Like It Was Yesterday

Part Eight

Instead of going to find Ashley like I usually did at lunch, I went and sat down at the table where Rachel and Ryan were sitting. I didn’t stay there long, because I knew Ashleigh wouldn’t like it if I ditched her for lunch, but I had to tell them about more of the weird stuff that had been happening around me lately.

Since Ryan’s never really heard me talk about it much he was kind of shocked. Rachel however, agreed with me when I told her how Iliana seems to act around me.

Today wasn’t the first time that she’s acted like that either. At a lot of our football games during the beginning of the year I would always see her look at me no matter where she was in the stands. She also tended to stare at me a lot when we were in class. Some times during practice, while we were outside, she would have to walk through people and even though there was quite a bit of space between me and the kid closest to me, she walked so close to me that she almost hit me. She also seemed so… I don’t know, awkward when she talked to me, and sometimes if I was writing something while she was standing by me I would catch her look over and read whatever it was that I was writing.

It only really bothered me if I was writing something about her, then I would have to try and hide it from her until she left.

I got up and started walking to my locker when I ran in to Dan. He was one of my friends from elementary school, but we didn’t talk that much, because we were never in any classes together. He was very helpful. Always tried to give me advice and help me with whatever problems I was having that day. Amanda and him kind of hated each other though. They were always trying to get me to stop talking to the other person, which kind of made me mad. Why couldn’t I talk to both of them as long as they never had to see each other?

“Hey Stacie what’s up?”

“Oh not much,” I answered, fiddling with my lock. “I think I’m starting to go insane though.”

He laughed a little.

“Why is that?

“Because… weird things keep happening around me and I’m not really sure if they’re real or if I’m just imaging it. It all has to do with the person I like or music. It’s really weird. I’m starting to wonder if my mom was right. She always tells me that someone must me watching out for me or something.”

“I see. Well, I’m not quite sure how to help you there, but I do know one thing. You are not going insane. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for what you’re telling me. She could be right.”

“Yeah, either that or it’s someone who’s actually evil and plotting to kill me. How do I know that it’s not?” I asked.

“Does it feel like the atmosphere becomes negative whenever they’re around?”

“No, not really I guess. It’s just kind of creepy that they’re there in the first place, but I’ve never got the feeling that whoever it is wants to hurt me.”

“Then that’s not what they’re there for.”

That made sense to me, most of the time I actually felt better when they were there, like they were there to comfort me or something. I just wanted to know… why me? What was the connection and would I ever really figure it out?

The rest of the week seemed to go by really slow. Our teachers kept piling homework on us, most of which I did not get done, and I had a hard time staying awake in half of my classes. Mostly because I had a hard time sleeping these days because that perfume sent came back when I was trying to fall asleep sometimes. Therefore I would sit there wide awake wondering why it kept doing that and why I only noticed it when I didn’t think about it. The second I tried to pay attention it would go away.

Saturday morning my mom and I went out to find me something to wear for the dance. This wasn’t like homecoming or anything, so not many people were going to be wearing dresses. I decided I would just wear something girly and cute. That would be enough dressing up for me.

A little before 8:00 Kyle pulled up in his red 2005 Toyota Corolla. I think it was previously his sister’s car and still had some of her flowery smelling, tree-shaped car fresheners in it, and her black and pink steering wheel cover, but he didn’t seem to mind.

When we got to the dance I walked over to talk to Rachel who was clearly staring at Kyle. And I admit, he did look pretty cute all dressed up, but hey, he was my date.

After we danced for a while Kyle and I went to sit at one of the tables. We talked for a while and then he asked me if I would go out with him. I was really shocked, but I said yes anyway. I had never gone out with anybody before though. So I had no previous experience with relationships. Kyle on the other hand, had about eight other girlfriends since he was in middle school. By the way he was a year older than me, and I was pretty sure he had a lot of experience with relationships.

After the dance Kyle drove me home and kissed me good-night. I kind of wondered how my mom would react to me dating a junior.

“Hey, how’d the dance go? Was it fun?” she asked as soon as I stepped foot inside the door.

“Yeah, it was great. Kyle asked me out too.”

“And you said…?”

“Yes.”

“Isn’t he a junior?”

I rolled my eyes when she wasn’t looking.

“Yeah, he’s really nice though. You’d like him.”

“Well as long as you don’t do anything you’re not supposed to I guess that’s fine with me.”

Well, that went better than I thought. I wondered if my mom knew I’ve never dated anyone else before. You’d think she’d be lecturing me on how to take care of myself and say no whenever I was asked to do something I wasn’t comfortable with. Then again, she didn’t always pay too much attention to me. She probably assumed I’ve had five boyfriends for all I knew. What was worse was that she didn’t even know that I was bisexual. I hadn’t really had the chance to tell her that, and I kind of didn’t want to. I mean, maybe I was just confused. I only ever seemed to like one girl. Might as well not confuse my mom too.

I went up to my room to lie down on my bed for a while. I ended up falling asleep though, fully dressed and everything. I had this really strange dream that seemed to take place about 200 years ago. I was with this girl who looked like she could be the sister of Iliana. Possibly a twin sister too. They looked freakishly alike.

We were sitting in her back yard by a big tree, not really doing anything. She was telling me how much she loved me, so I told her I loved her back. We started talking about how we would always be together forever and nothing could take us apart, but then I got sad and looked away from her. I was going to tell her something, but I woke up.

It took me a while to fall back asleep. I kept thinking about how it felt so real, like that had actually happened before. I fell asleep just as I was starting to wonder if there was something wrong with me. I seemed to be wondering that a lot actually. I didn’t live in that time though, it couldn’t have been real.