I was late. I might make it to my first class before the final bell rang, but it would be by the skin of teeth. After coming in for the night after that whole big reveal thing at the tree, I had trouble sleeping. I mean, what had I been thinking? I'd accepted his whole soul mate thing so calmly, taking it at face value that he wasn't an okay sort of guy to spend eternity with. Who knew how long we'd live? Were we immortal? I can't believe I hadn't thought to ask that. Besides, what if as time went on, he got tired of me or something? What if after all this was over, we discovered we were incompatible?
How did I even know that the whole string business wasn't some hoax Romney was pulling on us to see if he needed to get rid of us or something, the way he had with my dad?The more I thought about this whole thing, the more I became convinced that I needed more information that I found out myself. I liked to think that Jason was on the up and up, but he could have been fed false information. He could conceivably be taking me for a ride down Betrayal Lane.
I hurriedly grabbed the books for my first class from my locker just as the first bell rang. The hall was still fairly crowded as kids were hurrying to make it in before the tardy bell. I slammed my locker closed and turned to join the back of the throng. Everyone else was already disappearing through the various doors further down the hallway. I practically ran. The door was still open, and I hurried towards my usual seat.
Just as hurried down the aisle, I tripped. A long jean clad leg ending in enormous white sneaker had quite suddenly swept out from one of the desks I had to pass, causing me to stumble. As I went to pull myself up, I instinctively looked at the cause of the obstruction.
“Ewww... you really are a fag as well as a dork, Cody! Huh, you wanting what you see?”
Crap. It was Josh Henderson and the way he'd twisted in his seat to casually put his leg out meant that while getting up, his crotch was at my eye level. I could feel myself redden. I turned away, ducked my head, and began to gather up my books. The snickers grew louder from around the room.
“You wanna suck...”
“Mr. Henderson! Please sit properly and don't chatter through class. And you, please watch where you're going and try to not be so disruptive.”
Yeah, as if this was my fault. How come he was getting away with being so nasty? Josh moved his leg back under his desk, though not without kicking me in the ankle as he did so. I winced. It was going to be one of those days, I could already tell. My life was really beginning to suck. I thought it had been bad before, what with Mom dying and Dad being gone a lot, and the occasional bullying at school.
I must have done something really awful in a past life or something. First I get abandoned by my real parents, kicked out of fox spirit land or where ever the hell they'd lived and dumped in the human world. Then I get lucky and get a nice new mom and dad and we do the happy family gig, only for junior high and the bullies to happen, Mom dying, high school happening and being even suckier than junior high and the bullying much , much worse recently, dad disappearing, the whole evil goblin wants to rule the world thing, and oh yeah, my being practically married off and the fate of the world or something depending on my not screwing up with Jason, like ever.
I slumped down in my seat, let my bangs fall all the way over my eyes, and desperately wished the world away as I tried my hardest to not commit complete social suicide by crying.
©2013-2014 Lillian McKinnon. All Rights Reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment