Heya Neighbor
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Chapter 8: The Reconciling and Unexpected News
Crystal's POV
I raced down the steps. It was 7:00 and Freddy wanted to meet me outside at 7:03….. why that time, I have no clue. I picked up my black messenger bag. My other knapsack's strap was mysteriously cut off. I CBS.
I opened the door to go outside and saw Freddy, skateboard in hand, with his hand up to his face blocking the sun.
"Heya Neighbor." I waved, grinning slightly as I approached him.
"Yeah, hey. Listen, I don't want what happened yester-"
"Can we not relive that? Actually, the whole day. That day was a mess, except for that hot Mike Lopez…… we can relive that except for the event after that. Oh, and-"
"Could you shut up now?" He asked, smiling nervously.
"Oh, sure." She shrugged and than punched him in the arm.
"Yeah, all I want to say is I'm sorry for the argument we had yesterday. If it makes you feel better, I felt really guilty yesterday…..and awkward with the whole Marta thing." He paused, waiting for my usual snide comment, but I didn't.
"Listen Freddy, I know you're a very open, blunt, brutally honest, opinionated person, but I just want you to know that…well, this is my life. I'm okay with it and the way I run it. It's what makes me, me……. I'm sorry for acting a little bitter towards you, but…. I'm only human." I breathed out and he looked a little surprised.
"Wow… No, 'you deserved it!'? No, 'Could you shut up?'? Is that really you, Crystal?" Freddy waved his hands in my face and I punched him playfully. We began to walk and Freddy skateboarded slowly to school, even if we were quite early.
"I'm trying to be a better person…at least- wait never mind. I'm not going to say it." I smiled.
"Let me guess, you were going to say: At least one of us is trying." He smirked.
"Yeah, something along those lines..... a little on the nicer side." I tried to change his mind, but it didn't work.
"Sure… anyway, I'm sorry too." He grinned.
"I know you are, buddy."
"And I know you are too, neighbor." And he unexpectedly gave me a noogie and I was thankful to have short, manageable hair, so it was easy to fix. We talked about several bands, when I decided to bring up Dewey.
"Anywho, did you know I met Dewey yesterday?" I asked.
"Really? Ain't he a great guy?" Freddy smiled.
"Yeah he is. He's like my mentor now. He actually convinced me to apologize to you." I started giggled softly, thinking about what happened and how Dewey said Freddy was a little dumb.
"Hey, why are you laughing?"
"Nothing."
"Did he say something about me? Damn that Dewey. He even did that when I brought me previous girlfriend to band practice." Freddy made a fist, which caused me to giggle a bit more.
"Wow, previous. Ain't that a big word for ya, Freddy?" I joked.
"Hey, I thought you were going to be nicer."
"I am nicer. That's why I'm going to say sorry….. Sorry." I grinned and he pushed me slightly.
"Maybe you should take the chill pill, Fredster." I said in a geeky voice.
"First of all, never ever say chill pill and secondly, my name is Freddy and thirdly, never say those three words in the same sentence."
"Okay, Fredster." He glared at me.
"What? You said never to say the three words in the same sentence and I don't know why you told me your name is Freddy when you told me that already, like ages ago." I shrugged.
"Smartass." He muttered under his breath.
"I try. I try." I patted his shoulder, laughing as we finally made it to school without ripping each others heads off like yesterday. We talked for a while and then more students started showing up. After a whole flock of people past us, we decided to go inside.
"So, how about that date?" He asked.
"Ew, what are you talking about?" I scrunched my nose, acting as if he was asking me on a date. I knew exactly what he was talking about.
"You know. The one with me and Zack. Thanks for keeping our sexuality on the down low." He grinned, but Zack was right behind him.
"Yeah, I don't even wanna know what you guys were talking about." Zack took a step away from Freddy, and then walked away muttering, "See you in lab, Crystal."
Freddy ran after him, "Zack, wait up! You don't understand!"
I shook my head and laughed. Suddenly, I saw Tomika coming my way and I smiled. For some reason, I looked up to her. She was like an older sister to me.
"Hey!" She greeted me and we began walking down to our lockers. Her locker was two lockers down from mine.
"So, what's up? Are you going to try out for our band?" She asked me.
"Uh, maybe." I replied, completely uncertain.
"Well, you should. It gives you something to do, besides lying at home all day wallowing in your self pity." She pointed her finger accusingly at me, with her Mrs. Landon's voice. We immediately burst out in laughter. You see. Mrs. Landon was this lady who lived next to Tomika and she had this very funny voice. She was strict, but it was almost impossible to be serious with the damn lady because of her hysterical voice. Those were the exact words she told me when she offered me to do her garden and I declined. Did I mention she was also mean?
"Oh, god, I wanted to kill her. Can you believe she told me that my heart was as shriveled as the petals lying on her flower bed? Did you see how wrinkly and withered those flowers were? The nerve of her!" I shook my head, while Tomika just laughed as she patted my shoulder.
"Trust me, I know. She says it all the time. I tell my mom, but she's a completely different person when she's with my parents…… who, I remind you, are never home." She rolled her eyes.
"Don't worry, if you ever want to, you can sleep over at my house, or if I'm not there and you are insanely desperate, there's always Freddy's house." We both laughed, but she blushed.
"I did once." She told me and my eyes widened. Suddenly, the bell rang and she told me she would explain at the lab at lunchtime. Oh man, I wanted to know what happened. Did she have to go to the hospital because she was intoxicated by the smell of his room? Did she even make it past the stairs?
"CRYSTAL!" Katie whispered loudly as she threw a pencil at my face. Apparently, she had been calling me for five e minutes and I hadn't been listening…. At all.
"Oh, sorry. What is it?" I asked, propping my head on my hand.
"Zack and I did it." She whispered to me.
"Am I supposed to say 'congrats' or applaud you?" I asked her and she whipped another pencil at my forehead. The sad part was I was actually being serious. I didn't know what I was supposed to do.
"Ms. Brown and Ms Matthews, thank-you so much for volunteering to clean the gymnasium with Mr. Jones on Tuesday, after school." Our teacher looked at us menacingly.
"Sorry-" He cut Katie and I off and continued to teach the lesson, with the overhead.
"Come to lab at lunch and give me details." I whispered softly to her and she nodded.
Lunch quickly approached and Katie and Tomika joined me at the lab for lunch…. And some girl talk.
"You slept at Freddy's house?" I asked Tomika and Katie's jaw dropped and she said, or rather exclaimed, the exact same thing.
"Yeah, I had to stay there for a week, during summer. My parents and Freddy's parents were off on vacation because they planned it together, I think. Anyway, they thought it was best if Freddy stayed with me or the other way around. My parents said that I should move to Freddy's house to prevent hassle for the Jones." She breathed out, " It was the weirdest thing. Freddy wasn't Freddy. He was actually quite nice. He gave me some CD's that liked from his collection, he made my bed, we watched a moved and did you know that he knows how to cook?"
Katie and I started to crack up. Freddy cooking? You must be out of your mind.
"I'm being serious. It was actually good stuff. Then, at night, when we were watching a movie, he told me that… that..-"
"Spit it out, woman!" Katie and I both yelled in unison. Gosh, Katie was like my twin.
"-he liked me. I thought he was lying, but then, he gave me a red rose and attached to it were lyrics of a small song he made me. He sang it to me with his guitar. I think I have it in my bag still. Let me check." Katie and I just gawked at what Tomika had just said. We were both surprised to find out that Freddy knew how to lay guitar, but Freddy Jones, a romantic?
"Ahha! She held up the poem victoriously in her hand. She unfolded the white piece of paper and read:
"I want you to know that I'm sorry,
for being so blind to how you felt.
You might think that I'm crazy,
But it's my heart, and it won't stop.
And I take back all those arguments,
Because you're my soul and my religion.
I'll tear my walls down just to prove to you,
That my heart beats for only you.
-over her was a small little guitar solo-
I won't stand here and wait forever,
It's your heart I'm going to find.
If you take my hand I'll promise,
You'll be the only girl on my mind."
We, Katie and I, stared in awe at what Freddy had wrote and sang to Tomika. It was such beautiful lyrics.
"Which summer?" Katie managed to ask.
"It was this summer." She replied, blushing.
Katie and I squealed in all our girliness. It was so romantic.
"Well, what happened?" I questioned with eagerness.
"We did for the whole summer, but I don't think it really worked out. We hung out with these people and I couldn't take the crowd her was hanging out with. I knew them before, they used to make fun of me and the way I looked…..." She sighed. However, there seemed like there was more to the story than just that.
"Yeah, Freddy used to hang out with the wrong people last year. This year, it was like transformation." Katie interjected.
"Um, yeah, Tomika, why would they make fun of you? You look great." I looked at Tomika. She had this good, curvaceous figure. The cheerleaders on the other hand, had these skinny bodies.
"Before, I was on the chubby side. They teased me constantly when I walked home or to the music stores. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I started losing weight or something. My mom said it was a family thing and I lost some baby fat. Then, my height shot up and I started exercising regularly too." She continued, "When I 'dated' Freddy they started say I got liposuction and implants."
"That's awful. I'll kick their ass. Those stupid bitches…" Katie started mumbling some more profanity and how she would kill them.
"Why did you use quotations on how you two 'dated?'" I asked.
"Because they said the only reason why he dated me was because they wanted to pull a joke on me." Tears started to form around her eyes and Katie and I immediately comforted her. I simply could not believe what a jacked up loser Freddy was.
"Don't worry, I know that's not true." She sniffled. Katie and I looked at each confused.
"Why do you say that?" Katie inquired, as she stroked Tomika's straightened hair.
"Because, the day after we broke up, I saw Freddy. He was crying really hard and I saw him rip one paper and lay the pieces of it on another . After he left, I checked to see what he ripped up on the bench. It was the song he made for me and a picture of me with him. On the back, it said, I'll be missing you….. I remember that picture and he never wrote that on it before." She explained.
"Wow, I would never have imagined him….. like that." I rubbed her shoulder.
"Were you really sick on those first two weeks of band practice?" Katie asked her and Tomika shook her head.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, babes." Katie hugged her.
"So, is everything okay between you two? Or, is it rocky?"
"Sometimes it hurts….. yeah, it does hurt… when I see him with Marta. That's why I couldn't come with your back to your house when you were high off those pills. I couldn't bring myself to it. At band practice, its' like he's trying to forget me by stabbing a fork through my heart because he's always shoving his tongue down Marta's mouth."
"Yeah, that is nasty…. Tomika, you just gotta fight back. First, girl time and planning, then we start the 'I'm better than you, you stupid prick' action." I wrapped my arm around her.
"Yeah!" Katie encouraged, "You have to get back into the game….. If Freddy's gonna be just a dumb post, than let him be a dumb post. Meanwhile, you have got to get over him. Tonight, after Crystal does her date thingy with Fr- Zack, we'll have some girl partying and scoping on the cute guys you can get." Although it was wrong, I made a sigh of relief when Katie said Zack instead of Freddy. I didn't know how she'd react.
Suddenly, the bell rang. We both packed all our stuff, not even taking a bite out of our lunches. We decided to talk about Katie's lovemaking at the sleepover tonight. I felt so bad for Tomika and I wanted to go full throttle on Freddy. However, I couldn't be mad at him. This was his and Tomika's problem and I had that date tonight. In plus, I had just settled terms with him. "Damn", I muttered. Although completely out of topic, I had just written down Mike Lopez on my notebook five times.
I can't believe every teenager has to go through all this. Drama: a teenager's worst enemy.
Hope you liked it! I thought it was actually pretty neat. I wasn't planning to jerk down to this road, but I actually like the outcome of it. Thanks for the reviews again! You guys rock!
Luv you guys,
SoHaPPy
