Almost Famous: The Next Phase

Chapter 21

As the teacher began her lecture I can see Peter occasionally eyeing me from the other side of the room. It felt weird but at the same time I liked getting the positive attention. Since today was partner work of course everybody had mentally buddied up and I would always get stuck with some kid I never met before. Instead right before I was stuck with working the kid in the back Peter had called me over to work with him. Thank the lord! The assignment today was to make a mixture that would make dry ice touchable with a few chemicals that mechanics use to grease car parts. Some fun. At lease Peter will probably keep the time flying by telling me some of his dad's corny jokes. Peter is definitely a breath of fresh and Prince has done nothing but suck the fun out of my heart these last few weeks and its been pretty annoying. We started our assignment and just as predicted Peter was making me laugh to the point where I almost spilled motor oil on my brand new hot pink shirt. We didn't get our dry ice to be warm enough to touch it but we killed the forty-seven minutes of class for the bell to ring and we were dismissed for lunch. I went out into the hall and over to my locker to exchange out my books once again when Andre came up and leaned on the lockers beside me.

  "So uuuuhhhh......whats up with you and the white boy? Y'all a thing now? You switching teams now Mouse?" He asked me with a bitter tone in his voice.

  "First off white boy has a name and secondly why do you even give a damn?" I snapped at him.

  "Whoa whoa whoa pretty mama! That's not what I'm all about and you know that. I love my brothas and sistas both chocolate and vanilla! HOWEVER this shit that you and Skip are goin' through is starting to get on my damn nerves girl!"

Slamming my locker shut and abruptly turning to Andre with an attitude his eyes popped open in surprise. I was ready to blow a fuse about this whole Prince situation but I remained calm and put a smile on my face.

  "Look Dre. I get that Prince is your friend-"

  "You are too so....."

  "BUT I'm not gonna wait for him to get his act together. If he wants to be my friend that fine but if not then hey let him do what he wants.....just not with me. End of story."

  "C'mon Mouse this is stupid! Y'all really need to figure this shit out! We made plans for ALL of us to take a picture together at the formal. As a group! Ya black ass included! So what's up! We doing this either with or without you."

Letting out a sigh I couldn't give him a definite answer at this point. I get where he was coming from but at the same time I was tired of getting my feeling hurt!

  "How long do I have to think about it Cymome?" I asked him.

Andre rolled his eyes and shook his finger at me.

  "Mouse stop playin with me! Can you just give me a yes or no today?"

  "No Andre I cant! Do you wanna be cut off too?"

Andre raised his hands and surrendered and giggled a little.

  "Ok! Alright! You have until the night before the formal. Promise me that you'll at least give me something sooner but....that's the dealine. Deal?"

Andre stuck out his pinky and looked me in my face in hopes that I would make the deal right away. I really didn't want to make that kind of deal but this is Andre we're talking about. He's just as stubborn if not more than Prince is and he'll continue to push this issue until I break down and give him the answer he wants.

  "Andre seriously? Why can't we talk about this later? You're starting to give me a migraine."

  "Regan Michelle!" He said to me raising his voice slightly.

I glared at him heavily and raised my hand to his mouth.

  "You are not my father and you aren't supposed to call me that here asshole!" I replied to him trying to cover his mouth but he kept blocking my hand.

  "Ooooh mama I love it when you wanna fight me! It really turns me on." He growled placing my the hand that was aimed for his mouth on his chest.

  "Ewww! You disgusting troll!" I shouted pulling my hand away and pushing him back.

He thought it was funny to get a rise out of me and I can admit that he did lighten the mood a little. I guess he's not so bad when he shows that he care about all of us when he's not busy obsessing over me all the time. I always found his lust for me disturbing. Andre stuck his pinky back out and once again wanted me to make a promise to him that I wasn't even sure that I could keep at the moment. Him standing there with his lip poked out was cute in a ugly puppy way so of course I caved and pinky swore that I will give him an answer the night before the formal unless Prince was able to figure out what he wants to do before then.

  "That's what I wanna here! Now don't leave us hangin'" he said to me with a smile.

  "I'll try not to. As long as he don't piss me off." I joked.

Andre squinted and shook his head and was about to say something smart to me when I could hear a voice call him from down the hall that sounded a lot like Morris.

  "Hey Dre! Bring yo ass! We hungry!"

He looked over his shoulder and waved at the guys to go ahead then turned back to me.

  "I gotta go meet with these jokers. See you at lunch. And remember what I said now!" He said as he left me at my locker.

I stayed back and waited for Rachel to meet me but for some reason she hasn't shown up yet. Come to think of it I haven't seen her all day! She's never the type to miss school without letting me know the morning of so this didn't sit right with me. The reason? There's a good chance i'd be walking to lunch and would just so happen to run in to Wilson. God I really hope not. He's definitely the last person I want to see today. I took a deep breath and started to walk down the hall to the cafeteria and things were going pretty smoothly. The halls were just about empty and everybody had settled into their class. T Just as I thought the relief was going to flow over my body like a wave of the ocean I rounded the corner to find Prince and Denise kissing just as the bell rang. It was just like Wilson and Ally all over again the only difference was.....this hurt more than I thought it would. I didn't know what to do. All I could do was just stand there and watch them shove their tongues down each others throats. I didn't even know that my tears were heavily falling from my eyes  until the two of them were nothing but random shapes and colors in front of me. When they pulled away I took my sleeve and wiped my face quickly and took my geography book from under my arm and covered my face with it and briskly made my way to the cafeteria. I didn't want Prince to see me. If fact I was praying to god that he made me invisible. That prayer didn't get any higher than the ceiling because he saw me once Denise walked away.

  "Regan?" He called to me.

I just ignored him and kept going until I found a separate table to sit at in the cafeteria blending into the mix of other kids that didn't matter to Prince or the rest of the guys. I held back the tears for as long as possible. When Prince came in just a few minutes later he  was looking over the crowd of kids to find me but I blended in with my head down and my face covered. When Prince was out of sight I put the book flat on the table and reached into my bookbag for my change purse so I could buy lunch from the line and raced up to the front of the room so he wouldn't see me. When I saw him he too was sitting alone and looked sad. Maybe even guilty. Then it happened. He looked up at me while I was standing in line and I ended up looking him in the eyes. Although it was just for a second I turned away because I couldn't look at him the way I wanted to anymore. Prince at this point was just the kid next door and now I'm ready to get ready for the formal knowing that he made his choice.