The Project

Chapter 13

Johnny's Point of View

"Hey, I'm not sure if I can make it tonight," I inform to Kate, who frowned.

"What? Why not?" She questions back frantically.

In all honestly, I didn't want to go to Kate's house tonight to work on the novel with her and Benny.

All because Benny would be there.

"Uh, my dad needs me at home to help him with something..." I trail off.

It was a lie, but obviously I couldn't tell Kate that I wouldn't go to her house because Benny would be there.

The thing is, I know Benny doesn't like me. I see how he looks at me when he thinks I'm not looking, and I know he thinks he's better than me because he plays a sport and he's more buff or something.

It bothers me, but what can I do? I'm not going to fight him or anything.

"Are you sure?" Kate asks like she didn't believe me.

"Yeah," I mumble, not able to make eye contact with her. "Sorry."

"No problem," she smiles. "We'll start without you."

I nod and when the 6th hour bell rings, I hurry out of the classroom so I don't have to witness Benny and Kate walking home together.

-

When I was outside my house, about to walk in, I couldn't make myself open the door.

I didn't want to. I didn't want to walk into that hell hole house. Having to be around Benny, who would just flirt with Kate the whole time, would be better than being in this house.

Before my parents could see me standing on the porch, I ran in the other direction.

I ran until I found an empty parking lot and sat down on the pavement against a tall street light.

My chest hurt from running and it took me a few minutes to regain my breath and calm down.

I had to get into better shape soon.

After a while of sitting there, thinking, a red sports car pulled into the parking lot.

I was curious as to who owned such a nice, expensive looking car.

When I saw the doors open on that car, I wish I hadn't come to the lot. I should've stayed home or gone somewhere else.

Some of Benny's baseball team came out of the car, some of them even holding wooden bats.

My heart pounded as they started walking in the direction of the drug store instead of where I sat.

When they all walked in, I let out a sigh of pure relief and stood up so quickly it made me lightheaded.

Then, for the second time this time, I started running. This time home.

-

"Where were you?" Mom asks as I attempt to sneak through the back door.

"School," I respond, hoping she was too drunk to realize school ended a few hours ago.

She looked me up and down, like she was judging me which made me want to just run right out the door again.

"It's almost 6," she informs. "School ends at 3."

I swallowed, gripping the switch-blade in my back pocket to try and calm down.

"It took me a while to get home," I defend.

I don't even know why I bothered anymore. She knew I was lying and I knew my lie wasn't believable.

"3 hours?" She questions, stepping closer to me. "It took you 3 whole hours to get from a school that's 15 minutes away, to here?"

"I got lost," I start. "I'm still trying to find my way around this town."

We had just moved here, most of our boxes were still not even unpacked. If I was in her position, I would believe that she would have gotten lost.

Mom comes eerily close to my face and I can smell the intense alcohol radiating off her breath. I wanted to gag.

"You get home on time," she begins, "or don't come home at all."

She shoves me back a little bit and walks past me.

Shakily, I make my way upstairs and into my bedroom, closing and locking the door.

Benny's Point of View

"This book is boring," I complain, closing the book on whatever page we were on and setting it on the coffee table.

"Doesn't matter," Kate murmurs, eyes following the words printed on the paper. "We're being graded for this."

I groan, burying my head in the decorative couch pillows. "It's tiring me out!"

Kate saves her page and closes her book on the glass coffee table next to mine. She turns to me, smiling softly at my state.

"I suppose we could take a break," Kate gave in, and I opened my closing eyes.

"Really?"

She nods in confirmation. "Not a long one. We have to read to chapter 5 and we're only 2 chapters in."

I nod, though I wasn't sure if I'd be able to stand by that. Especially with Kate.

She stands up from the couch and walks into the kitchen. "Want a drink?"

I flip onto my back, staring up at the tall ceiling. "Pepsi?"

I hear the cracking open of a soda can and the sound of it being poured into a glass with ice.

Kate walks back into the living room with two glasses. One with Pepsi and the other with lemonade.

"Thanks," I say, sipping the sugary drink from a neon pink straw.

Kate silently sips from her lemonade glass through a neon green straw.

I stare at the ceiling and she stares ahead.

I wonder what she was thinking. Was she thinking about me, or Johnny?

Hopefully she wasn't thinking about Johnny and was thinking about me.

I thought about her a lot and was always wondering if she was thinking of me. Probably not.

"Let's get back to work," she suddenly suggests.

While I didn't want to, I did what she told me to and we got back to working on the project with care.

-