Latter Days

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

            If there was anything I ever had to look forward to after that, it was definitely not school the next morning. I lay in my bed and stared at the ceiling, too tired to even turn off my alarm clock. I hadn’t known Jack for a very long time, but in the past few weeks I had started to believe that he was beginning to like me. After that night at his house though, I knew I had completely ruined any chance of that happening. Ever.

            I eventually got out of bed and walked downstairs to make myself breakfast. I almost never got to eat breakfast, since I was constantly running late and Lord knows my mother wasn’t going to make me any, so I figured eating something would make for a more promising day. I sat at the table with the English muffin sandwich I had made, and looked around my dining room. I wondered where my mom was. Even though she was always at work, I usually got to see her for at least a few minutes every morning. I shrugged, grabbed my keys, and headed out the front door to my Mustang.

            I realized soon after I got in the car that I would have to face Jack in only a matter of minutes. Sometime during the night I had forgotten we had almost all of our classes together, and sat together in both first and second period. If I hadn’t remembered by now, I was quickly reminded as I walked into anatomy. Jack was sitting at our usual table, and as he looked up toward the door and saw me, I could have sworn he looked hopeful. I shook that thought out of my head and sat down next to him.

            “Hey, Annalie,” he said without looking at me.

            “Jack. Hi.”

            “Look, please forgive me for—“

            “Jack, I’m so sorry—“

            We both started our apologies at the same time, and then stopped to give the other a chance to speak first. When neither of us said anything, Jack started again.

            “Annalie, I just want to apologize again for the way my family treated you last night, okay? I talked to them after I got back and they promised to behave themselves. If you ever wanted to come back, that is.” He looked like he wanted to say something else, but he stopped.  

            “It’s totally okay, Jack.” With that, I pulled out my notebook and began my work. I didn’t want to let Jack see how unsatisfied I was with his apology. While I did appreciate it, I knew that what I really wanted him to apologize for was what he said about us never being together. I was being so selfish, and I knew that, but all I wanted was to hear him say that he wanted to be with me.

            Jack, luckily, dropped the subject and began his work as well. We made it through anatomy pretty painlessly. And when I say painlessly, I really mean silently. After our initial conversation, Jack and I didn’t really speak at all through the entire period.

            The bell rang, signaling the end of class, and I began to pack up my things. I noticed that Jack still had all his stuff out, and wasn’t making any moves to put it away. He was just staring at the table. I snapped my fingers in front of his face.

            “Jack. You okay? The bell rang, bud, you coming?” He seemed to hear this, and he looked up at me.

            “Annalie, can I talk to you?”

            “Uh, yeah, I guess. You do realize that we just had an entire hour to talk, and you didn’t say one word to me, right?” I was slowly becoming confused.

            “Yeah, I know. I’m ready to talk now, though. So can we go somewhere? Let’s go to the stadium.”

            “We have art, Jack,” I deadpanned. I stared at him. What was he doing?