It All Started With A Note

Chapter Three

Chapter Three - Ivy

I took a corner table at lunch and stuck my nose inside my book. Every couple of minutes, I'd distractedly take a bite of my sandwich, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from the pages. Lunch was halfway over, when I sensed someone's presence nearby. Reluctantly, I glanced up and almost choked. Eric Porter stood, looking down at me, with an amused look on his face. He slowly put a piece of paper on the table and pushed it toward me. Then he winked and walked away. What the hell just happened? I glanced around the cafeteria and found a lot of eyes on me. Too many eyes. I didn't like to draw attention to myself and Eric Porter, approaching me at lunch, hadn't gone unnoticed. Most people were looking at me in confusion, but I caught a couple glares too. I wanted to laugh. What, did they think that I was trying to steal Eric or something? He's the one who approached me. I hadn't done a damned thing.

I glanced down at the note. Deciding to just get it over with, I quickly opened it and read: Please don't be mad. It was a nice view.

Say what? I tried to remember what he was even talking about and then I felt my face heat with a blush. I'd called him a pervert for admitting that he could see through my bedroom curtain and he was telling me he'd liked the view. Just how much had he seen? What the hell did I do now? No way in hell was I going to write a response and hand-deliver it at school. Was he crazy? Did he not notice the attention he attracted, everywhere he went? I glanced back at my book, but the words seemed to swim on the page. I could no longer focus on the story that'd had me in rapture just moments before.

After lunch I entered my Composition class and took my usual seat. As people began to trickle in, I received more attention than I was used to. I wanted to scream at them. Eric hadn't even spoken one word to me and yet I was getting all of this attention. He'd handed me a slip of paper. That was it. For all they knew, it could have been school related. People were ridiculous, I decided.

"What did it say?"

I glanced up. Charity Owens, stood, glaring down at me. I frowned, "What did what say?"

"The note. From Eric. What did it say?" She demanded.

I frowned, "Um, how is that your business?"

I realized my mistake then. Several people "oooo'ed" at my response to Charity, whose glare turned downright chilly. She leaned over my desk as she practically growled, "Listen here, Bitch. I don't know what you're plotting, but Eric Porter is mine. Do you understand?"

I frowned. I had no claim on Eric. I wasn't dumb enough to think that he would be seriously interested in me, so what was this girl's deal? To my knowledge, Eric wasn't dating her, although I knew they hung out. So maybe they were more than friends. Either way, I didn't like her coming at me like this. I knew that I should just agree and hope that Charity would find someone else to bully, but I didn't like the hoity-toity way she was looking down at me.

So instead of meekly nodding my understanding, I slowly stood, so we were on even ground and asked, "Does Eric know that you consider him your property?"

A few people snickered and I could almost see the fumes coming out of Charity's ears. She spat, "You've just messed with the wrong girl, Bitch."

The bell rang and everyone took their seats. Charity, thankfully, was now on the other side of the room. Mrs. Green, our teacher, outlined our next project and gave us the rest of the period to work on it. I was trying to wrap my mind around the assignment, and forget the sudden problems in my life, when I heard someone whisper, "You've got balls. I'll give you that."

I glanced up. Alex Baldwin sat next to me and he wasn't even pretending to be working on his assignment. Instead, he was smirking at me with amusement. He was tall and muscular, with dark blond hair that he kept too long, in my opinion. He was Eric's closest guy friend. I frowned at him, "Excuse me?"

Alex's smirk widened, "You just made a permanent enemy out of Charity. I hope you know what you're doing. That girl can be brutal and she doesn't play fair."

"Uh, thanks for the warning, I guess?" I say, with more question than anything else.

Alex didn't comment further. He simply shook his head, still smirking, and then turned his attention to the person on the other side of him. I spent the whole class, when I should have been working on my school work, worrying about what he said. I wasn't necessarily worried about Charity. I mean, what could she do? However, I didn't want to be anyone's enemy. I wanted to keep my head down and focus on my school work. I was top of our class and I wanted to keep it that way.

So, after school, I went home and wrote a one word note for Eric: Stop. I wrote it real big and underlined it. I wasn't even completely sure what I was asking him to stop. I liked our secret notes, but when he took it public today, by hand-delivering one to me in the middle of lunch, it ruined it. Now, I'd have to keep my back to the wall and my eyes alert, for fear of what Charity would do. There was no doubt she was gunning for me and it was all Eric's fault. With that reminder, I taped the note to his window and then went downstairs to make some popcorn. I came back up to my room, put in a sappy DVD and settled in for a Friday night movie marathon. My goal was to try to forget the social dilemma I'd somehow found myself in the middle of.