I ran to the bathroom because, (a) I was blushing furiously and wanted to get away so Elijah wouldn't see, and (b) well I was still wet.
Surprisingly the bathroom was near empty. Except for an Indian girl changing from slacks and a sweater to a skirt and a showy top. I shook my head and walked straight for the drier and pushed the button. The loud noise must have startled her, because she screamed much like I did not but five minutes ago. I started to run my shirt under the air, waiting for most of it to dry. There wasn't much I could do for my pants, so I flung my head under and started to run my fingers through the strands as it dried.
After four minutes of that, I was happy to say that it came out dry and wavy when I looked in the mirror.
The Indian girl was starring at me in almost horror.
"What happened? Why are you so... wet?"
I turned around to look at her. "I had to walk to school, and it was raining. No big deal," I smiled. She nodded picking up her bag.
"Do you have lunch right now," she asked.
I nodded in confusion.
"So do I. Why don't you sit with me and my friends?"
The lunch room was rather large and more exciting and new than my old one in Florida. It was packed with kids up the spout too.
I followed the girl to the back of the room, towards the middle of the table row. There was about six or seven kids there.
My eyes scanned over each one, to see if I had classes with them before hand.
I about shit myself when my eyes landed on Elijah.
"Ah, so she's dry I see," he smirked turning to face the table rather than the girl sitting next to him. A fraction of my heart fell just a little bit more into the pit of my stomach.
I took the open seat across from him, trying to play with the hem of my shirt and look everywhere but him.
"So Alli, who's your friend," the girl next to Elijah asked.
I looked to the girl, smiling softly to myself when her lips were moving and no words were leaving, searching for the memory that didn't exist where I told her my name. Elijah smirked, turning towards the rest of the table. "This is Layla."
He snapped his fingers in front of my face, his other hand pointing towards the guy sitting next to me. "That's Adam," next person, "that's Conner," the girl, "the wonderful Alli that brought you to us today." Again he pointed to the person at the end of his bench, "Dave," and he paused considerably at the girl next to him, and he actually turned towards her and smiled for the first time I saw him, "and this is Clare."
Yeah, my heart fell some more.
I visibly shook myself at that. No I can't like him. Not looking for a relationship. Friends. I need friends.
"Hey," I whispered, almost looking back down.
Clare sounded like a child of an angel, "You must be new here."
I nodded sheepishly.
She smiled, turning to Elijah in all seriousness. "Eli, don't go picking on her or I'm going to pinch you until you have cancer. Be nice."
They were defiantly dating.
Lunch passed by somewhat quickly. There were jokes said in which I couldn't not laugh. I almost felt at home, like they were the friends that I left back in Florida. "What class do you have next," Dave asked. He was tanned, almost light skinned, not really bald; and he had a nice smile I guess.
I dug the schedule out of my back pocket, unfolding it and scanning to the fifth hour.
"Art," I mumbled. Elijah-Eli; whatever his name was, looked like a Artsy guy. Hopefully I'd have that with him.
"Clare and I have English 12 next," he almost read my mind. Wait—they are both seniors?
Alli pushed her way to me, where she grabbed me by the elbow with a smile. "I have Art next. Let's go together."
There were eight people in Art; not including Alli and myself. And during the forty-five minutes of just drawing, Alli and I talked. Well, more like Alli talked.
In the short period of time she told me about her whole life story.
She was going to be in an arranged marriage most likely in the next few years. Her older brother Sav was doing his own thing against his parents wishes and is going to Burkley with his girlfriend Ayna. Her best friend was Clare, the girl at lunch with Elijah. She likes to dance sometimes and eat whatever she wants. There is nothing more that she loves than gossip. Before she wanted to do yearbook, but it brought up to many bad memories with her ex-Johnny.
That's when she shut up.
"So... do you still like this Johnny," I asked, looking up from the drawing of a duck I had going.
She nodded, and I swear I heard a sniffle in there. "Y-yeah," she whispered, "I miss him a lot. I think I love him honestly."
I nodded too. "Tell me about him. Sometimes it helps; and who knows, you might even laugh."
She did laugh, and went into a even longer story of him.
They met on a Biology camp trip when she was a freshmen. He was a senior, but it didn't matter because she wanted him. He had long blond hair and always wore a hat with the attitude of a bad boy. Always reading though. She snuck into his tent and they played cards. Over the next couple days she told him how she felt and he started to push her away. But she kept going back like a fly to the light. Because under everything, he was a really sweet guy that ended up liking her back.
He broke up with her because she took some pictures of him when all his walls were down; when he was venerable like he was with her when they were being their-selves. She showed it to the yearbook team, and he saw. Then he sent out some... inappropriate pictures of herself to his best friend.
Every day after that day she'd cry when she saw him.
And cry she did.
"I-I'm sorry," she muttered, grabbing her shirt to wipe at her makeup.
I patted her back almost awkwardly, "Really it's okay. Do you feel better... talking about him?"
She nodded frantically, smiling. We laughed as the bell rang, and she actually hugged and thanked me when we left the classroom to go our separate ways.
There wasn't anyone else I knew in the rest of my classes of the day. Sadly.
I almost forgot about Elijah's offer until I got to the front doors, only to see it pouring harder than it was that morning. And he was no where in sight.
I sighed, just about to step off the stairs and into the rain when a car pulled up right in front of me.
Scratch that... a hearse.
The hearse.
I stood watching, waiting, for it to do something. Finally after about ten seconds, it honked it's horn. I raised an eyebrow.
The window rolled down, and Elijah's head popped out. The shock of it had my jaw dropping slightly. "Are you coming or what," he smirked.
I hurried past the front and over to the passenger side were I got in. He was the one that splashed me with water today, the reason why I was soaking to the bone. My eyes glared daggers at him.
"Yeah I know I practically drowned you today. I'm sorry. I was running late. This is me paying you back, eh?"
"You know," I started while he pulled out of the parking lot, "you could have made it up to me by stopping and picking me up to take me to school."
"I was late," he retaliated with confusion on his face.
"So was I."
The rest of the ride was silent. Minus the parts where he'd ask for directions and I'd feed him the answers.
When we turned on my road, I sat up just a bit more straighter. Dry clothes here I come.
"It's the house on the right, the blue one," I murmured looking out the window as he started to slow down.
He stopped just before my house turning to me, "You're shitting me right?"
"Um, no, why?"
He pointed to the red bricked house just to the right of my own. It was nice.
"That's my house."
I looked back at him, then to the house, then to mine. Oh God. Is this a blessing or is this a curse.
"You—I-We-Wh-" I stuttered out furiously left and right.
"Welcome to the neighborhood—neighbor."
Damn that smirk.
