SUNGLASSES

Chapter Three

Fortunately for me, I was able to escape Joe's grasp that night--he came home and instantly passed out. I thankfully went to bed with out any new scars.

The next day, however, would be a whole different story.

I woke up to my alarm clock once again, and quickly rushed through the shower. I knew I had to get to school early today for Emma's little meeting she was holding. Every time prom was coming up, whether you had a date or you didn't, you showed up to school early and talked with her about her dress. This was for her closest friends ONLY...which meant about 20 girls. Only 6 or 7 of them were actually close to her--the rest was made up of gullible freshmen that would actually put in money for her attire.

Today, I slipped on a black shirt with a kimono just like Tyler's (me and Emma had gone shopping the week before). I had black skinny jeans on, my black combat boots, and...

My sunglasses.

For a moment I debated whether or not to wear them. That would just attract Daniel Weiss's big, stupid, kind-of-hot mouth. But I slid them on anyway--I couldn't go around school making people think I actually wanted to communicate, could I?

It's funny, I thought to myself as I slid out the door, I use the sunglasses to block people out, but it only draws him in.

When I got to school, I saw Emma standing by her locker surrounded by freshmen girls.

"Omg that would look SO good on you, Em!"

"No, THAT would totally look amazing."

"That one is totes cute!"

I rolled my eyes so hard it almost gave me a headache. When Emma saw me, she pushed past the girls and ran over. "Hey, Cade! What do you think about this one?"

She pointed out one dress on the page of the magazine she was holding, and I gawked at how elegant it was. "Emma...don't you think that's a little, I don't know...much?"

She looked at me with a smile, as if I was joking, but then frowned. "Oh. No, I don't think it's too much. I mean, it's our junior year! We need to do something big! Our senior year we'll be all old. Now we need to be young and free!"

I looked at her with my eyebrows raised. "You do realize you'll just be a year older next year, right? Just one year?"

She laughed and shook her head. "Oh, Cadence...you're so funny."

She turned around and was absorbed back into the huddle of freshmen, and I grabbed a couple of my books out. As I closed my locker, I noticed the one and only Daniel Weiss walking towards me. I quickly gathered my books and walked in the opposite direction, despite the fact that my first period class was the other way.

"Hey Sunglasses! Wait up, would ya?" In a few moments, he was walking in step beside me, and I couldn't avoid him.

"What do you want?" I asked, adjusting my sunglasses on my face. He shrugged.

"Just wanted to say hi is all."

I scoffed, stopping dead in my tracks. "Look, Weiss. I don't know if you were dared to come over and talk to me or something, but I don't want to be a part of this. So just leave me alone." I turned around and started to walk towards my English class when he caught up to me again.

"Hey, hey, hey, calm down Sunglasses. I wasn't dared. I just find you...interesting." He put an arm out to stop me before I could go any farther. "What are you doing today?"

I looked around us, overly exaggerating our surroundings. "Um, I don't know. School?"

He chuckled, running a hand through his hair. "Yeah...right. You wanna maybe...skip school? With me? Just for today, I promise," he added after seeing my expression. I wrinkled my nose in disgust.