Chapter 6: January 16, 2012 3:45AM
I was drained, both physically and mentally. There was no other word for how I was feeling besides drained. I was driving myself crazy with this whole Daniel thing. I wasn’t sure if I was actually starting to have feelings for him, or if it was all in my head. I needed to stop thinking about it and actually get some sleep. I had school in the morning and I had to be there for Daniel. I don’t want to let him down. I picked up my phone off of my bedside table and tried to read the time. The light was almost blinding so I just opened one eye and tried my best to make out the fluorescent numbers displayed on my screen. Since when was it almost 4 in the morning? What’s the point of going to sleep when I have to wake up in almost an hour anyways? Unfortunately, I did end up falling asleep.
My alarm started ringing at 5:15, so reluctantly, I got up and hopped in the shower. I couldn’t seem to keep my eyes open. Frankly, I think I would have been much better off not sleeping at all rather than sleeping for a little over an hour. After I put on my robe, I walked in the kitchen to grab something for breakfast. Things were a little tense when my mom and I saw each other. We hadn’t been getting along well recently, and I was really unsure why. I wasn’t sure if she was just stressed out because of her job or if she was just tired and moody all the time. All I know is she loved taking all her anger and stress out on me. After a while I learned to just ignore it but then it would always be a little tense talking to each other when she wasn’t screaming at me for something completely ridiculous. I grabbed a granola bar from the cabinet and silently walked back upstairs to my room to finish getting ready for school.
I grabbed my backpack from my closet and walked downstairs to get ready to go to the bus. Usually my mom would say goodbye to me before she left for work, but she didn’t this morning. Kind of strange, but I’ll get over it. If Daniel wasn’t at school today, I would be so upset. I just felt like I needed to be there for him and I didn’t want to waste my time going all the way to school just to walk back home when I got there. I walked to my bus stop just in time to see my bus pulling away. Great.
I called Daniel.
“Hello?” he answered.
“Hey uhh… you’re going to school today, right?”
“Yeah, why? What’s up?”
“Want to come pick me up?”
“Sure, where are you?”
I looked up at the street sign nearest to me, and read out the street numbers.
“Alright, I’ll be there in a sec.”
I hung up the phone and waited for him to come. When he pulled up next to me, he leaned over to push open my door. I just looked at him and giggled while I caught the door and climbed inside.
“It was a lot easier than getting out of the car.” He joked.
“Well thank you.” I said.
The school was only a five or ten minute drive from where I was, so I knew if I wanted to talk to him before lunch, I had to speak up now.
“So are you okay?” I asked.
“I’m getting there. The doctors said he was doing a lot better and most of his test results came back good. They’re hoping to let him go home by Friday. You know, if everything goes well.”
“And I’m sure it will. Your grandfather would never give up a fight that easily.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
We both went silent for a moment.
“Thanks again Bonnie.”
“Wait, for what?”
“For this. For talking to me and reassuring me that everything will be alright. I really need this.”
“Well you were there for me when my father died Daniel, and you’re my closest friend. I’m always going to be here for you.”
As soon as I finished my sentence, we pulled into the school parking lot. There was not ONE part of me that wanted to be here at all, but I needed to be. For Daniel. Even though we only had one class together and it was the last one of the day, I still want to be here to be able to cheer him up whenever he needed it. I knew how it felt to have someone you love in the hospital, and that’s just the kind of support Daniel needed. We found a parking spot but when we stopped Daniel didn’t make an effort to unbuckle his seatbelt or anything. I looked up at him to see if anything was wrong, but he was just looking at me and smiling. I started blushing, so I looked down at my seatbelt to hide it. I could feel Daniel leaning closer and closer towards me, so I looked up. He looked absolutely perfect. I couldn’t control myself. I practically jumped out of my seat to kiss him. I backed away and realized how desperate that kind of seemed, but Daniel just laughed and kissed me again.
“We should probably get to class…” I said as I heard the first bell ring. The first bell meant you had 6 minutes to get to your class and once the second bell rang, you should already be in class. Daniel and I grabbed out stuff and jumped out of the car and ran inside the building. Lucky for me, my class was right at the entrance of the building. Daniel’s class was practically at the other end of the school. I walked him halfway there but he didn’t want me to be late either so he told me to go to my class. I made it to my class with about 2 seconds to spare. I wondered if Daniel made it on time. At our school if you were late to a class, you had to go to “The Tardy Room.” You think they would have been a little more clever with the name. In the Tardy Room, you had to sign a paper and put the date and then the lady at the desk would print you out a pass. There was usually a line at least 50 students long to get into “The Tardy Room.” If you were late to your first class, you had all period to get your pass, but if you were late to your second class, you only have five minutes. It was one of the stupidest rules I’ve heard, but that’s school for ya.
“So nice to see you here today Bonnie.” Said Mrs.Larpen, my first period teacher. I despised her. She had it out for me, I just knew it. I don’t know if it was because she didn’t like my hair or if it was because I slept in her class practically every day I was here, but honestly, I hated her too. After her little comment I just rolled my eyes and started pretending like I was listening to her ramble on about the 16th century.
I wonder what Daniel was doing right now…
