Chapter 11
"Hello Nancy!" Cass said with so much enthusiam my mother flinched. She physically flinched. I held back a little laugh, and said hi to her in a normal voice.
"How's it going?" Cass sasked beaming at my mother.
"Fine," My mother can be so fake sometimes. She gave me a look and I got Cass upstairs in two minutes into my room.
I closed the door to my room so I didn't have to hear Amber on the phone with one of her friends. When Amber was seventeen my mother removed the door to her room letting her loud overpowering phone-voice reach my room unless I shut my door, only then it was muffled. But I could still hear every word she said if I was in complete silence which I never was in my room.
Cass jumped onto the couch I had pushed up against my wall. It's big and squishy and was moved out of my living room a few years ago when my mother redecorated. It had absolutly no smell to it. It's amazing. But Cass is the only person who really sits in it. I never need it. It's always jsut there. "You're mom loves me!" Cass says. The sad part is she's serious.
"I know," I say turning so she still can't tell if I'm sarcastic.
"What's it been like with Amber home?" She asks taking my response as agreement.
"Dashboard or Death Cab?" I ask.
"Death Cab," Cass says. I hit play playing Plans softly so I can some up with my answer. What it's been like with Amber home: loud, irritating, and full of tension.
"Weird," Is all I can say. "I mean, her and my mom have been trying not to tear each other's head off. They were fighting last night about how Amber still has no door and how the treadmill is now in front of her window."
Cass laughed. He was laying down on the couch. "She's going tonight though." She said. "She has classes tomorrow, right?"
"Yeah," I said. "She's going actually in a few hours I think. I don't think she can deal with my mother one more second."
We were quiet for a second. I sat on my bed with my legs crossed and my feet bare. I have crooked toes which is why I wear sneakers non-stop. I'm scared people will see my crooked little hump-backed toes. But Cass doesn't care. She doesn't care about my deformed toes. "Where's Miles been?"
"He came over yesterday," She said turning her face towards me. "We read Dr. Suess. And he explained it to me. Man, he was right about how that stuff has real poetic meaning to them instead of just a giant cat breaking into a house and playing with two kids. I'll have to explain it to you sometime. I forget what he said."
I smiled. "Sure," I said.
"Why do you never hang out with us anymore?" Cass asked. "I mean, I get that you love Dave and that you guys are 'inseperable' but where does it say you have to forget about you're best friend?"
"I didn't forget about you. We're hanging out now." I said.
"But we used to be inseperable, Elisa, we don't even spend half the time we used to hanging out. You missed the greatest show ever Friday. I feel like I'm dating Miles now." I smiled, and she did too. "Which you realize is ridiculous."
"I promise, we'll hang out more." I said.
"Ten bucks you had a more meaningful conversation with Bennett Williams than me." She said.
"I didn't. We just talked about music." I said, my face getting serious.
"I still can't believe you talked to him." She said. "You could barely form a sentence the first itme we talked to Dave and you had a conversation with the hottest kid in Kerrington without slipping into a coma. I'm impressed. I would have fainted probably-"
"No you wouldn't have." I cut in.
"-well, maybe not, but I wouldn't have been as calm as you probably were." She said.
We didn't say anything for a few seconds. She's brought up my conversation with Bennett Williams a couple times since it happened. I have trouble remembering it happened. But we change the subject after that. "Are you up to your reading with Catcher in the Rye?" She asks.
"Yeah," I say. "You?"
"I don't like it." She said. "I mean it's okay but I'm so behind and it's such a hard book to read. I can't get through a chapter." She sighed. "I need help Elisa."
And we go on talking about Catcher in the Rye until she's all cleared up. And by then she needs ot go home. And I need to get ready to go out with Dave to go to get something to eat. We say goodbye. And I'm in my room alone. With the second Death Cab For Cutie album finally ending and leaving me in silence.
Elisa Simmons True Confession: I secretly despise the silence that is trying to take over my life.
I sit across from him in a little diner on West Street. He's tellign me about this huge fight he had with Thomas from Caustic about their set. And all of this shit. And how he started fighting with the guitarist. The one who I'll always picture hurt and broken by Rainie Joseph. I feel weird always remembering him for that.
I sit nodding.
"That guys Thomas though is an ass." Dave says. "Excuse me," He means for calling someone an ass. I don't really mind, but Dave always catches himself and is polite about it. "But he told me I needed to have a reality check, and that our band isn't that good and eventually we'll go back to our old set and they'll take ours. I mean, he's so arrogant and cocky."
I nod. "He sounds like he is."
"God, and that guitarist kid was telling me to lay off. He thinks he's so cool 'cause he slept with that Rainie Joseph and tries to be a peace maker. Those guys just annoy me. To no end."
"They sound like jerks."
A group of kids are seated in the next table over from us. It's a group of some of the meo crowd form Kerrington. That boy who is dating the girl at Carol's with the lipring is among them. And they are all talking quietly and smiling. As Dave is talking. I look over occasionally. Bennett Williams isn't with them. But they are all just talking. Among themselves not bothering anyone.
I turn back to Dave tohugh. Because the thing he's been going about is finally ending to a point I should add a comment. "... what's-his-face-" The guitarist I know from half-listening. "-looks like shit though. I mean his girlfriend dumped him. Big deal."
"You don't know what happened though, Dave. He looked really hurt." I was shocked I said this.
But Dave is only for a short second. He just looks at me. And he covers my hand with his. "You're so nice, Elisa. Sorry if it isn't right for me to say that now but, really you are just one of the sweetest girls I've ever talked to." He leaned across the table. And kissed me.
I felt like everything faded when Dave kissed me. The voices of the table of the emo-crowd softened, I felt numb, and it somehow got lighter around us. But Everything got back to normal, excpet the voices of the table of the emo-crowd stayed soft. So I think that was just a weird coincidence. Probably like when you say sometihng like a joke and across a room a person bursts out laughing. They didn't hear the joke- it was just a little ironic. And ironic stuff I think makes everything seem more special than it might be.
