A/N: I'm grateful for the response I got to the first chapter. This one's a little easier—still hard—and I hope you like it.
Disclaimer: A well-known fact is that I do not own anything…
Chapter 2: Straight Into Darkness
"Jeff, come on! Breakfast's ready!" Matt called, most likely from the kitchen.
One thing was for sure: I did not want to go to school. If Mike was going to be anywhere around me, I didn't want any part of it. I had a belief that most dreams meant something, and if my previous dream was any indication, only bad things could happen.
I mumbled something incoherently into my pillow, knowing full well that no one would hear me, and went downstairs after changing my clothes.
"Want some eggs?" asked Matt when I sat down at the table. Before I even answered, he set a plate in front of me. "I didn't poison them or anything, trust me. I'm a Hardy." He smirked.
Luckily, I was going to say yes anyway to the eggs so I started digging in immediately. "Thanks. I still don't know if you're believable but I'm too hungry to care."
"Figured as much," he said with a laugh.
I looked at the clock on the microwave. "Dad at work already?" I asked him. Our dad was usually at his job fairly early but normally he was home to say good-bye before school.
"Yeah," Matt answered. "He said something yesterday about working earlier. You must've been in your room or something."
"Oh." I took a bite of my meal. "What were you and Shane doing last night? I couldn't even hear myself think." I might have been just trying to make conversation—and distract myself in the process—but it was true; they didn't shut up.
He shrugged. "Nothing really. We just weren't happy with the TV. They were playing junky shows."
"Well, that doesn't sound very fun at all," I commented.
Matt pointed at me. "You haven't sat and listened to the things that Shane says. If you had, you would know that it is fun."
"Whatever you say, man," I told him, getting up from my seat since I finished my breakfast. "Hey, you should totally give me a ride to school."
Shaking his head, he said, "No can do, bro. You know how it goes. You take the bus while I drive my car. This is common knowledge. Get used to it."
"I don't want to get used to it," I muttered back. I started walking back toward my room when Matt came up behind me to stop me.
"How 'bout I take you to school tomorrow morning? I can't today but if you want—"
"Sure," I interrupted. "But maybe I'll change my mind by then."
"Oh, you know you want to ride with the coolest person around." Matt stretched his arms out wide. "Everyone does."
I simply waved him off and headed straight to my bedroom where I stared at the ceiling until it was time for the bus to stop.
Just minutes later, I was standing on the driveway, waiting for the bus, my shoes against the gravel. I was pretty much praying that Mike wasn't on the bus, that he wouldn't be at school. I knew it was wishful thinking and I knew it was no use but I did it anyway.
While I waited and tried to clear my mind, I pulled out my iPod and put on the one band that I felt could understand me: Pearl Jam. As the grunge gems of "Jeremy" and "Evenflow" rang through my ears, I escaped the world if just for a few minutes.
When the bus arrived, all my previous fears came flooding back. What would I do if Mike was on? What would I do if he tried to start a fight? My mind was now racing as I walked up the three steps.
True to her promise, Maria sat in the middle of the bus, saving me a seat with her oversized purse. Her red hair was pulled back in a ponytail, her make-up done to a minimum for the day. She moved the zebra-print bag when I approached her. "Hi, Jeff," she said, being her normal cheery self. "How's it going?"
"F-fine," I stammered a reply. "Um…How 'bout you?"
She smiled, obviously pleased that I asked. "Well," she began. "Today, I am going to absolutely shine in Spanish class. You wanna know why?"
For the time being, her excitement calmed my nerves and I found myself grinning with her. Her exuberance was contagious. "Sure, why?"
With shining eyes, she stared at me but not in a way that made me feel uncomfortable. It was a way that couldn't be described. "Okay, we are doing a…" She mimicked a drum roll. "…fashion show!"
I blinked at her. "And you're happy about that?"
"Yeah! How could I not be? I get to dress up in all kinds of weird, flashy clothes. It's going to be great."
Grimacing slightly, I asked, "You actually like that type of stuff?" I didn't like having to take a language to begin with. The last thing I was going to want to do is dress like an idiot and have to describe it in said language.
"I take it you don't?" she guessed correctly. When I shook my head, she giggled. "But Jeff, it's so much fun. You just get to be a little crazy. And you should know all about that. You're the one who dyes your hair, right?"
I shook my head at her. "That's different. I don't do this for…school purposes."
Maria snorted. "School purposes? What's that supposed to mean? I don't even know if that makes any sense at all. And I thought all of the language classes have to do that. Aren't you guys having a fashion show in French class?"
My face twisted a bit at the mention of French. The only reason I was taking that class was because Maryse had forced me to. I could hear her now telling me that if I learned her native tongue, we would have a closer bond. I turned my attention back to Maria after regaining my composure. "I don't know. The teacher hasn't said anything."
"Well, that's odd." Maria began to ponder over why I didn't have an answer for her. Luckily though, she didn't do that for long. "Did you ever wonder why we have Latin class? I mean, it is a dead language, isn't it?"
I shrugged. "As far as I know."
"Then why are we learning it?" pressed Maria. "It's obviously dead for a reason."
"Doctors and vets use it, I think," I replied. Both occupations were ones that I was not interested in. I liked people for the most part and I loved animals but I would never be able to work with them or operate on them.
But Maria beat me to saying it. "Not my thing at all. Can you imagine being a surgeon?" She shuddered at her own question. "Ugh. It's just plain disgusting. And what if they die on you?"
"It wouldn't be pretty." I was planning on elaborating more on the topic with her but the bus came to another stop. I looked out the window and knew immediately whose house we were at.
The grandiose white manor that we were in front of belonged to none other than Mike Mizanin.
Instantly, I felt the pain of a punch that never happened in real life, only in Slumberland. My heart was thumping, loud and fast. I wondered idly if Maria could hear it. One look at her told me she didn't. She was too busy looking over her Spanish notes.
Mike was making his way toward me, a smirk firmly planted on his face. With a plan in mind, he took the seat right behind me, considering the others surrounding me were already occupied. "Hey, Jeff," he practically snarled. "You hear from Maryse?"
Forget thumping—my heart was dropping to the pit of my stomach. "No," I answered quietly. "I haven't."
It looked as if Mike had much more to say but Maria cut him off. She turned around and looked at him. "Hey, Mike," she said sweetly. "If you don't mind, Jeff was kinda helping me with my Spanish homework. I have studying to do. So if you could just not talk to us, that would be great." She flashed him a smile and Mike said nothing so she looked back at me.
I heard Mike sit back in his seat with a huff and I was composed right away. I looked over at Maria, a grin on my own face. "Thanks," I whispered.
Maria just shrugged it off. "It's nothing. You didn't look very comfortable so I intervened," she whispered back. Then, she said, "If there's something going on with you and Maryse, you can tell me. You know that, right?"
I nodded slowly. "Yeah, I figured that. I just…I don't want to talk about it right now, okay?"
Her smile was still there when she said, "Okay, I understand. Just know that I'm here."
x-X-x
To my utter disbelief, Mike backed off the entire way to school. Maybe he was somewhat afraid of Maria. How that was possible, I had no idea but at least he was out of my hair.
Despite that, I was still ill at ease and it must have been pretty noticeable because Shannon was at my side all day, kind of like a bodyguard, even though he was smaller than me.
"What are you doing?" I asked him at some point since he appeared to be in stoic, protective mode.
His eyes were shifty and he was starting to freak me out. "I'm not doing anything," he said. "I'm just being a friend, watching your back."
"You wanna explain?"
He just shook his head. "Don't know why I'd have to."
"Well, you look like an idiot," I told him, noticing that everyone in the halls was gawking at him.
"What?" he asked, annoyed. "Are you too cool for me? You know there was a time when you wouldn't even try to judge me on this stuff. Then you got with Frenchie and everything went sour."
That's not what's really sour, I thought to myself. "Look, Shan, that's not what I meant and you know that. It's just…me and Maryse, we're not…"
Shannon's eyes were as wide as saucers. "She broke up with you, didn't she?" He shook his head, outrage evident on his face, and scoffed. "Like she can do any better than you. Hey, I'm sorry for saying that stuff. How ya holdin' up then?"
I wasn't exactly sure what to tell him. If I told him about the nightmare of the night before, he'd probably listen but then tell me to go beat Mike up. But there was a problem: Mike hadn't actually done anything to me. Sure, he had taunted me but there was no more substance. Besides, I didn't think Shannon was the right person to talk to about this. So all I said was, "I've been better."
After patting my arm lightly, Shannon said, "I think you're gonna be better off without her anyway. The moment she realizes what she's missin' out on, she'll be crawlin' back, begging you for another chance. And you'll decline, of course," he tacked on at the end.
"Right," I said, rolling my eyes. He had the right idea but I wasn't so sure if I would refuse Maryse.
"It's gonna be fine," he assured me and something told me that he wasn't wrong. It just might take longer than I would like it to take.
Later on in the day, after school had ended, I found myself leaning on my locker. The day had gone a lot quicker than I had originally thought it would. But it was yet to be completely over.
I heard him before I saw him. "Jeffrey," Mike said in a sing-song voice. "Where are you?" When I gave no reply, he continued. "Come out, come out, wherever you are."
The next thing I knew, he was right there in front of me. My breathing hitched. "What do you want?" I inquired, worry lacing my voice.
Mike cocked his head to the side. "Oh, nothing. Nothing at all." He smiled and something about it was very menacing. "But I was wondering…Have you talked to Maryse today?"
I shook my head but said nothing. Talking about our breakup with Shannon was one thing. Talking about it with Mike was something completely different.
"Huh," he said. "Well, isn't that just the strangest thing ever? Because, you know, I talked to her. I figured you'd want to talk to her. Apologize to her."
That had me baffled again, saying it was my fault. I had no idea what I had to apologize to her for. What was she telling people? What had I done? "Mike, I…I don't know what you're talking about."
Mike threw his head back and laughed. "Of course that's what you'd say. I'm not surprised. People never cop to this stuff."
"What stuff?" I asked but Mike was then walking away. "Wait!" I called. He didn't turn back around. I didn't get it at all. What was happening?
Shortly after that, I made my way onto the bus for the second time that day. For some reason, I hadn't seen Shannon since that last talk with him, which was unusual. We always made a point to talk to each other before going home.
The first person I saw was Maria. Maybe that was done on purpose, maybe she was the only one I wanted to see. But there she was, waving me over. It was funny how at ease we were with each other so soon. "How was your little Spanish thing today?" I asked her.
Her green eyes brightened, and, man, she looked beautiful. "I think I did pretty good. I really liked it. The class is so cool."
I smiled at her, pushing Mike far from my mind. I wasn't going to let him get to me, not then. "So you're a star Spanish student?"
"It comes pretty natural," she said. "I swear, sometimes, I think I was Spanish in another life. I was probably one of those dancers in Spain."
Laughing lightly, I said, "Yeah, I can imagine you doing that."
Our bus ride was peaceful, probably because Mike was strangely not on. Neither were his little buddies though. Things were getting surreal.
A half hour later, as I made my way off the bus, I saw Matt, pain on his face, coming toward me, phone in hand. "Jeff," he said, breathless and worried. "Shannon's mom just called."
He didn't say anymore so I stared him down. "What? What'd she say?"
"After school," he said. "Shannon, he…he got beat up real bad. No one knows who did it but you know the flagpole outside the school? Someone must've rammed him into it. At the very least, he's got a broken nose. And he's just in shock. They're taking him to the hospital. We gotta go see him."
I was frozen. It was just a little while ago that I was laughing and talking with Maria. Meanwhile, my best friend was getting tortured.
And they said no one knew who did it. But I did. I knew exactly who did it.
Mike.
Any good? Not at all? Let me know in a review. I'm very curious to see what you guys think about it. :)
