A Pocketful of Gems

Chapter 1: sing a song of six pence - Part 2

Purgatory /'pəːɡət(ə)ri/ noun. a school, usually including grades 9-12 or 10-12. Luckily, my purgatory ended at three o'clock. If I had to withstand more than six hours of this I'd surely snap and bludgeon some poor unintentionally thoughtless boy for stopping me in the halls to ask if I wanted to go see a movie. Wait, didn't that happen already? My brain is getting old.

I imagined for those who have friends in high school, it's not as bad. I'm a 10th grader, it's my second year in high school and I'd made zero friends. There were a few people who would stop me to say 'hello' or ask a homework question, but none were people I spoke to outside of school, save for Spencer, who I knew from the Sunshine Bakery and only ever said enough to to ensure he got my order right. Though he seems to know everything I order by heart; I need more variety in my diet.

It's not a personality thing, I'm pleasant, mild-mannered, and smart and I think I'm funny. But women annoy me, I've meet very few who had more than the necessary amount of brain cells than was needed to work the selfie function on their phones and those I thought were smart were all overly competitive and competing wasn't my thing. I'm smart, teachers are always trying to talk me into joining Spelling Bees and Mathematics Competitions since I was little, but they really aren't my thing.

As for men? I considered them the bane of the female existence. The brainless oafs are all sex crazed or can't take their heads out of their games long enough to hold an in-depth conversation. However, I am human and female and have recently become a hormone riddled teenager, so I do find some of them appealing. All good-looking and sweet-talking. Looking like Eros with honey in his mouth. But, it's unfair to entirely blame it on the hormones though, cause a guy like Mitchell Gordon is kryptonite, he made any girl weak in the knees, Spencer on the other hand was the evil love child of kryptonite and nightshade; he'd make you weak in the knees alright, but he'd stopped your heart beating, too. He was a poison I would willingly take, were I not so sensible. If only I wasn't so sensible. I sighed.
                                   -

I sighed heavily and looked over at the person who'd come to stand beside me at the Bakery's display window and jumped out my skin. Oh my God, Spencer?!

I'm not sure if it's because I'd thought about him that he showed up, but it made me jump. And I think my heart stopped.

"Sorry," he covered his smile, "I'm sorry, Gemma, are you okay?"

I nodded slowly, taking my hand off my heart. He uncovered his mouth and smiled sheepishly behind his fingers.

"Good, good. Do you want to come in?"

No... but my only choices right now were the quiet loneliness of a park bench or the haunting echoes of my house. I didn't want loneliness and I detested haunting echoes far more than spending a few, albeit awkward, moments with the 'evil love child of kryptonite and nightshade' in a building that smelled of fresh baked bread. Also, I'd been pretty rude to him of late; leaving the table after he arrived was an everyday occurrence, but today, remembering what Eve had said, I felt extra bad.

I nodded slowly and watched the smile grow on his lips. He had turned on the headlights.
                                  -

Spencer showed me to a seat at the window and went behind the counter. He spoke to a girl with red streaks in her hair and she looked at me, with a wicked smile and nodded. He went into the back of the Bakery, he was gone a while, and returned drying his hands with a wad of paper towels. He collected a plate and glass from the girl and came back to me placed them on the table.

"Here you go."

I stared at my favourite Sunshine Bakery muffin with its huge blueberries protruding out. I had to swallow twice before I could speak.