12: Goodbye Waves and Driveways
"..so finish page 374, numbers fifteen through twenty five tonight. You can do the vocabulary in class tomorrow. Don't forget about the test on Thursday." Aye, aye, Mr. Hannay. Even though I'm not going to do it because I could care less.
You sat in third period Biology, staring at the clock like it was your life support. There was only one minute to go until the bell would ring. Your eyes followed the second-hand as it made it's slow journey across the notches of numbers. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. The bell chimed and you practically flew out of your seat, charging towards the door. You held your books tightly against you as you made your way to your locker. With one more hallway left to go before the staircase, Courtney caught up to you.
"Yo! Speed demon! Wait up!" she commanded. You slowed down to a shorter walk. "God, what's your hurry today?"
"I dunno.. I guess I'm excited to get to lunch," you said as you both reached the stairs, going down to the first floor.
"So, how was practice yesterday?" she asked.
"It was okay," you said. "We played 'Saturday' for the millionth time. Joe gave me the music for the new song."
"What song is it?"
"Grand Theft Autumn. I listened to it last night, and it sounds pretty awesome. It's supposed to be a duet between me and Patrick."
She gasped, her eyes getting wide. "Oh my God! You're learning that song?"
"I'm assuming you've heard of it?" you said, sarcastically.
"That's my favorite song they've ever done," she said. "I make Pete sing it to me on the phone sometimes."
Pete? On the phone? "Speaking of him, are you guys together? Or what's going on there?" you asked her as you both made it downstairs, walking over to your lockers. She continued talking even though she was across the hallway. She liked talking about Pete loudly.
"Well, we've been talking on the phone and internet like crazy. He's been saying how you need to bring me to practice and stuff because he wants to see me again."
You threw your books into your own disastrous locker, closing the door as she did the same. "So you're not actually 'dating'?"
"No, not yet," she said, joining beside you as you both started your way to the cafeteria for fourth period lunch. "But hopefully, if things go good, something might happen."
"You do realize that he's going to be leaving in two months to go on tour, right?" you said. Wow, that sounded bitchy of me.
"Yeah, but a girl can have fun, right?"
"True," you said, turning the corner in the hallway. Do I tell her what Patrick told me yesterday? …Of course. She's my best friend and I really need some advice here. "Courtney, guess what happened yesterday," you said seriously.
"What?"
"Okay, you know how I've told you about how Patrick has been acting weird lately?" She nodded, her forehead scrunched. "Well, he came to pick me up yesterday because Joe had to go get Chinese because your little Peter Panda was driving everyone crazy. Well, I used Patrick's cell phone to call Alex to see if he wanted to go with me next Wednesday to the dance. He said no, by the way. And then I felt stupid once we hung up and I threw the phone on the seat. Then I started ranting, and by the time I shut up I realized we were going the wrong way and we were down by that one grocery store. So he pulled into the parking lot and parked. He actually even turned off the car so he could turn and look at me as he spoke. He told me that he likes me…that he can't stop thinking about me."
"Aww!" she cooed, making some people turn around and give her a weird look. "That's awesome! I can date Pete and you can date Patrick and maybe—"
"No, no," you said, cutting her off. "He says he wants me to date Alex."
She gave you the same dumbfounded expression that you gave Patrick. "What? But…why?"
"I don't know! The whole thing is complicated," you said. The two of you had finally reached the cafeteria and got in the back of the lunch line. The constant murmur of conversation was periodically broken by a shriek of laughter or someone calling out to a friend.
"What're we getting?" she asked, turning around to look at you. The line was at a complete standstill.
"I think it's spaghetti today," you said. She looked up at you, smiling randomly. "What?"
"Behind you," she whispered, pointing.
You spun around, trying to figure out what the hell she was talking about. You spun around, right into Alex.
"I'll let you stay in line with him. I think I'll get salad line since I hate spaghetti." She smiled again, walking away and leaving you with him. You felt your face go a little red. God, he's so cute. And why am I so nervous? Now I know how Patrick felt..
"Hey," he said. "How was practice yesterday?"
What is it with everyone asking me that? "Oh, it went great. You feeling better?" you asked.
"Much better now. But I'm glad I got to see you. I wanted to ask you something," he said as you both progressed further in line.
You smiled. "Shoot."
"Well, I was wondering if I could pick you up after your practice was over? I could take you to Subway or something for dinner since I just got paid over the weekend."
"Sure! We practice at the Howard Johnsons across from McDonalds."
"Oh, okay. What time do you think?" he asked.
"I'll have to be home at six, so I can probably con Joe into letting me leave around four thirty. Is that good?"
"Perfect."
You struggled to keep your girly excitement hidden, but inside you were freaking out. I'm going out on a date with Alex Woods! After all these years…Am I dreaming? Is this really happening? You realized you weren't breathing and took in a deep breath, releasing it slowly. Your head cleared a little. A small voice crept into the back of your consciousness. But what about Patrick? You argued back with yourself, He told you to date Alex. You hadn't fully convinced yourself as you remembered Patrick's expression when he told you to date Alex. But then you looked up at Alex who was now standing beside you. He flashed you his perfect smile and you dropped the argument with yourself.
* * *
Later that day, you sat on the floor in the hotel room with the boys. Joe only wanted you to sing the vocals a few times today instead of jumping into the guitar playing. He promised you'd work on that tomorrow. They had to remove the drums out of the hotel because they "disturbed the peace." You worked through the song's vocals a few times and then left it at that. Joe said he was feeling too lazy today to do much, then he used Courtney as an excuse, saying he didn't want to bore her on her first visit.
You were now sitting on the floor, Patrick lying down with his head on your lap; Andy was sitting in a chair reading aloud from the laptop that he had sitting on his lap; Joe was in the bathroom getting a shower; Courtney and Pete sitting on the bed playing an eager game of 'slap hands.'
"'...and they were killed from the fire.' What the hell? You'd think they would've gotten out of the house because of the alarms blaring. That kinda pisses me off," Andy said, scrolling down on the article he was reading. He always seemed so interested in what was going on in the world, which made him really fun to talk to. He had a wide range of knowledge about some really random things. And he always seemed to know what was going on in the world. The man was a walking newspaper.
"Well it was the middle of the night. I'd be snoring like hell and I probably wouldn't hear it," Patrick said, picking the lint on your pants. You toyed with a bit of his hair that was peeking out from under his hat.
"Yeah, but these were the new Grinnel alarms," Andy argued. "I dunno.. Pete! What d'you think?"
Pete, who was laughing insanely with Courtney, turned around suddenly, pretending to pay attention to the conversation. "Those bitches couldn't even wake a baby up. I think it's their own fault for installing the pieces of shit. They deserved to die."
Courtney punched him in the arm. "Harsh much?"
Patrick giggled. "Finally, someone else besides me to call Pete on his shit!"
Andy shook his head. "Ahh, the usual insensitive Pete. I love it."
Crash!Everyone looked at each other, trying to figure out where the crash came from. Then suddenly the bathroom door opened and Joe came out, a towel wrapped around him, laughing his head off. He stumbled into the room, leaning against the wall for support from cracking up. Everyone looked at him, confused.
"I just- oh my God- AHAHAHAHA!" He doubled over, holding his stomach.
"Umm, Joe?" you asked. "What the hell did you do?"
"Breathe, darling," Andy said.
"I just fucking slipped on the tile and smacked my head on the fucking toilet!"
You looked at his forehead. Sure enough, there was a huge red circle in the middle of his skin.
"You're a numbnut," Pete said matter-of-factly.
Andy set his computer down, walking into the bathroom to see if everything was still intact. All you heard was him yell, "Hey, Joe? Why is there a box of tampons on the floor?"
"They fell on me!"
And that was that. Everyone lost it. Pete fell off the bed, rolling around on the floor in uncontrollable laughter. You had no idea why it was so funny; it was one of those 'in the moment' sort of things. You wiped the tears of laughter that were forming in your eyes then looked over at the alarm clock. 4:27
"Oh damn," you mumbled, nudging Patrick. He sat up and you stood. He lay back on the floor. "I gotta go, Alex will be here soon."
Everyone whistled and teased you, except for Patrick. You looked down at him as he put his arms behind his head, forcing a smile.
"Have fun and try to keep your pants on," Pete said, slapping Courtney's hands when she wasn't looking, though the game had ended minutes ago. Her mouth fell open in mock anger and she slapped him back.
"Yeah, yeah," you said, heading towards the door.
"Julie!" Patrick yelled just as you were about to leave.
You turned around, looking at him. "What?"
"Call me once you get home."
You felt that same sickening feeling in your stomach again. "Sure," you said, grabbing your bag. You opened the door and headed into the hallway. The room was on the ground floor, so the lobby was just at the end of the hall. You walked straight for the doors, zipping up your hoodie and wrapping your scarf around you. The door jingled shut behind you.
Tiny flakes began to fall, some of the first of the year. Leaning your head back, you let the baby flakes fall on you. They kissed your lashes and lips, tickling your nose. They felt soft. It made you happy as you leveled your head again. You looked to your right and saw a silver car pull into the lot. You peered in the window to see Alex smiling cheerfully at you. You returned the smile with a wave, then ran over to the car. You pulled open the door, getting into the passenger's side, and slammed it behind you. Instead of throwing your bag in the back as you did when Patrick picked you up, you kept it sitting on your lap. He drove out of the parking lot.
"How was practice?"
"We didn't really do too much," you said. "We sang a few times then just sat around for a while."
He nodded. "I see. Dude, you have no idea how lucky you are that you know them and get to hang out with them. There's so many people at school that I've talked to that are jealous."
"Doesn't surprise me. I knew I'd get some teenage bullshit from this," you said.
He then pulled into the McDonalds' parking lot across the street, and you looked at him puzzled.
"Feel like a burger instead of Subway?" you asked.
He parked in a space that was way off to the side, almost near the woods. He then turned off the engine, turning towards you. "Nope. Not hungry. I had something else in mind today..."
Love Will Tear Us Apart, Again.
He smiled mischievously, reaching over and grabbing your bag. He set it on the floor at your feet, then planted his hand on your knee.
Patrick said not to do this...
His fingers glided up your leg, reaching up to your thighs and eventually to your hips. He leaned his face towards yours as you sat there, paralyzed. When he smashed your lips with his, all you could envision was Patrick and the sad smile he forced before you left. You couldn't bare to think of what he would feel if he could see you now.
But he said to kiss someone who cares about me; Alex does care about me. Right?
You wanted to push him away; you knew you had to. But you didn't. You didn't stop him, which was the hardest thing for you to explain. The best reason you could think of was the fact that you got that familiar feeling he gave you when he touched your body. Eventually you gave in, throwing your arms around his neck as he slowly made his way on top of you. The windows started steaming up, and you knew it wasn't because of his car heater.
