The Boy With The Hopeless Dreams

Chapter Twenty-Seven

I was still reeling from the kiss when I walked through the front door and caught sight of myself in the hallway mirror. An annoying smile was planted on my mouth. The things that boy did to me… I tried to get rid of the smile and straighten my face but I couldn’t; every time it faded slightly, the memory of the kiss caused my tummy to do a million backflips, which in turn caused me to grin like an absolute wally.

I could vaguely hear Mum and Mac watching TV in the other room so I called out a greeting to them.

“Hey, Lily-Pad!” screeched Mac. Cringing at the nickname she only used when she’d eaten too much sugar, I headed up to my bedroom.  The only good thing about afterschool detention – and, believe me, I had to do a lot of thinking to come up with one – was that I tended to get all my homework done and now I had caught up with the work that had been late.  I changed into a comfy jumper and jeans and ran my fingers through my knotty hair. The bed sank as I sat down on it, heaving a great sigh. In my head, I’d been planning what to do about Sam the whole time I was walking home.

I love him, and now that we’d kissed, I knew he still loved me too. I needed to talk this through with him, but not now. I’d have to grow some balls and speak to him tomorrow, the last day of term. I stood up and found some socks in my top drawer. The stairs creaked quietly as I made my way down them, mind still racing.

“Hi, sweetie,” Mum greeted me. “Good day?”

“School is school,” I shrugged. She chuckled. Her eyes weren’t meeting mine and she was shuffling from one foot to another as she asked me another question.

“So… I don’t suppose you’ve seen Sam recently?”

I froze, every muscle tensing at the sound of his name.
“Yes, I saw him today,” I replied, hesitantly. “Why do you ask?”

Her eyes were darting around the room and looking anywhere but at me.

“I just saw him on my way to drop Mac off this morning and he was speaking to someone I recognised and…”

She trailed off and busied herself with very noisily making a cup of tea.  I immediately knew she was talking about Harvey: some call it intuition. Personally, I think my Spidey senses were tingling…

“Whatever,” I let the subject drop, not wanting to think about Sam more than I already did. “Oh, by the way, I’m going out with Amy tomorrow evening.”

Her eyebrows shot up. 

“Since when did you become such a social butterfly?”

I glared at her, darkly.

“Gee, thanks, Mum. It’s just Amy; unfortunately, I’m still very much a caterpillar.”

“It would be good for you to make more friends, you know, darling,” she said.  “One day, maybe Amy and Sam won’t be there for you and you’ll be alone.”

“Wow, you’re really on a roll tonight. How else can you boost my self-esteem?”

Sipping her tea, she wandered over to me and placed a hand on my shoulder.

“I’m just thinking about what’s best for you. We’re watching Fairy Tales if you want to join us.”

With that, she entered the living room and left me standing there in a foul mood, hands clenched into fists.  I had no idea why I was so angry. Perhaps it was because she had insinuated that I only had two friends (which was kind of true) or perhaps it was because she’d suggested that Sam and Amy were going to leave me. Deciding to pass up on the very tempting offer of watching Fairy Tales, I dumped some leftover pasta on a plate and smothered it in ketchup. Another reason why I loved my mother: she always welcomed me home with a lovely cooked meal and- oh, wait. Nope. Never mind. I know I sound like a brat but she could have at least waited for me to come home before she ate dinner.  Seeing as I had nothing better to do, I took my dinner upstairs and ate it at my desk. I turned on my stereo and ate in time with the music. I was so absorbed in the music that I didn’t hear my phone vibrating. It was only when the song finished that I noticed a faint buzzing coming from my bag. I pressed pause on the stereo and hurried to reach my phone before the ringing ended. I’d noticed I had three previous missed calls, all from Sam.