homework. And here I am talking about it like it ended...

Sighing, I took my coffee and went outside. In the barn the two horses stared at me with their large, glossy eyes for a second, then promtly began banging and snarling at each other, hungry for their sweet-feed. 

After I had shut them up with their food and hay I sat on the railing of Bella's horses's stall, sipping coffee. Apparently the horse, Tye, was mean to everyone except a few, including me. When he was done eating he nuzzled my knee and looked up at me like he knew what was bothering me.

"I know, boy," I murmured, rubbing his forehead the way horses liked. "Someday she might forgive me...someday I'll tell her I love her."

As if on cue the loud engine of Bella's F350 red truck signled it's arrival into the driveway, the door slammed no harder than usual, and I heard nothing for a while. Then came her converse-shod footsteps, loud on the clay, barn floor. They stopped, but I didn't turn around. There was the sting in my eyes again...damn it.

The footsteps continued and I cringed a little.

She climbed up onto the fence next to me and elbowed me in the ribs, "what? No hello?"

Shocked, I rubbed my ribs and stared at her grinning face, "Sorry, I was a little distracted. Where were you?...last night, I mean, you never came home."

"Oh," she frowned a little and turned her head away from me so I wouldn't see what she was trying to hide in her eyes. "I was at Calli's."

"Ah," I said, shifting my weight a little.

And that's how it stayed. She said nothing about Michelle so I had no way to know for sure wether she had seen or not, but she was trying to hide something from me, that was for sure.