Awake at Midnight

Apodyteria

"Jade, come here. I want to show you something," Derek said.

I hesitated before cautiously walking over. I'm Jade by the way and the boy calling me over, Derek, is my boyfriend of three years. Both Derek and I are 16, I have red hair and blue eyes, while he has brown hair and brown eyes.

"Did you fucking here me or are you just stupid?!" Derek shouted at me.

"I'm sorry I'm just tired," I said with my gaze on the floor. I couldn't help but think about how much Derek has changed since we first started dating. Derek used to love reading and listening to music but now he was just possessive and critical. He used to admire my red hair for it's rarity but now he was always saying things like 'God why do I even date you? Why can't you have blonde hair, it's much sexier.' I miss the him when he was the dorky eighth grader with big glasses and acne. I'm thinking about ending it.

"You better be sorry," Derek said when I stood beside him and his friends. "Can you believe this twit?" Derek said to his friends.

"She didn't do anything wrong, dude," Jason, Derek's best friend, said.

"Jason just let it go, it doesn't matter," I said, trying to avoid a fight.

"How dare you speak to my friends like that?!" Derek said, outraged, "You need to learn your place."

"I'm sorry," I said quietly, pleading for Derek's forgiveness with my eyes.

"Don't look at me like th-"

He was cut off by the first bell, which meant that I was able to escape his wrath until lunch.

"I have to go before I'm late," I said in an attempt to get away.

"Wait a second," Derek said, grabbing my arm. Derek pulled me into a deep, bone crushing kiss.

I was the one who broke away.

I really have to go, I'll see you at lunch.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

When I got to first period as quickly as I could and sat down by my best friend, Amber.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey, what took you so long, you only got here five seconds before the tardy bell," Amber asked. "Wait did he give you trouble, again?" She said, referring to Derek.

"A little," I said, avoiding her eyes.

"You need to leave him. It's only a matter of time before he tries to hurt you," she said in a very serious tone.

"I know, I'm just waiting for the right time."

"You better find the right time quickly," she said turning toward our language arts teacher as she started speaking.

"Today we will be learning about....," my teacher, Ms. Quinch, drowned on. I stopped listening. I'm in an advanced class and I was able to get an 'A' without paying attention. My eye lids were starting to feel heavy when the door opened.

"Sorry to interrupt, I was told that this would be my language arts class," a very attractive yet odd looking boy said. He was tall, pale, had hair that was nearly white, and eyes that looked like they didn't contain an iris. He reminded me of Sebastian from The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare.

"It's fine dear. You must be.." she glanced down at her seating chart, Ashter."

"Yes, but I actually prefer Ash," the boy, Ash, replied.

"Why don't you take a seat next to Jade, the red head over there," Ms. Quinch said.

"Alrighty," he said, heading over to me.