Bonjour. Just writing this was kind of meh for me. But I wanted to stick through with it until the end, so I'm sorry if it's a little boring or stupid at times. I'm excited to write the next chapter though, so yeah that's good, I think :p. Mmkay, enjoy.
The next school day, to my pleasure, I was left alone, besides my normal conversations with Imogen. Owen wasn't in English and Katie kept to herself during Media Immersion. At lunch, Imogen told me all about her appointment and how special it was to her and to everyone and how perfect it went and how happy she was.
"I think it's going to be a boy," Imogen told Eli and I with a straight face, speaking matter-of-factly.
"Good," Eli smirked, "Girls are trouble."
"Even me?" Imogen smiled at him, batting her eyelashes playfully.
"Especially you," Eli kissed her nose and she giggled happily.
"Okay guys, ew," I rolled my eyes and stood up. "You know there is such a thing as too cute, and you just hit it," I was only half joking, kind of annoyed by their always cute and always perfect relationship. There was just so much of being a third wheel that someone could handle. "I'm going to the bathroom, I'll see you later," I said, picking up my bag and walking away before Imogen could object.
I walked around the school, debating on skipping out on the rest of the day. The only problem with skipping would be that I'd really be alone if I left all these brainless humans who made up the student body and faculty, and I would have no idea what to do with myself. So, I reluctantly went to my sixth hour class and sat in the same seat as yesterday, in the back where no one would bother me. I smiled to myself, knowing Owen wasn't even here today to bother me. I opened my geography book to what I assumed would be today's lesson and doodled mindlessly on my notebook while I waited for class to begin.
"Okay class, today we're going to partner up to start a project," Mr. Jaxon began as soon as the bell rang, a way-too-happy smile plastered on his face. Students looked around the room to their friends, signaling who they'd be loyal to with this assignment. I sunk down into my seat, knowing I'd either be left alone or stuck with someone who had been rejected from their group of friends.
"Now, before you get too excited, I've already chosen your partners!" There was a collective class groan at the news, "Now, now, we need to expand your horizons, get you out of your comfort zone with who you do and don't work well with. Because, we all know that out in the real world, you are going to have to deal with people you don't get along with on a daily basis!" He looked around at everyone, including me, who was sinking down into their seats, feeling as though this project could realize their worst nightmares.
I listened to Mr. Jaxon list off partners enthusiastically, waiting for the dreaded moment that my name would be called.
"Bianca!" He smiled brightly and pointed to me in the back of the room. Luckily, most of the class was already getting into their groups and talking to their friends about how fortunate or unfortunate they had been with the partner they ended up with, and too busy to notice I jumped when he called my name. "And… Mr. Milligan!" He slammed a book down on Owen's desk, a huge boom silencing thec lass and making Owen shoot up in his seat. Laughter bustled throughout the room.
When did Owen get there?
"Yeah, huh, what?" Owen said, a bit dazed from the startling awakening.
"Congrats, you are gifted with working with the lovely Bianca DeSousa on this project," Mr. Jaxon smiled and winked jokingly at me, giving me a chill up my spine.
Fuck creepy older men.
Well, I mean he wasn't that old, he was probably in his mid-thirties. It was still creepy.
Owen furrowed his dark eyebrows and squinted his eyes, "Great," He said, rather unenthusiastically, but stood up, walking over to the empty seat he had taken the previous day.
Mr. Jaxon smiled, again, and continued listing partners to the class.
"Partners," Owen looked at me and smiled slightly.
"Guess so," I said, turning to face him.
He tilted his head and looked at me seriously, "You can at least pretend to be happy. I mean, you could use just one extra friend, can't you?"
"I have Imogen and Eli," I said bluntly, but teasingly, in a way, causing a smile to almost reach my lips. Almost.
"I think one more wouldn't kill you. Plus, they're all couple-y, it's gotta be weird," He said, looking at me and shrugging, "Aaaand, I can scare the bitches away." He looked at me for a second before adding on to the statement, "Not that I don't think emo-boy could do a marvelous job with that." He smirked at me.
"His name is Eli, not emo-boy," I rolled my eyes, covering the hurt that came over me when I thought about how Fitz used to call Eli 'Emo-Boy.' "And, I can scare away the bitches myself. I don't need a body guard."
"You didn't scare them away yesterday," Owen spoke low and I could tell he wasn't trying to offend me, but that he was trying to get in my head; trying to understand why I had let Katie and Marisol treat me like they did.
"Yeah, well, I wasn't in the best mood yesterday, they were easier to ignore," I shrugged, wanting to switch the subject.
Owen nodded then looked at me curiously, "Why are you doing that?" He pointed to my arm and I looked down at it, noticing that I had been rubbing it subconsciously over the sleeve of my shirts where my cuts had been carefully placed underneath.
I moved myself in my seat, picking up my pen to distract my hand, "I don't know," I shrugged, "I didn't even realize I was doing it."
He looked at me for a moment then, thankfully, dropped the subject with an "Okay."
At the front of the room, Mr. Jaxon clapped his hands to get the class back into attention, "Okay, I bet you're dying to figure out what this assignment is about, right?" He didn't wait for a response, he walked to the chalkboard and pulled down a big map of Canada, "As you know, the ten provinces are: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan." He pointed to the map with a ruler, a slap sounding in the room as he pointed to the area where each province was located, "You are to pick a province and cumulate a project on it, it needs a poster and specific information on the History and current day structure of the province."
The class started whispering to their partners about what province they were going to use, but I kept my eyes glued to the front of the room, waiting for Mr. Jaxon to finish.
"Sounds fun, right? Any questions?" He asked, looking around the room, when nobody spoke up he finished with: "Okay, it's due next Monday. You may begin!"
I turned to Owen and blinked, "I think Quebec would be an easy choice." I raised my eyebrow, seeing if he objected.
"Sounds good, how should we start?" He asked, not seeming eager to do much. He looked at the clock, "Class is almost over, so I say we start later tonight." He smirked, looking at me playfully.
"Fine, but not at my house," I said, ignoring his stupid smirk and the stupid way it reached his bright blue eyes, causing them to shine playfully.
He wrinkled his nose, "Can we please do it at your house? My house is crazy with niners ninety percent of the time lately."
"Niners?"
"My brother," he explained simply.
"Ahh," I sighed in understanding, "Okay, fine, my house."
"Good," He said, then the bell rang and another smile played at the corners of his mouth, "I'll find you after school."
He got up and walked out of the room. I shook my head and watched him leave, gathering my stuff and leaving the classroom too.
~x~
"So now he has to come to your house? That's so…Weird," Imogen exclaimed as we walked from out last class to my locker.
"I know, I'm freaking out," Except, I didn't know why I was freaking out, it was just Owen, what did I care if I had to spend time with him? I had a million other times before.
"Good freaking out or bad freaking out?" She asked as I opened my locker, "Because, you know, Eli and I could show up and make him leave at anytime."
I smiled and put the books I needed for the night into my bag, grateful that my best friend still always had my back, "Thanks but no thanks, I can handle Owen, if I really need to." I closed my locker and looked at her confidently.
"Okay," She said, seeming perplexed, "But, the offer always stands, I'm just a text or phone call away!"
I smiled at her and we said bye so she could go look for Eli and I could look for Owen. I wasn't going to exactly look for him or approach him. I wanted to let him come to me, for some reason, in the back of my mind, I didn't want to look desperate. Desperate for what? It's just an assignment, Bianca.
I saw Owen across the way, walking towards me nonchalantly, not even stopping to talk to the group he had been with yesterday.
"So, to your house?" He asked when he got close enough.
"Yeah, are you just going to follow me there, or what?" I looked up at the tall, muscular guy, raising an eyebrow in question.
"Actually, could you give me a ride? I had car trouble on my way to school this morning and now my car is in the shop for the next few days," He said, shrugging his broad shoulders.
"So that's why you were late," I remarked, nodding and turning to walk out of the school, figuring he'd follow.
"You noticed that, eh?" He said smugly, keeping up with me as I walked to my car.
My cheeks got warm and I felt a blush creeping up to my face, I looked away so he couldn't see. What the Hell was wrong with me? "Oh, well no one was annoying me in English. It was quite peculiar, and peaceful," I smiled, joking the blush away.
"Suuuuure," He smiled as we reached my car, "That or you just missed me."
I laughed, pressing the button to unlock my car, "Whatever helps you sleep at night, Owen."
"Well, if we're talking about what helps me sleep at night—"
"Okay, no," I cut him off, getting in the car, buckling, and starting the engine.
We both laughed and I turned on the radio, driving to my house. Thankfully, Juliana wasn't home yet, so we went to my room without any comments about me being a whore thrown at me.
"Taking me to your room, Bianca are you trying to seduce me?" Owen joked as I closed the door to my room.
"How'd you know?" I teased, walking over to my bed and throwing one of my pillows at him as I sat on the bed.
"I see the future," He said, smiling and sitting on the foot of my bed.
I shook my head and got out my laptop and my Geography notebook, I knew he didn't really want to work, and I'd have to push him to do his half of the project, "What do you think we should work on first, the poster or the report?"
"I don't care," he said with a shrug.
I sighed, "Owen, you're not just going to sit there while I do all the work. We have to do research," I opened my laptop and clicked on Google Chrome to begin the research.
"Calm down," Owen said, standing up and walking over to sit next to me on the bed. He took the laptop from me and started typing things into the search bar. I opened my notebook, taking notes on what we found. Within the next couple hours, we already had all the research we needed.
"We're a pretty good team," I smiled at him as he closed the laptop.
He smiled back, "Well, duh. We used to be great friends; of course we'd make a great team."
I smiled, remembering the times before I was with Drew, Owen and I would hang out and do random shit for the hell of it, we always worked well together. "Well, I can bring you home now, it's still pretty early, I'm sure your friends would love to hang out with you," I said, shrugging and standing up, setting my notebook down on the bed.
He stood up, too, setting my laptop down carefully, "Nahh, let's hang out here."
I sighed, and looked at the time on my phone, 5:32, Juliana could be home at any second and I really didn't want Owen to be around while she screamed at me, "No sorry, I can't."
I heard the front door slam shut and I cursed underneath my breath, opening the door to my room, "Stay here," I told Owen, walking downstairs to talk to Juliana before she came up here.
"Oh, you're here," My Aunt said emotionlessly when she saw me, "Did you want something?"
"Nope," I said coldly, not sure what to say, "I was just working on an assignment upstairs with a friend."
"Oh great! You're probably offering them all of our food and who-knows-what! You can't have people here without my permission, you know that!" She said, already raising her voice, already getting angry. Everything I did angered her, if I didn't do school work, I was going nowhere in life, but now that I was working on a project, I was getting in trouble for it.
"It was for a project! For school!" I yelled back, and suddenly Owen was coming down the stairs.
"Everything okay, Bee?" He asked, concerned, standing at the bottom of the stairs.
"Oh! And it's a boy! Lovely Bianca, just lovely! Project my ass, God, you're such a whore," Juliana yelled, pulling out a packet of cigarettes and taking out one to smoke, lighting it frantically.
"I'm sorry!" I yelled back, taking Owen's hand and pulling him out of the house as my aunt screamed profanities at us and told me not to come back for the rest of the night. I got into my car and gripped the steering wheel in one hand and used my other hand to forcefully rub at the cuts underneath the sleeve of my shirt.
"What the hell was that?" Owen asked me when he got in the car.
I didn't look at him, "It's nothing, she's always like that, everything's fine." I sniffled and flashed a fake smile at him.
"Bianca, what's that on your arm?" Owen's gaze fixated on my arm that was gripping the steering wheel, the one I had been practically tearing at with all the rubbing.
My eyes flicked to it and it seemed that my constant rubbing had not only reopened one of the cuts from the previous day but also moved my sleeve up a little bit, revealing scars from previous dates and some of the newer cuts to the world. I quickly shoved the sleeve down. "It's nothing, Owen," I said, putting the key in the ignition.
He took my hand before I could turn the key and start the car, "Show me, Bianca," He looked at me, his eyes pleading for me to do what he said.
"It's noting," I pulled my hand away and turned the key in the ignition.
It was quiet as I pulled away from the curb and started driving down the street. I didn't want to say anything, and I didn't really want him to say anything either, I just wanted the car ride to be over with as soon as possible. But, after a couple blocks, Owen spoke up, "Do you…cut yourself?"
I turned the radio on to ignore his question, but he just turned it down, "Bianca, tell me."
"I can't," I told him as I pulled up to his house and stopped the car. "I'll see you tomorrow," I said, trying to coax him out of the car before he made me do any explaining. My heart was pounding, I didn't want to explain myself to him or to anyone else, I didn't want him or anyone else to know that I was weak. And, I certainly didn't want anyone to make me stop.
"Fine," He sighed and opened his door, "I'll see you tomorrow…" He nodded and reluctantly got out of the car, looking back at me a couple of times before going inside his house.
~x~
When I got home, I fought with my aunt about the fact that she told me she didn't want me to come back, but I always do and that she just wished that I could just disappear and stop being such a burden to her. I didn't eat or do anything else for the night; I just went to bed really, really early.
I laid in my bed and texted Imogen, telling her that everything went great and that I would thankfully need not spend too much more time with him. When the conversation died down, I placed my phone next to me on the bed and felt sorry for myself some more.
My phone started buzzing and I looked at the caller I.D. 'Owen.' I groaned to myself and looked at it for a few seconds before reluctantly pressing the answer button. "What?" I asked calmly.
"I wanted to make sure you were okay," Owen's voice rang with concern on the other line and my stomach flipped a little.
"Yeah, of course," I nodded, even though he couldn't see it.
"Good," I heard him sigh as if he were contemplating what he would say next. "Bianca, you can't hurt yourself like this," He said quietly, but clearly, into the other end.
"Owen, you just don't get it," I sighed and hung up the phone, turning it off for the rest of the night.
I didn't have much time to revise, sorry for any grammatical, spelling, etc mistakes. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, yeah. I don't know what to put here, because I have to be across town in like 15 minutes, and I have to walk and it looks like it's about to rain, so you know, PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW, tell me what you like, what you didn't like, and all that fun stuff, okay? Thanks :p. byebyee