Forever & Always?

Chapter Seven

      When we got back into the school, everyone was walking out of the cafeteria. We went our seperate ways to go to our own lockers.

"Did you crack him?" Shelby asked, leaning against the locker to my left.

"What do you think?"

"What'd he say?" She asked, knowing that if anyone could crack Alex, it was me. Alex was a quiet kid. He was funny and sweet yet rude at the same time, but no one would ever know. He was so shy and it bothered me that he was as shy as he was because he had no reason to be. He was amazing in his entire being. He deserved to be confident.

"He was just pissed that him and I can't be together," I said.

"Uhhh kay?" Shelby said. I did not tell Shelby the whole story because she did not know about Daniel yet. She began to walk away.

"Wait, Shel."

"Hm?" She asked through a closed mouth, turning around.

"There's something I gotta tell you."

"What's up?" She asked, walking back over to me. Her face turned slightly concerned and very curious.

"You know Daniel Briskey?"

"Yeah," she said in a high voice, loosening her tense shoulders. She kept her eyes on me, seeming more calm.

"Well, I kissed him. Alex saw. That's why he was upset."

"Holy crap you already kissed a kid that I had no idea you even talked to?"

"It's not that big of a deal. It just kind of happened."

"Dude!"

"I only became friends with him a couple weeks ago. It all happened so fast there wasn't anything to tell," I said, lying. There was so much to tell. I was scared. I had a fear of commitment, of heart break. If I told myself I liked Daniel, I would become reliant. He would break my heart and I would have to relearn how to live a life completely reliant on nobody but myself. Relying on nobody for anything was a challenging task to learn. I could not risk it all for a cute boy in my chemistry class.

"And you already kissed him?" She yelped. I said nothing, as I was in a daze. The bell rang and I looked around, realizing we, with the exception of a few stragglers, were the only ones left in the hall.

"I gotta go," she said and turned around. I was not sure if she was mad at me. I tried to think back to when her and her boyfriend, Travis, started dating. I was with her when he asked her to be his girlfriend, so I didn't think that counted. None of it counted. "There was nothing that needs to be counted," I thought to myself. I shook myself out of my continuous daze and headed to class.

                                   ***

"Dude, are you seriously mad at me?" I asked Shelby that afternoon after sixth hour.

"I just wanted you to tell me. I wanted you to let me be jittery and excited with you. I don't know."

"No, I get it. I'm sorry, Shel. It's really nothing, I promise."

"Eh, I"ll get over it."

"Hey, Marie!" Daniel yelled as he passed by.

"Wait, Daniel come here!" Shelby yelled.

"Shelby, what are you doing?" I asked, my heart beginning to pound.

"Hey, Daniel. Marie and I were gonna go get some coffee at that new place down town after school. Wanna join?"

"Sure thing. I'll meet you guys there."

"All right," Shelby said, giving him a phony smile. She looked over at me. I looked as though I had just seen a ghost.

"I hate you. Always remember that," I said in a quiet, monotone voice, my eyes still wide and glued to the wall across the room.

"Sure thing," She said, winking. I rolled my eyes.

"I'll drive," I said.

"Kay. Thanks." We got into my grey Vue and drove to the tiny coffee shop a few miles from the school.

"What was your point in doing this?" I asked, turning on the car and turning down the radio.

"Because I'm mean to you."

"That explains it," I said turning the radio back up.

"Here, let me plug my phone into your music thing. I have better music than the radio."

"Here," I said grabbing the aux chord and tossing it to her. A guitar and drums came on the speakers. A smooth male voice began to sing.

"What's the name of this?" I asked, looking at the radio.

"Forever and Always," she said.

"Ahh." I pulled into the coffee shop parking lot as the guy singing sang the words "She finishes the vows but, the beeps are getting too slow-"

"Wait hold up," I said as Shelby reached for the outlet to take out the plug.

"Uhh ok," she said, slowly, taking her hand away.

Tears filled my eyes as the song ended.

"Dude, are you okay?" I looked to her, snapping myself back to reality.

"Oh my gosh that is such a sad song!" I said, a tear sliding down my cheek. Shelby began to laugh and so did I. The song was about a girl who was engaged to a boy. They had plans for a date, but the boy never showed. The girl called everyone she knew asking if he was okay because he was not around. No one knew anything. She got a call saying her fiancé was in the hospital. She drove to see him. They talked about their future, knowing he wouldn't make it. The girl thought of the idea to borrow rings from the other room and get married there. They sang their vows and after the husband sang his, he died. Forever and always was always shorter than anyone thought. We got out of the car and walked into the shop. It was a cloudy day and rain puddles filled the streets. The air was cool and windy.

      The coffee shop smelled of coffee beans and fresh muffins. Daniel walked in right behind us.

"Hey," I said, smiling.

"Hey," he said giving me a slight head nod. We all sat at a round table. The table had wooden edges, but had a glass frame in the center with uncooked coffee beans inside. I looked around. I had always loved the people in coffee shops. They were all stressful writers or students working to be good enough. There was always a handsome boy with glasses, sitting on his laptop in coffee shops. There were always girls with sweaters and messy hair reading a
book they've read a million times and have fallen more in love with it each and every time. I looked back at my old friend and my new one.

"Shelby?" I asked.

"Yeah, what's up?" She said.

"What are we doing here?" I asked, giving her a fake smile and talking through my teeth.

"Drinking coffee, retard," she said. Daniel started laughing.

"Speaking of coffee, what do you two want?"

"I'll have a caramel frappicino," Shelby said, politely.

"Uh, I'll just have a black coffee with sugar and three splashes of vanilla," I said.

"Okie dokie."

"You see, a man that buys you coffee," Shelby said, as Daniel left the table. He looked back at her and smiled. I rolled my eyes, smiling as well. He came back with two coffees and one frappicino. We sat and talked for about 45 minutes. It was actually pretty fun and I would never admit it to Shelby, but I was glad she set it up. The whole time in the shop, I thought of Daniel. I thought of his lips and the way his voice rasped when he talked a certain way and the way his smile shone when he laughed hard. I thought about our ride to the mountain and how I wanted my life to feel as amazing as the way he smelled. I thought for one moment, that maybe it was more than just a kiss.