Bittersweet

Part 6

Dinner was pretty good. The alfredo was delicious and the garlic bread, great as ever.

"Thanks, mom." I said with a satisfied grin on my face.

"You're very welcome, El." she says back, smiling.

I place my dishes in the sink and tell by mom that I have to get back to my homework.

She nods as she gets up to place her dishes in the sink as well.

I go to my room and instantly grab my phone to message Jake.

I look back at the last message he sent me and my heart skipped a beat. I'll never live that heart emoticon down.

"Hi. :)" I send him, hoping he'll answer back.

I sit there, staring at my phone, waiting for his message to pop up.

Then, there it came.

"Hello. :) How was dinner?"

Me: "Fantastic. Haha"

Him: "That's good. lol :)"

Me: "Yep. :D"

It was a little while until he replied back.

"Did you finish the book yet?"

"Yeah. :)"

"How was it? (:"

"Pretty intense. Especially when George killed Lennie. :3"

"Ikr! It gave me the chills. Lol. Well, I gtg. I'll see you tomorrow. :)"

I was a bit sad that he was leaving now.

"Aw. Okay Haha See ya. ;)"

Oh, God, why did I send the wink. I'm getting too overboard with this.

"Okay. ;)"

Well, then. Nevermind.

Wait...did Jake just send me a wink?

I'm never gonna live this down, either.

~~~~~~~~~~~

*The Next Day*

I woke up energized this morning, knowing that I will most definitely be talking to Jake at school today.

I get ready and leave to go to the bus stop. I have my music on a little bit low this time, just so I can hear the cars drive by and the wind blow through the trees.

The bus came and I say "good morning" a bit more cheerfully today.

I sit in my seat and watch out the window, just like every other day.

The bus arrived at school a bit earlier this time. And so did Jake because he was walking up the sidewalk as my bus arrived.

This time, I decided to grab my stuff and get off before everyone else so I can hurry to maybe meet up with Jake to walk with him.

I get off and hurry on so I can maybe get ahead of him this time. And, I did.

"Hey, Elize!" I hear him yell.

I look on ahead and smile, knowing that he is trying to catch up to me.

And here he was, walking right next to me with that "waddle" of his. He was looking at me, smiling, and a little out of breath.

"Hey," he said. "What's up?"

I smiled, trying to think of something clever to say.

"Walking my way to boredom." I say.

Well, that's what I said in my mind. What I actually said was:

"Eh, you know, going to school. You?"

He laughs and looks ahead at the school.

"Same here." he said with a grin.

We get into the school and he had to go to his locker, so, we went our separate ways.

"See ya." he says with a smile.

"Yep, bye." I reply, waving.

I smile as I make my way upstairs. His smile, his charm, and his all together adorableness just makes me happy.

After my trip to my locker and to geometry, my happiness was ruined when Anthony is sitting at my desk.

I roll my eyes and walk my way there, hoping he doesn't try to do anything stupid that'll piss me off. Well, he's already kind of pissed me off by sitting at my desk.

"Move." I tell him, no, order him, when I get to my desk.

He frowns and rolls his eyes.

"So, I saw you walking with Jake this morning."

I blush and try to keep my cool.

"Yeah, so? What, I can't have friends?"

He shrugs and looks down at the desktop.

"No, you can have friends but, why him? He's a fag. He's such a douchebag, too."

I feel like crying. It hurts my feelings when someone talk shit about someone you like.

"Uh, actually he's a nicer guy than yiu'll ever be so why don't you just back the fuck off him and leave me alone. He hasn't done anything to you."

He smirk and rolls his eyes again.

"Really?" he asks before pausing. "That fag has done shit to me, okay? "

I close my eyes to withhold my tears.

"Don't call him that." I say under a mad breath.

He laughs.

"What, fag? Queer? Homo?"

I've had enough.

I slam my geometry book down on my desk and stare at him, anger shooting out from my eyes.

He sits there, still and silent, before getting up to walk to his desk.

Everyone was staring at me, but I didn't care.

I sit in my seat and pay attention to the teacher, who was also curious as to what had just happened.

I look over at Anthony, who is shaking his head.

God, just have the bell ring already.