Murder in the Dark

Murder in the Dark 4

            Beep, beep, beep, beep! I was awoken from my peaceful slumber to the annoying beeping of my alarm clock. Groaning, I rolled over onto my stomach and pressed the snooze button. Getting up early for school was very high on my hate list. 6:00 a.m. was much too early for my taste. Slowly, I drifted back into sleep, my tired brain forgetting about school, but I was quickly jolted awake again at the sound of my alarm. Heaving myself out of bed took too much effort, and it felt like I had to drag my feet as I hobbled in a daze to the bathroom. I stepped into the shower and let the ice cold water wake me up. I then proceeded to get ready for school. With my car keys and apple in hand, I left for school. However, when I was just about to pull into a parking space, another car swerved and cut in front of me.

            "Jerk!" I shouted out my window.

            An emo kid, Rob leaned out his window, sneering at me. "You snooze you lose," he retorted, flicking me off.

            "We'll see who loses!" I hollered.

            Rob chuckled, rolled his eyes, and began to walk into school with one last arrogant wave at me.

            I glared at him and with a huff quickly found another parking spot. 'The nerve!' I thought to myself. He had just gotten himself onto my hate list. Fuming, I walked into the school, wondering if steam could possibly be blowing from my ears. I imagined all of the ways I could get back at Rob. Maybe I could sneak out of school and spray paint his car, or maybe I could find his locker and stick a snake in it, or maybe...my thoughts were interrupted when I saw Sam waiting for me, leaning up against a wall.

            "Hey Jess!" Sam shouted, walking over to me.

            "Hi. How was your weekend?"

            "Good. But you can't beat Murder in the Dark!"

            I laughed, loosening up. "No you can't." Sam always knew how to cheer me up-sometimes without even knowing I needed cheering.  Well at least I didn't go around telling everyone how crappy I felt at times, but maybe he can tell what I'm feeling by studying my face.  I'm not very good at hiding my emotions yet-something that I strive to change. I feel a sense of vulnerability when I feel like others know something that I don't want them to, and that's a feeling I highly dislike.

            "So, how was your weekend?"

            "Eh, it was okay I guess... Better than school, but I had a lot of homework."

            "That stinks," Sam murmured, looking down at his feet, shyly.

            "What's up?" I asked. The only time I had seen Sam act like this was when he had a crush on a girl in second grade but was too chicken to talk to her. Finally, I had gone up to her myself and told her how Sam felt. Sam became furious with me and refused to so much as look at me for a whole week. However, the girl liked him too, so he had to forgive me. I remember watching them walk down the halls together holding hands. Oh young love.  How I do wish my eyes would be spared from all of the gruesome teen love scenes. PDA, public displays of affection, are definitely one of my pet peeves.  They are way up there on my list-yes I have a list, and yes it is different from my hate list.  If you were as picky and bothersome as me, you would need a separate list too. Annoying drivers who steal others parking spaces was just recently added to this list too actually. I realized that I was beginning to day dream, so I quickly shook myself and returned my attention to Sam who was fidgeting around and looking quite peculiar and very unSamlike

            Sam realized that I was once again focused on him, so he looked up from where he was staring at the ground and instead stared at me with his penetrating green eyes. I felt as if he could read my thoughts, his gaze was so intense. I tried to create a blank look, but it didn't feel like it was working. Unease spread through me thinking about all the different thoughts I had displayed across my face, ripe for Sam's picking. I certainly need to work on the whole blank face look! I wonder if there is a class or something... "How to Stop Face Readers". I would probably be one of the first people to sign up.

            "It's just I've been wanting to talk to you about something," Sam blushed.

            "Shoot." My nerves were getting the better of me. Sam blushing? Were we on some alternate universe? I truly hoped that Sam hadn't developed some new crush, and I would once again be forced to take action for him. I mean seriously, this is high school, not the second grade anymore.

            "You see..." Sam began, his cheeks turning a light pink.

            The bell rang signaling students to head to class.

            "Dang it, I still need to head to my locker! Can we talk later?" I asked Sam. I wonder if there was also a class where you could learn how to read faces too, because there was something in Sam's that I was dying to understand. This was definitely not how he normally acted, I almost felt bad for having to leave.

            "That's totally fine," Sam replied. I turned away, oblivious as Sam watched me leave, filled with disappointment.