During my fifth period, I sit next to Julio and Busk. Mrs. Lazini is a very funny teacher. She kinda acts like a student.
"Is Busk here?" Julio asks and sits down next to me.
"No, he had things to do. Family drama."
"Oh."
The teacher sits on one of the desks in the front row. I, normally, sit in the back row with Julio, Busk, and a smart, quiet girl. "We will be having group work on how Joanah perceives Jake as a friend," then she has a yikes expression on her face, "friend-zoned."
We laugh.
Then she tells us a story about how she had to reject someone in high school. Then, she has us read pages 35-40 and write down six comprehension questions. The bell rings as we go to lunch. Charlie says as we walk to our table, "Bro, I heard that you and Alaska broke up."
"Yeah," to switch the subject, I murmur, "so, I finished the questions--"
"Yo, I haven't! Send them to me," Julio says.
"Okay," I say with a shrug in my voice.
"H-hey," Julio stammers.
"Yeah?"
He waits until Charli leaves.
"I-I," he shudders as he presses his lips against mine.
Instant shock runs through every bone, every muscle, and every vessel in my body. My eyes widen with both confusion and astonishment, "I-I." I'm incredibly speechless, but I do manage to squeeze these words to inform him, "I'm not gay, sorry." He walks out as I call out, "Are we still cool?!"
He doesn't answer me as he walks out of the cafeteria doors. Everyone in the cafeteria watches.
Slam.
On my way home from school, which I decided to walk home with Donnie today, I stand there looking at the for sale sign in the front of the yard as if it were from a cartoon.
It has big windows, a nice porch, with a tree out front, and a brown door frame that has a lock pad attached to the doorknob. I kinda want to break into it to make a livable home for Maria. I see it every day no matter if I'm walking, driving, or even riding the bus to school. It still pears over me; watching me, haunting me as if it were a star out there in the unknown where even humans are invisible to the naked eye.
As I walk inside, Gramma greets us with tea. She always gives us green tea with a side of oranges but today, because she is in a hurry, she only gives us a cup of tea in a flowered mug. "Bye, babies!" Gramma says slinging her coat over her body as she leaves out the door. Gramps is already at work. We hardly ever see them because they work so much.
Hours pass, I hear a knock on the door as I pause my tv. I hear it again. I run downstairs to see who it is. It's Charlie, "Hey, can I come in, please?"
"Sure." I close the door behind him as he comes inside. He takes his coat off and shoes.
The weather's cold and windy. I see the trees slightly moving with the wind rocking it gently and gracefully like the waves of the vast ocean I once saw, maybe in a past life. Because in this life. I have never seen something worth living for; worth waiting for, but yet I'm still here. I'm still here breathing the same air as my ancestors before me. Breathing the same air as the Native Americans once did. Breathing the same air as the dinosaurs before they were extinct; gone and dead.