Never (EDITING)

Chapter 3

Morning came, and I was nervous as hell. I stayed up the majority of the night for two reasons. One, I couldn't help but wonder what Nathan would say to me as soon as he saw me in school. Two, I knew that zoning out would make time go faster. I didn't want that.

I debated whether I should actually get out of bed or not. So many negative thoughts were keeping me glued to the mattress, but, eventually, I had no choice but to force myself to rip my head away from the surface of the pillow.

Before I knew it, I was back in the school's stupid parking lot. I sat in my car and decided to do the whole, 'I'm not getting out right away', thing. I simply rested my forehead on the wheel, fantasizing about a perfect world where everyone was good to one another and everyone smiled all the time. The kind of world that didn't make me groan the second I opened my eyes in the morning.

I was awoken from my unrealistic daydream by a loud sound that shrieked outside. It was my car's horn, and it didn't give off the kind of alarming honk that the human ear can handle. No, mine had the power to make a person go deaf for a few seconds.

My head shot up instantly, causing it to bounce off the headrest of my seat. "Crap!" I half-yelled, feeling slightly dizzy. I rubbed my forehead with my palm until I was sure that my surroundings weren't spinning out of control. When I looked up, everything was still, but something else caught my eye. Something much worse.

I'd earned myself an easy ticket for five minutes of fame. And not the good kind. More than a dozen heads were turned to me, and they stayed that way long enough for my skin to dampen from nervousness. Then, there were snickers. I couldn't hear them, but I could definitely see them. One kid even had a finger in his ear, rubbing it vigorously as a result of the intensity of my horn. I lightly shut my eyes, the horrible sight just outside of my car disappearing for a brief moment. There was no way of escaping this, there was nowhere to hide. And staying in the driver's seat wasn't going to make everyone forget what had happened. I opened my eyes again, and I saw him. I saw Nathan standing beside the very guy who had his ear plugged. Still had his ear plugged.

Okay, now he was doing it on purpose.

I tried bringing my attention to anything other than Nathan-like the snow on the floor-but my eyes wound up jumping right back on him. He returned the long gaze with a hint of curiosity in his eyes. He wasn't laughing. He wasn't even trying to keep from laughing. As much of a surprise as that was to me, I only managed to sigh and roll my eyes. "Just get out and get this over with, Danika." I muttered under my breath as I pushed my side of the door open and stepped outside. The moment I did that, my body was ambushed by a gust of wind that was quick to get a hold of my insides. My lips quivered violently as I tried to rush past those who still hadn't found anything that was more amusing than me and my stupid car horn.

I had much trouble walking. I felt like I was forcing my stiff legs to move forward. Why the weather decided to challenge me then, during a situation that I was desperately trying to avoid as fast as I possibly could, I had no clue. And things didn't end when I finally stood in front of the doors. The doors that would lead me inside a heated building. My arms froze. Literally. Froze. They still wrapped around me like they'd been all along, but I couldn't seem to untangle them. Honestly, the weather wasn't to blame for that one, it was me. I was certain that this was the result of knowing I was still being watched.

No, no, no, no, no! Please don't do this to me now! I was practically begging my body to work with me, but it was no use. If it wasn't for the door suddenly being pulled open, I would've let out a good scream that would earn me a bunch of hurtful nicknames for the rest of my high school career. Thank God I didn't.

The hallway came into full view and it's warmth didn't hesitate to reel me in. I smiled. "Thank you." I said to the mystery person who was nice enough to hold the door for me.