Misery

Chapter 1

He looked at me.

He looked at me.

Why would he look at me? Does he know? Is he going to beat me up? Is he going to hate me?

Maybe he doesn't know. He can't know, that would ruin everything!

"Hey, Angel, what's wrong? You seem troubled."

Geez, Edwin, you have to talk to me at the wrong times. Or is it the right time? Oh, I can't think right now, I need to get away.

I'm surprised he even talks to me, he's popular and well liked, I'm just the kid no one notices or just gets bullied. When I do get bullied, Edwin never does anything, so I wouldn't really say he's a friend, but he's one of the only people around here that talks to me. However, he has beat me up before, so I don't really know how to act towards him.

I leave Edwin there alone; I think he wanted to talk to me about something, but I couldn't risk my secret spilling out, especially when I only have a few more months before I'm done with middle school. Hopefully high school will be different and I'll be able to act like myself.

It may be spring, but it still feels like winter. The wind was slightly picking up, so I pulled my jacket closer to my body, trying to shield my body from the cold. I walked away from the cold outside and into the slightly warm school. I despised this school. Too many bad memories here. Luckily, I only had to last a couple more months and I was done.

It was 8:10 am, so school stilll hadn't started and I could just walk around the school and think about what I might do in high school. I sat on the floor in a secluded hallway, just thinking; thinking of all the possible things one can think about.

"Angel!"

I froze.

No one ever came by here, and I didn't want to talk to anyone right now. However, I was intrigued by who would come here, or even talk to me.

Edwin. Of course. He must have followed me and wanted to see what was wrong. He usually never did this, and just talked to me when it was convenient and when no one was looking. I had asked him why he did that. His response was he couldn't risk his reputation being seen with me. Typical.

He ran up, and sat next to me, which was odd, being how close he was to me.

Anxiety and adrenaline coursed through my veins. I was afraid, nervous of what he might want to talk about.

Does he know, I thought to myself. He can't know, he mustn't.

"Why'd you just leave me there? I wanted to ask you something."

Since when do you ever talk to me in public, I thought.

"I know I don't talk to you in front of others, but I'm sorry, I really am. It's just, I don't want to get kicked out of my group of friends."

"I said that out loud?"

"Yeah, you did." Edwin kept staring at me, something about his facial expression was odd.

"So," I spoke up after a while, "what did you want to talk about?"

"I just wanted to know if you wanted to hangout after school today."

Weird, he never wanted to hangout outside of school, so why now?

"Is this some kind of prank, where you have all your friends humiliate me in public?"

"No, look, I know I haven't been a good friend to you-"

"We're friends?" I questioned sarcastically.

"-but, I'm trying to change that, so please?"

Edwin was different from the other people at this school. He treated me like crap from time to time, but he never made it too harsh and never lied to me about anything.

"Fine, but only an hour, two tops."

A sense of accomplishment washed over his face, along with a look of determination, too. I didn't like the look of that. Before he left, he said, quietly, "I knew it."

What could that mean? I won't know until later today.

~~~

4 o' clock in the afternoon, which meant school was over, and I "had" to hang out with Edwin. It's not like I was forced, but I feel like I was guilted into it a little. I walk out of class to see Edwin waiting for me. Weird, he never wants to be near me when there are people still around, and how did he know what class I had?

"How was class?" he asked.

"Fine?" I answered, even though it sounded more like a question. He never asked these kinds of questions.

"So, ready to have fun today? I have something planned or we could just hangout at my place, if you don't want to be outside."

"No, we can go do what you were thinking of doing." I mean it was his idea, he should choose where we go to hangout.

We leave school and start walking, well, more like I follow him to wherever it is we were going. We approach a car that's parked a couple blocks from the school.

"What, are we stealing a car? That's fun to you?" I ask, hinting to be irritated, but deep down I was scared. I didn't want to go to jail for grand theft auto.

"No, this is my car."

My eyes widened. "How old are you?"

"15, I'm a year behind, don't laugh at me."

I always felt like a baby, everyone in my grade was 14, while I was just 13. Now with knowing Edwin was older, made me feel even more like a baby. He didn't look older, I always thought he was 14, like the others. The fact that he drove to school started to slightly make some sense now, why he didn't take the school bus, considering he once told me that lived on the other side of town.

"Wait here for a sec." He climbed into the back seat. I couldn't see what he was doing, he had the windows tinted. After a couple minutes, he climbed out of the back seat wearing a red button down, and black jeans. I was still in my school uniform, I know, middle school crap, a dark blue polo shirt, and khakis. I hated it and wished middle school was over so I wouldn't have to wear this ever again.

I glared at him, why did he get to change clothes while I'm stuck wearing these ugly clothes. He got the message and just said, "You'll see why in a bit. Come on, let's go."

With that, we both go in the car, me in the passenger side. Before driving off to where we were going he said another thing.

"I need to tell you something before we leave. I know something, and it needs to be talked about, between us two. I know you like me, and I like you, too. This hanging out was my way of asking you out on a date. I'm sorry I wasn't straightforward about it, but if I was, you would have just ran away and ignored me for possibly the rest of the year, and I don't want that. I really do like you, I'm sorry I haven't told you anything, but it's just a little difficult for me to do. I'm not-"

"How did you know?" I interrupted him. I had to know!

"I could always tell, the look in your eye, the way you talked to me, and when I caught you staring at me earlier today just made it clear to me."

I blushed, he liked me, he really did like me.

He leaned towards me. "Can I?"

I nodded, not trusting my words.

He kissed my cheek, and I liked it. It was a start, and I liked where it was headed.

"So, where do you wanna go?" He asked after a while.

"I thought you had something planned?" I asked him.

"I lied, to hide the fact that I was going to tell you all this. Where do you wanna go?"

"Can we just hangout at your place?"

"Of course we can."

With that, he reached down for my hand and drove off to his house. This was the start of an amazing relationship, or so I thought.