Willow's Tree

24

Over the next few days, Trey finally began to cool down just as he said he would. Sure, he was still enthusiastic about every night we slept together, but he didn't seem to be in as much pain as before. Now, he simply did it out of horniness and for the pleasure. And love, as he always mentioned every night.

Of course, I brought up Helen a lot in our conversations as we caught up. I constantly reminded him that he was a bastard deserved to be punished for it somehow. Trey said he would eventually, and I quote, "get beaten the shit out of" when the time came. I was confused at his words, but knew that he wasn't simply talking about karma.

At the moment, we were in English class and Mrs. Carlson just announced that we would be making a small project. Students would be paired up and they had to make a poster that promoted a children's book. We had to draw a picture and use captions.

The project was fairly simple and easy so many students weren't taken aback by it. But when Mrs. Carlson added the fact that she would be the one to pick partners, they groaned in annoyance. She ignored their whining and immediately started pairing up random students on the attendance sheet.

When it was my turn, she said, "Willow will be with..." she scanned the list. "Eric."

"What. The. Fuck." Trey swore and I looked at the Eric guy. He turned to stare at me before quickly turning back to face the front. "The hell you're going to be with Eric." Trey continued to speak in my head and I noticed he spat the guy's name.

"It's random. And you can't change her mind." I replied.

"Trey will be with Julia."

I looked at the girl in question and saw that she was blushing. Then I looked over at Trey who was currently glaring into the back of Eric's head. "Good luck Trey."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he said confused, but I ignored him.

Mrs. Carlson finished pairing up the rest of the class and amazingly, Rebecca and Isaac ended up together. Of course, the two of them were happy to be with someone they knew but I knew their planning would be chaotic since the two barely ever agreed on anything.

I was about to stand up and go to Eric's desk, but he was already walking towards me, and conveniently, the seats around me were open, so he took the desk right across from mine and scoot it closer to me. Trey glared at the boy and I told him to knock it off in our heads.

"Hi." Eric said.

"Hey." I casually replied. "Did you have a book in mind?"

He shook his head. "Did you?"

I shook my head as well and we sat there in silence. Some other students were quiet like us, but others, like Rebecca and Isaac, were able to easily talk since they knew each other.

At the rate we were going, I knew Eric and I wouldn't have been able to even decide on a book. So I started the conversation and asked him things such as if he read any books as a kid, and we eventually went on from there.

"I was more of a sports kid. And when I wasn't outside, I was watching TV or playing video games."

I nodded. "I was a lazy kid so I pretty much stayed indoors and watched whatever was on TV." Eric began warming up to me and I immediately brought our conversation back to the project. "You know Dr. Seuss, right?" I asked and he nodded.

"Of course."

"Then we should do something simple like Green Eggs and Ham." I suggested.

As we were talking and discussing about the book, I heard a low growl at the back of my head and knew who it was without even having to think about it. I glanced at Trey to see that he was giving an obvious glare towards Eric.