Crossing Paths

Chapter 4

As soon as school ended that day, I made a beeline for Jeremiah's car. The mystery jerk had left me in a bad mood and I definitely didn't want anything to do with Park. It was her fault the whole thing had happened in the first place.

Once I got to my brother's rusted piece of crap, I climbed in, slammed the door shut, and waited for him to come out. With each minute that passed, my patience grew more and more thin. My entire day had been a bust, and the more I sat there and thought about it, the more frustrated I got.

It had to have been less than 10 minutes, but by the time Jeremiah finally showed up, I had worked myself up. He barely had a foot in the door before I was complaining. 

"What took you so long?" 

"Huh?" Jeremiah plopped down in the drivers seat and threw his backpack on my lap. He could just as easily thrown it in the backseat, put he always tossed it off to me because he knew I hated it. "The bell rang like a couple minutes ago." 

"Whatever." I muttered under my breath. I launched his backpack over my shoulder a lot harder than was necessary. "Let's just go." 

"Feisty." Jeremiah mumbled a few more words that I couldn't understand. Knowing my brother, they were probably incoherent for a reason. 

The ride home was tense and silent. We only lived a few minutes away from the school, but I usually filled it with mindless chatter about my day. Jeremiah would sit there and pretend to listen, but I knew he didn't care in the least bit. 

Since I wasn't feeling in the chatty mood, I stared wordlessly out the window. Jeremiah cleared his throat in an obvious fashion, but I didn't give him much thought. If he wanted the silence to end, he could do it himself. As though reading my thoughts, he reached over and turned on the radio. 

Obnoxious rapping filled the car and I could practically feel my eardrums rupturing in protest. I reached over and turned off the music with a quick jab at the button. 

"Seriously?" Jeremiah demanded, glaring over at me. When I didn't reply, he felt the need to continue. "Is this some sort of PMS thing?" 

"Do not even go there." I ordered, staring daggers at him. If looks could kill, he would have dropped dead. 

"Alright, alright." Jeremiah relented, holding up one of his hands up in mock surrender. "If you want to be in a pissy mood, go right ahead." 

Normally I would either make fun of him or throw out some sort of sassy retort, but I wasn't feeling it. 

For whatever reason, my day was determined to suck. 

<----->

"I said I'm sorry." 

"Sorry isn't going to cut it." I argued, nestling my phone against my shoulder as I pulled my notebook out of my desk drawer. "That guy was weird and you just left me alone with him." 

"He was also hot. Sometimes that overrules weird."

"Park I swear...." 

"I know." She amended quickly. "I really am sorry. I didn't mean to force you into an uncomfortable situation." 

The corners of my mouth lifted upwards in a small smile as I rolled my eyes. "You liar. You love putting me in awkward situations. 

"Well yeah... but I usually stick by your side to watch the awkwardness ensue." 

"You're a true friend." 

"Don't you know it." 

I heard her laugh on the other end of the line, and I knew then that there was no way I was going to be able to stay mad at her. Even though she drove my crazy half the time, I still loved her to death.