One Call Away: In Process

Advice

It was lunch again. Today was just another Tuesday. Bartolo made it through First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth hour, and he is in lunch.

"Hey, does tomorrow sound like a good day to meet up at my house?" Tabari asked, starting up the conversation.

"Yeah, I'm free. What about you, Ali?" Bartolo responded.

"Yes. I should be free tomorrow. Nothing planned." Ali answered.

"So, we meet up at my house for dinner, and then y'all go home; back to school the next day, and so forth? Sound good?" Tabari clarified.

"Yeah, sounds good." Ali and Bartolo say in unison.

Bartolo looked at his lunch. He loved his lunches, but he usually gave some things to Ali because she was the poorest out of the three.

Ali had grown fond of Bartolo over the three years that they've known each other. Ali accidentally grew too fond of Bartolo, and eventually Ali grew to like Bartolo. Ali did not like this because it made it a little awkward for her to talk to Bartolo. Bartolo still hadn't noticed that Ali liked him. Like Bartolo, of all people, would ever notice somebody that liked him.

Ali still talked to Bartolo, but every time that the group brought up Marlowe, or any girl besides Ali herself, she would brush the subject aside, and try to change the subject. It made her uncomfortable and insecure.

Ali decided that she was going to tell Bartolo the way she felt whenever she knew that Bartolo didn't like Marlowe anymore.

Ali didn't hate Marlowe for being the one that always had everybody trying to get her, in fact, Marlowe and Ali were sort of friends, or they used to be at least.

Marlowe and Ali used to be best buds four years ago. What happened, you may ask? Nobody really knows. The only people who know is Marlowe and Ali. Nobody else knows if they split over a boy or something else. The only thing that the public knows, is that the two just stopped talking to each other one day. Ever since that day, though, Tabari and Bartolo became best friends with Ali.

The three of them ate their lunch. They each drank one water bottle. They then talked about random things until the bell rang.

Drriiiiiing. Driiiiiing. Driiiiiing.

Bartolo had tinnitus, so the bell was never his favorite part of school. The sound always rang in his ear. When he would go to lie down in bed, and everything was quiet, his ears would start ringing. Whenever there was no noise present, his ears would ring constantly.

He closed his eyes tight, as if he was trying to stop the ringing. When he opened them he saw Ilene looking at him, concerned about what was happening.

"Hey, you okay?" Ali asked.

"Yeah, Yeah. I'm fine." Bartolo quickly swatted away the question.

Bartolo was headed to his next class, Algebra. He loved Algebra. Today in math he had Probability Distribution.

Driiiiiing. Driiiiiing. Driiiiiing.

He shut his eyes again. When he opened his eyes he got another concerned look from Ilene. Bartolo shook his head, gesturing that it was nothing.

He started towards Algebra. Osmar Roberts held up two hands in the shape of a heart, capturing both Ilene and Bartolo in the heart-shaped space. Osmar winked at both Ilene and Bartolo. Ilene and Bartolo both blushed, Ilene rolled her eyes and Bartolo glared at Osmar.

Osmar chuckled "I don't make the rules," and shrugged.

Bartolo rushed into Algebra and took a seat at his desk. He stuck his head in his books.