constellations [DISCONTINUED]

hydrus

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, all went on like a big blur. I remembered lunch with Diana, Mrs. Stacey's classes and very confused looks from Gilbert all week long, but I couldn't recall if the day I had a sandwich was the same one that Gilbert asked me what time was it, or if the day we had literary devices was the one where Diana rambled about the cute french guy in her P.E. class. It all melted into a mixture of golden summer days and warm, starry nights that were unfortunately wasted with too much thought given to somethings else.

On Friday though, I braided my hair like every other day, tried to hide my freckles with foundation — I was getting much better at blending it well — and put on a The Doors tee, which I loved, but didn't do much to improve my appearance.

I had spent all these days getting lost inside my head, and that particular Friday was not any different. I was so immersed in them that time was left as a background noise, thus, making me late for English.

When I got there, Mrs. Stacey didn't even bother to call me out in front of everyone; or maybe she did and I just didn't notice. Anyway, I sat beside Gilbert and for the first time that week after Monday, I absorbed something he said.

"Hey, Carrots."

"Blythe."

"Oh, Okay. You're not going to complain about the nickname?"

"Did you call me Carrots or Princess?"

"Carrots."

"Then no. It's the least worst one you have, so if you must call me something other than Anne, I'd rather it be that."

"Good to know, Princess."

"What did I just— okay, you know what? Never mind, call me whatever you want." I rolled my eyes and tried to concentrate in the notes I had just written, pretending I had something else better to do.

"C'mon Princess, why the eye roll? Thought you didn't care—"

"Which I don't."

"So why you're bothered?"

"I'm not!"

"Ain't what it looks like, honey."

"Okay, now you're just pushing it."

"Wow, took you more than I thought you needed to get it!"

"Pushing me on purpose?"

"You figured it genius. Maybe beating you in this class won't be so hard after all."

"First of all, I just didn't think we were thirteen anymore, second of all, hell it is going to be hard for you to beat me. Why are you even doing it, then?"

"Dunno. You were so quiet the last couple of days and since the most natural way to communicate with you is through insults, thought I'd give it a try."

"Huh... yeah, that kind of makes sense. Sorry about that, I don't know why it's been that way."

"I think I do..." I looked at him with fulminating eyes, I'm pretty sure that changed the direction of where his speech was going "...or not. I mean, I do, but I think you probably disagree and don't want to discuss it. That's okay, I mean, we don't have to discuss everything, right?"

"Good one, exactly what I thought. Anyway, I think we're good to go then. No more quietness... and no more English as well, apparently." I said with the bell, picking up my stuff.

"Yeah, photography now then?"

"Yup, that's it."

He grabbed his things and while passing notebooks around tables, my eyes quickly caught an eye on a messy handwritten list. It included words like 'carrots', 'princess', 'honey', 'ginger baker' and 'buttercup'. I recognized some of those and deliberately chose to ignore the others. I cleared my throat and got up, mumbling something about him hurrying up, which so he did.

"Hey Anne" He said while walking to the photography room. I didn't look at him and I didn't feel him laying his eyes on me. "I know it doesn't change anything and I promise that I won't say that anymore, just this one last time, but..."

"What are you talking about, Blythe?"

"You look nice with makeup, don't take this the wrong way but, you don't have to, you don't need to wear it. You do whatever you want, I just wanted you to know that. I won't bother you about it either way, not about that at least."

"Ha! Yeah right."