Too early for comfort, around 7:15 am to be exact, I pulled into the parking lot of Riverside High School. Our school sat out in the middle of the country, somewhere between Martins Ferry, Bridgeport, and Saint Clairsville. The building itself wasn't much to look at if you'd seen it every day growing up like we had, but it definitely had some history.
The large, red brick structure had stood for almost a hundred and fifty years, with several add on's, such as a large gymnasium, keeping it current. There were three stories to the old structure, each housing about 10-15 classrooms with identical, rectangular windows. Inside, the floors were lined with ancient looking, brown and cream tile, a line of white lockers snaking around the walls.
A still dark sky with clouds in the backdrop gave the already old building a spooky feel as I walked in, black coffee in hand from the local IGA. It was a bit chillier than normal for this time of year, which added to my already conflicted feelings about talking to Sammy about last weekend.
His locker was located in the opposite hallway from mine on the second floor, but I had to walk right past it to get to my first class. On the one hand, I wanted to see what was up with him kissing and disappearing. Then again, I was kind of afraid he'd think I was too immature or clingy or something and just stop talking to me altogether.
My thoughts were cut off on the way to my locker when I felt a strong pull on the backpack that had been loosely slung over my right shoulder. Thinking it might be Sammy, I whipped my head around to find the source of the tugging.
"Hola chica", Zeke waved, his eyes lighting up a little when he saw my obvious surprise. "What's the matter? Did I scare you?"
"You didn't scare me", I rolled my eyes.
"You practically looked at me like I was the headless horseman", be eyed me with suspicion.
Trying to mask my surprise that he wasn't who I thought he was going to be, I narrowed my eyes at him and inquired, "Since when are you into trying to make me jump anyway?"
"I was just having fun", he replied. "Have you seen Layla yet this morning?"
"Not yet," I told him. "Why?"
"I have something for her. Here," he handed me a tiny square of notebook paper with L.B. scrawled on the front. "Give this to her first period".
"Will do," I said, starting to unfold the slip of paper.
"Hey, cut it out!", he snatched the paper out of my hand as I gave him an ornery grin.
"Don't worry, don't worry", I resigned, having enough fun with him. God, that must be something personal. The wide-eyed panic that had etched across his face was hysterical. I loved messing with Zeke. Not in a flirty sort of way. More so, we'd hung out around Layla for long enough together that we'd developed a dysfunctional kind of friendship grounded on annoying the shot out of each other for fun.
He snatched the note out of my hand practically the second my arm had moved toward him.
"Don't read it!" He whacked me on the top of the head with the re-folded note, emphasizing the word don't. I held out my hand in mock resignation and he plopped it down with a playful amount of force.
"Don't worry, I promise not to read your love-sick declarations to the whole hallway."
"Screw you, Marielle"
"Woah, there, somebody's happy this morning", Carlie held up her hands as she approached us, sporting some strapped brown heels and a Ninja Turtles backpack.
"He's just afraid I'm going to spill the beans about his secret crush on his girlfriend", I rolled my eyes, brandishing the note Zeke had written as evidence.
"Ooooh, let me see!", Carlie squealed, grabbing for the note. Zeke quickly snatched it back, irritation growing at our super obvious level of maturity.
"Marielle, are you gonna give this to Layla for me or not?", he gave me a pointed look.
"I'll get it to her," I resigned, sensing the impatience in his tone.
As if signifying the end of the conversation, the first bell rang, meaning that I guess I wasn't going to get to talk to Sammy until study hall. As I walked into chemistry, seconds left to spare before I would have been tardy, I quickly found Layla sitting at our usual table.
"Hey, Marielle!" she tossed across the room in my general direction. I made it into the seat next to her right as Mr. Halsworth walked through the door. Our salt and pepper, aging chemistry teacher was a thin man whose hairline was beginning to recede. He often wore a tweed jacket on his wiry frame, with thick, round glasses covering his eyes.
"Hey, girl, what's up?", Layla asked me, as if it had been a week since we'd talked instead of the brief phone call she'd made this morning to ask what I was wearing to school. The answer for me was a pair of neon pink running shorts and a white and pink tank top with the Batman symbol on it.
Layla's cheer shorts were covered in a purple zebra pattern. The stripes matched the purple, cursive letters, spelling out Run Like a Girl across her bright blue shirt. So we coordinated a little bit? Who cares?
"Not a lot", I responded, handing over the leftover empanadas from last night. I eyes the front of the room inconspicuously, waiting until I was certain that our teacher was busy booting up the computer. First period always took a bit longer than normal to get started, as we had to wait for the morning announcements to drudge on. Blah, blah, blah, seniors, blah blah, meeting, blah, blah, graduation practice.
I was more interested in what Zeke's note said. Passing notes to Layla was a regular thing with him, but he was rarely so protective about the contents as he was this morning.
"For you," I feigned, making a show of handing over the note. "A symbol of my everlasting love".
"You shouldn't have", she rolled her eyes, eagerly opening the piece of paper. From the table behind us, Carlie craned her neck, trying to make out the words in Zeke's now infamous love letter. "Hey, cut it out!", Layla whined, smiling as she clutched the sheet of notebook paper to her chest.
Whatever was in there must have been good. I could have sworn that I'd seen the proverbial cartoon hearts floating from around Layla's head. Finally, as class was beginning to start, I saw my love struck best friend scribble something down and place the note back into her backpack.
Class droned on for the required 45 minutes, followed by calculus, then English and government. I both English and government with Layla, but our teachers had kept us so busy that I hadn't had the chance to ask her what Zeke had said to put her into such a great mood. Between that curiosity and trying to decide what, if anything I was going to say to Sammy next period, I can't say that I really learned much today.
I saw him as soon as I walked into 5th period study hall, seated near the back of the room in dark jeans and a grey v-neck t-shirt stretched just tightly enough to hug his perfectly muscled arms and chest. Without considering whether I should or shouldn't, I sat down next to him.
Before I could open my mouth, however, a pair of long legs in short, denim shorts leaned over Sammy's desk. I heard a flirty voice, and when I glanced up, I noticed it belonged to Crystal.
Awesome. He doesn't talk to me, and now super hot girl is standing over his desk. This is a good sign.
Sammy didn't seem to disapprove of her antics either, his eyes traveling down from her pretty face down to her strappy, gladiator sandals. Thankfully, the teacher picked that moment to remind us to sit down and find something productive to do. Maybe that was why Sammy hadn't called me. Crystal seemed to really be into him...
By the end of the day, I was just glad that I didn't have track practice and I could just head home and watch Netflix. Walking out of the building, the clouds had cleared up, and I saw Sammy standing over by his truck. For the first time today, he looked to be alone.
Fine, I resigned to myself, I'll head over and talk to him. Play it cool.
The whole play it cool thing didn't exactly work itself out, though. As much as I'd planned on saying something, anything else to start off the conversation, my words came out "So, Saturday..."
Smooth, Marielle.
"Yes?", Sammy asked, something turning behind his beautiful green eyes. God, he was working my nerves already. My stomach felt like it was being shaken like a sauté pan.
"What do you mean 'yes'?" I asked. You kissed me and then didn't talk to me for two days. Is it weird to wonder why?
"Nothing", I responded, blushing as I rubbed one shoe over top of the other.
"What's wrong?" he asked, eyes looking a little concerned, "Did you know want me to do that?"
"That depends," I told him, "Are you glad you did?"
"Very.", he responded, looking straight into my eyes. Honestly, he looked like he was thinking about kissing me again, right there in the parking lot. Relief washed over me, my heart racing for a totally different reason now. Well, this was good news.
"Why didn't you call? Or text or something?" I finally inquired.
"Marielle," he sighed, "I was going to call you, but then I realized, you never gave me your number".
I forgot to give him my phone number. My face turned beet red and my stomach dropped out from under me. Seriously? That was why he hadn't texted me? I felt the stupidity of this incredibly obvious conclusion hit me like an Acme anvil. I was such an idiot. It would have been funny if I hadn't just kissed a really hot guy and then acted like a total girl about it. Unsure what else to do, I grabbed his phone and put my number in it.
"Now you have it", I said, putting his phone in my pocket.
"Can I have it back?" he reminded me, gesturing toward the pocket containing the phone.
"It'll cost you", I said, wrapping my arms around his neck. Reading my not so subtle cue, Sammy's arms went around my waist, pulling me close to him as he closed the very little distance between our lips. I was swimming through an absolute sea of happiness and content that I had only experienced one other time up until now, and that had been Saturday night. Something was definitely going on here, and all I knew was that I hoped it wouldn't stop. I kept kissing Sammy up until I felt a hand tap on my shoulder.
Ms. Hale, our short gym coach with spiky, blonde hair was the source of the interruption. I quickly turned around in apology as she scolded us to, "Knock it off and get moving". I handed Sammy back his phone and got into my car. As embarrassing as that just was, I was pretty damn happy right about now. Especially when I looked down at my phone and saw a text from an unknown number.
Fabio's. 7:30, and maybe you'll get your Charmander back.
I looked down at my backpack only to find that my Charmander keychain was gone. He pick pocketed me for a date! I never thought theft could be this cute.
YOU ARE READING
Rewired
Teen FictionI lost him. It's definitely my fault. Now where do I go from here?
