Hey! First story I've written in a while aha I hope you enjoy it!(: 3
"You know I love you, right?" He whispered, hugging her firmly as if he couldn't bear to let her go. Her heart raced with exhilaration. She hugged him back, tighter. He ran his fingers through her hair.
"I love you too," she answered, looking up at him. He leaned in, and she closed her eyes. And when they kissed, it still felt like the first time. That was how she could be sure she was in love.
3
Angie quickly swept her hair back into a ponytail. She slammed her locker door shut, only to have it swing back open again. The bell rang. Angie sighed in defeat.
"Angie, we're late again!" Camber shrieked, "this is it. We're going to get suspended for sure!"
"You didn't have to wait for me, Angie pointed out, as she closed her locker more gently. This time, it stayed shut.
"Really? You're my best friend," Camber said, as she dragged Angie through the locker room, "if we get suspended, we're getting suspended together. That way, we can do crazy shit together"
Angie rolled her eyes, smiling. She wanted to say something, anything, but her mind wasn't able to really concentrate right then. And her stomach felt like there were a million and one butterflies in there.
Camber opened the door to the gym. Angie suddenly stopped walking. Camber pulled on Angie's arm, but she stayed exactly where she was.
"Um, Ang, may I remind you that we are dealing with a possible suspension here? Why. Won't. You. Move?" Camber demanded. She put her hands on her hips, letting the gym door slam shut.
"I can't," Angie squeaked. Because of hat had been said last night. Because he was out there.
"Why?" Camber asked, "gym is your favorite class. Remember? Ethan?" St the sound of his name, Angie blushed.
"Well, okay look, I have something to tell you," Angie said, before she could stop herself. She tucked a stray blond hair behind her ear.
"What is it?" Camber asked, all ears. She sat down on a bench, and patted the seat next to her. Angie took it, grateful that she didn't have to rely on her weak knees any longer.
"It's just that…" Angie trailed off, unable to bring herself to finish the sentence, "I… last night, well…"
"What?" Camber demanded. Angie saw her brown eyes grow huge in anticipation, "hurry up, we're like, late. What happened?"
"Ethan told me… that he loves me," she looked down at her hands, pale in comparison to Camber's tan, beauty pageant-like skin tone. She was mostly Italian, though her dad was Spanish, and so it only made sense that she would be dark. But Angie always felt like her looks just generally paled in comparison to Camber's. Camber was beautiful, with her rusty red hair, her huge doe eyes and her tall, athletic build.
"Oh my god, he did?" Camber asked, squealing, "what did you say back?"
"I told him that I loved him too," Angie said, barely audible. She met Camber's excited eyes, and giggled despite herself.
"You guys are really serious, aren't you?" Camber asked, and she sounded like she was in awe.
"I guess so, yeah," Angie said, "that's crazy. We're juniors in high school. How can we be in love?"
"It happens all the time," Camber said, matter-of-factly. She stood up, and glanced at the gym door again, "okay, as exciting as this is, we're going to have to talk about it later, because we're late. Again."
"Okay, let's go," Angie said, standing up herself. And then stayed where she was.
"What is it now?" Camber whined.
"Ethan is out there!" Angie hissed.
"Come on," Camber laughed, and Angie let her pull her out the door and into the gym.
3"Goodman?"
"Here."
"Jacoby?"
"Here!"
"Keys?" Ethan snapped his head away from the girl's locker room door. Where was she?
"Uh, here," Ethan said. He was seriously worried for Angie, and her best friend Camber. One more late, and their gym teacher had promised a suspension.
"Lock?" Ms. Sanchez looked up from her clipboard, expectantly. Seeing an empty spot on the gym floor where Angie should've been, she sighed. "Well, I guess she's la-"
"We're here!" Ethan and the sixteen other kids that made up the class turned to see Angie and Camber running across the gym.
"We're here," Camber repeated, as they approached the group.
Sanchez' face was stern. She studied the girls reproachfully. "Look, Taveras, I've already given you multiple warnings. And I told you what would happen if you were late again."
"We're really sorry," Angie spoke up. Ms. Sanchez nodded, then looked at Camber.
"Yeah, we are," Camber agreed, earnestly, "I promise, it won't happen again. This was just like, a one time thing. Or last time thing. Whatever."
"Do you have an explanation?" Sanchez asked. Ethan thought it looked like she wanted the girls to be innocent.
"There was a problem," Camber said, "Angie was having a, uh…" she looked first to Angie and then to Ethan, unsure, "… a girl problem."
Angie turned bright red, and Ethan could see that she was mortified. The class burst into laughter. Ethan felt himself turning a little red along with his girlfriend. He was sure that Camber had meant a different girl problem than the monthly one, and he felt a little weird that Angie had told Camber. Of course he should've expected that. The two shared everything with each other, so why would he have thought that this would've been different?
"I see…" Sanchez said dryly. She turned to Angie. "Ad weren't you also having your girl problem two weeks ago, when we were swimming?"
"Oh, um, yeah," Angie stammered.
"It's a hereditary problem," Camber said, giving Ms. Sanchez a serious look.
"I don't think so," Sanchez said. Ethan tried to catch Angie's eye, but she wouldn't look at him. Instead, his and Camber's eyes met, and she winked as if to say "I know all about you and Angie last night." Ethan could feel the tips of his ears getting red.
"I'm sorry girls," Sanchez continued, and she really did look sorry, "but I'm going to have to mark you late. And you know what that means."
Suspended. Angie couldn't believe it. She had been suspended. It was like a bad dream. What would she tell her parents? They expected the best of her, and she rarely let them down. But now…Angie wiped the tears from her eyes as she waited for them to get home.
Looking in her mirror, Angie studied her appearance. Blond hair, still in a ponytail from gym. Her hair looked frizzy and unkempt. Her skin, paler than a polar bear's fur, as if she never went in the sun. In reality, she was outside more often than Camber, but no one would believe it looking at the skin tones. Angie couldn't explain it, but she never tanned. She moved on to her blue eyes, still watery and slightly red from crying, but they were still her favorite feature about herself. They were a dark blue, bright and clear.
A car alarm sounded, and Angie knew that it was just her father. At least once a week, he accidentally bumped into their third car when he got home, and set off the alarm. Angie rushed down the stairs and grabbed the car keys. She clicked the button, and the alarm turned off.
The front door opened, and Angie's dad came in. "Thanks hon," he said, giving a slight laugh.
"No problem," Angie said, forcing a smile. He placed his briefcase on the coffee table, and kicked his shoes off. Angie's dad worked in a law firm, and the only thing that Angie knew about it was that it meant he had to wear a different suit to work every day, and keep himself clean-shaven. Angie didn't mind. She liked her dad looking nice and clean.
"What's up, buttercup?" He asked, sitting down on the couch.
"Um, nothing," Angie said. She contemplated telling her dad first, before her mom got home. He would definitely be more open to hearing her explanation, but she wasn't sure she could make herself say the words.
"It's nearly 4, should we start dinner?" Her dad asked.
"Oh, dinner's easy tonight," Angie said, "it's just-"
Suddenly, the ground shook, cutting Angie off. The brief case fell off the table. She could hear different pictures falling off the walls, crashing, spewing glass everywhere as they hit the ground. Angie's dad grabbed her wrist and pulled her under the doorway to the bathroom. He held her tight, and neither said a word.
"Angie!" Both of their heads snapped up.
"Did someone just call your name?" Her dad shouted above the noise.
"I think so," Angie shouted back, confused.
"Angie, come on! We can't waste anymore time!" The voice shouted again, barely audible over the crashing.
"Angie, don't go out there," her dad said, tightening his grip on her wrist.
"Fine, I'm coming in to get you!"
Angie and her dad met eyes, hers terrified and confused, his steady and reliable. She leaned in closer, expecting at any minute to either be crushed by falling debris or grabbed and forcefully dragged out by an unseen hand. Why hadn't the earthquake stopped yet? It had probably been a good two minutes by then.
Angie could hear light steps out in the living room. She refused to look, pretending it wasn't real.
"What is that…?" Angie's dad asked, under his breath. She heard something like hard clopping on the kitchen floor, getting closer. Her dad pushed her behind him, and Angie found herself fully in the bathroom. There was broken glass on the floor, and the shower rod had fallen down. Above her, Angie could see cracks in the ceiling, and she knew that at any minute it would break and bury her.
"Stay… stay away from my daughter!" Her dad shouted. She couldn't see around him.
"Don't be foolish, I'm her only chance for survival."
"Unless you can stop this earthquake, I don't see what you mean by that," her father spat.
"I can't explain right now," the voice insisted, "you've gotta trust me."
"Trust you?" Her father asked incredulously, "I don't even know what you are!"
"Mr. Lock, I know you can't understand any of this, but this house is about to break apart any second now."
"Dad, the bathroom roof is about to cave in," Angie spoke up, as the cracks covered the entire ceiling.
"Actually, the entire house is about to cave in, but ya know…" the voice said sarcastically.
After a split second, Angie's dad pulled her out of the bathroom, and pushed her towards the voice, "let's go!"
"Of course," the voice said. Angie was shocked. She knew the face. She realized that she knew the voice too. She knew the upper half quite well, in actuality. It was the bottom half the she knew would give her nightmares later.
"Ms. Sanchez?" She asked, stunned.
"Yes, hello, Ethan's out in the car, come on now," she said, grabbing hold of Angie and pushing her out in front of her.
Angie decided not to talk. She concentrated on keeping from getting hit by the falling debris around her. She was glad that earlier she had been too anxious to take her shoes off, as it saved her feet from being cut on the shattered glass.
The front door wasn't only a couple steps away when Angie heard her father call out in pain. She stopped running and whipped around. He had been hit on the head by a large piece of the ceiling two stories up, and had collapsed to the ground. From the looks of it, more pieces were about to fall. He looked around dazed, as if he had forgotten the situation.
"Dad!" She called out, rushing back, only to be stopped by Sanchez. "What are you doing? Let me help him!"
"Angie," Sanchez said, "there's no time."
"Are you crazy? Of course there is!"
Without another word, her gym teacher pushed her out the front door, tumbling out behind her. The ground outside the house was surprisingly stable. Angie caught herself from falling and turned around, only to witness their two story house fall, crushing whatever was left in it.
This time, it was Angie who was dazed.
Sanchez quietly walked up to her, a sympathetic look on her face. She put a hand on her shoulder. "Come on, there's no time to sit here. I'll explain in the car."
Angie felt herself being led to the car, but it wasn't until she was in the backseat with Ethan holding her that she let the tears come.
3 Wow. That took a kind of morbid turn. Why does this always happen to my characters? I swear, I didn't start out writing this chapter planning on having Angie's dad die.