Alone

Alone 2

HER

I didn't want to get out of bed. I didn't want to go to school and see Cal in the hallways, didn't want to feel the sensation of something squeezing my chest, crushing my lungs until I suffocated and died. Whenever I reached the point when I felt I was beginning to go insane, I would recall the golden eyes of the kind stranger and feel a little calmer. They had been warm and gentle when he'd looked at me, as if he truly cared about me.

When I finally dragged myself to school, one of my two best friends, Lauren, a pretty redhead who was a good person and very fun to be around, gave me a hug. She always knew what to do to cheer me up, which made up for her occasional shallow behavior. "It's gonna be okay, Annette. Forget about Cal. There are other, better fish in the sea."

"But I just want the Cal fish," I protested.

"He's a rotten fish," Lauren said frankly. "I hear there's gonna be these two new guys tomorrow. Rumors are they're really hot. Maybe one of them can be your fish."

"But I wouldn't know them well enough," I said doubtfully.

"You can always get to know them," she reminded me with a wink.

She was right, but maybe I wasn't ready for another guy yet. I still had to recover from Cal dumping me. Every time I'd glimpsed him at school, I'd wanted to cry again, but Lauren and my other best friend, Sheila, had steered me away at once, deterring the threatening flood. "Cal's done, Annette. Get over him. He wasn't as good as you thought he was."

But I couldn't, and the heartbreak intensified every second as the full impact of him breaking up with me sank in. He didn't love me anymore...

~*~

Declining Lauren's offer to give me a ride home, I decided to walk the few blocks. As if in a trance, I meandered toward my house, going off side streets and looping back randomly with no real sense of direction, taking long enough so that my mom got worried enough to text me. I ignored it and her frequent calls, unable to make my mind work and connect the buzzing of my cell phone to the idea of my mom contacting me.

I almost ran into someone, and I glanced up at them distractedly, intending to mutter an apology and keep going. I definitely didn't expect the golden eyes that stared into mine. "What are you doing?"

"It's you," I breathed, coming back to awareness. Those black Converse...

"Yes, it's me," he said with a hint of a smile, but refocused. "But, seriously, what are you doing, Annette?"

I looked around at my surroundings, surprised. How had I gotten here. "I don't know."

He sighed. "Come on, I'll take you home."

I let him take my wrist and lead me to his car, obligingly slipping into the passenger seat. He drove in a relaxed, carefree manner, confident in his abilities. I watched him, admiring his facial features, which were impeccable and attractive, but disliking how he had his hood up. I still didn't know what his hair looked like, but I glimpsed a hint of black on the sides, near his ears.

He pulled to a smooth stop at the bottom of my driveway, and I started to get out of the car, but paused. "What's your name?"

"Eron," he said, his eyes seeming to burn into mine.

"Aaron?" I repeated.

"No, with an E."

"Eron," I corrected, adjusting the letters in my mind.

The corners of his lips flickered up into a faint smile. "That's right."

I slipped out of his car, clutching my backpack, watching him drive away. My mom rushed out of the house in a flurry, pulling me inside. "Annette!" she shrilled. "What has gotten into you lately!? I called you so many times and you never picked up! What happened between you and Lauren? Why didn't she give you a ride today? Who was that?"

I sighed, slipping back towards the stupor that overtook me when Eron had disappeared. "I'm fine, Mom, it's nothing. There's nothing wrong with Lauren and me. That was...a friend."

She gave me a doubtful look. "A friend, huh?"

"Oh, God, Mom, no!" I groaned. "It's not like that, I swear. He's just someone I know from...around."

"That's very suspicious, young lady," she said warningly, pulling aside the curtain for one last glimpse of the silver car that had brought me home. I watched through the same crack as he disappeared down the street.

"Mom, I have a lot of homework to do." I retreated to my room, not caring how mistrustful that seemed. She was always suspecting me of something or another, mostly because she tended to hover about me, a result of my father walking out on us ten years ago, when I was only six. Since then, she'd been very insecure and timid, constantly worrying about me and our condition in life, struggling with two jobs to keep us from going bankrupt. To prevent her from fretting about me too much, I studied hard and always did my best to get good grades, trying my best to be a good daughter.

~*~

HIM

I unraveled the scarf from my neck and placed it on my desk, sighing as I sat down on my bed. Nick bounced into my room. "What's up, Eron? Why is your face like that?"

I glared at him, raising an eyebrow. "Why is my face like what?"

"You look like you're in a bad mood," Nick said frankly, sitting on my pillows.

"Aw, get off," I said, nudging him toward the floor.

He dodged my elbow, scooting down toward the middle of the bed, next to me. "Your face doesn't look good in a bad mood, hot stuff."

I ignored his remark, ruminating deeply. I had sensed the awful temper, full of anger and worry, her mother had been when I dropped her off-had she gotten in trouble? Was she angry at me?

"Dude, Eron, stop. What's wrong?"

Nick's voice broke into my consciousness, and he grabbed my hand, which had been mangling the object closest to me when I sat down, an empty water bottle. I jerked my head up to look him in the face. "Sorry, Nick."

"Don't you sorry me," he said, rolling his eyes. "I want you to tell me what the hell is wrong."

"Nothing, nothing," I mumbled.

"Damn it, Eron," he snapped. "I'm almost your brother for Christ's sake. You can tell me anything, you know that?"

"I know. I really do."

He sighed. "Then why won't you tell me?"

I stayed silent. I didn't really know myself, but selfishly, I wanted to keep her all to myself. I cherished the memories of the two times I'd been with her, my recollections of her clear blue eyes gazing into mine, her pretty features...

Nick got up, making a face at me. "Fine, fine, don't tell me. But you always can, okay?"

"Okay. Thanks."

He shut the door quietly behind him, and I echoed his sigh.

I wanted to be with her.

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