Benefits

Ch. 38: Single

Single- The Neighbourhood

"I don't know if we should be alone together. I still got a crush, that's obvious. If nobody's around, what's stopping us?"

"Class!" My first period math teacher yells to me. My class could not take a chill pill on the noise level. "Shut the fuck up!" Mrs. Levin has officially snapped this semester, so instead of teaching us today, she decides to pull out a gory scary movie. Her feet props up to her desk, while a red cup was in her head. Lets just say she won't last long in this school if they smell the breath of her alcohol. The class finally calms down a little bit, but there's still some rowdiness. "Dana." I hear my teacher mumble, her eyes locking on mine, "Dana!"

"Me." I point to myself.

"Yes you! Who else is Dana!"

"My names Dawn."

"Just come here." She rolls her eyes, taking a sip of her drink, as the screams of a crying girl rang through the room from the projector. "You are the only one who doesn't give me a headache." Considering she doesn't even know my name; I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. "Go down the hall to Mr. Ming. He has lesson plans for me for tomorrow."

She hands me a note writing about the instructions, I nod my head at her, turning on my heel down the towards Mr. Ming. "Don't forget the hall pass!" She yells to me while I grab it. Lets just say Mrs. Levin wasn't the best at teaching, and had most of her lesson from Mr. Ming. Once I reach in his classroom I walk straight to his desk.

"Yes?" He asks with a smile. I hand him the note, his face falling. "Just one minute." He tells me as he searches around his desk.

I finally take in my surroundings, the class seems to be in the middle of a test or something. Some faces look familiar then others. But once I scan the room a second time do I see something- someone that I know shouldn't be in here.

Conrad.

His eyes stay down, his head rests in his hand, steadily taking every answer to his account.

He told me he doesn't go here. He told me he went to another school.

He.. he lied.

His eyes begin to wander around his sides, and I turn around swiftly towards Mr. Ming.

Why would he lie to me that he goes to my school? Why haven't I ever seen him until today or heard about him around the hallways?

Mr. Ming hands me a stack of papers, and I cower down my head towards the exit. I didn't know why, but I didn't want him to know that I knew what I knew.

This was going to be a long talk.

-

"Happy Halloween bitches!" Lauren greets Alice, Reese and me at lunch.

Though I'm still conflicted about Conrad and his lies, I still can't shake Jake off me; it's about a week since Jake told me the happenings to him.

My eyes have finally opened up to Jake. I'm slowly starting to understand the boy with the dark glasses. His worries. His everything.

He's haunted by these terrible dreams day in and day out.

Each day he stays in my room, I feel his body loosen against mine in a way I only know. He's still not fully asleep, but enough to let his eyes fall a couple hours longer then usual.