A/N
So finals for me are coming up. I will have to study like crazy because I'd really like to pass first semester. But I really don't tend to study much so…
Enough talk…. You read now
Chapter 5
An Ugly Floral Suit
My insomnia came back. And when I was sleeping it was bad. Dreams haunted me. Bloody, cruel, the kind of dreams where you wake up screaming drenched in sweat. They first started when my mom died. Zach would lie next to me and comfort me when I had the nightmares. He could convince me to sleep somehow. Now I would lie in bed staring at the slice of light that would cut across my face from the street light outside my window.
By the time Friday came around I was just as good as dead. My dad, barley saw him. I felt like he was hiding something. The conversation I had heard a week before bothered me. Flynn had told me not to worry about it. But I did. I did a lot. I would zone out in class, get asked a question and I would sit there clueless. That is what that statement did to me. 'Just walk away Cammie, Just walk away."
I dragged myself out into the cold October air wrapping me sweatshirt around me. It was the last day of our two week long Homecoming. The school wanted to try something different. I thought it was stupid.
Spirit Day. Where everyone dressed up in ridiculous clothes sporting our school colors. I opted for a T-shirt. I started my long walk to school. My car was having problems, my dad was out of town I missed the bus and Flynn was nowhere to be seen for the past week. I hadn't seen him since dinner last Friday.
I ended up running to school and made it to trig before the bell rang. Mrs. Rager glared at me.
"Sorry." I mumbled moving to my seat in the far back. There I pulled out my notebook and tried to my math. Math was not my strong point. My dad always had trouble helping me with it. Zach did too. I was just stubborn enough for them to have to walk away in frustration at me. I looked grimly down at my work.
"Wrong, Wrong, Wrong." Mrs. Rager said walking by. I bit my lip to keep my temper in check.
"Where were you?" Macey muttered as she hurried up behind me.
"I ditched." I said.
'Well you could have told me." She said.
"I just kinda wanted to be alone." I said opening my locker.
"Well, first off avoiding classes you have with Zach is not the way to deal with this." She said using my mirror to adjust her makeup.
"I'm not avoiding him. I just… don't want to be near him." I said.
"Sweetie, that's called avoiding him." She said turning to me flipping her hair. I rolled my eyes stuffing my math textbook in my locker. "Don't roll your eyes at me, you know it as well as I do that it's true." Macey said.
"I just… I don't want to talk about it." I said trying not to think of my little talk with Zach the other day. That had been another thing I had been mulling over in my mind.
"I'll get it out of you somehow." Macey said.
"That's likely." I said.
"So when are you coming over tonight? We are going to eat our traditional meal of Chinese takeout and then get ready.' Macey said in her happy voice.
"I don't know if I'm going Mace."
"But Cammie!" she whined a bit. "I got your dress and it's beautiful you'll love it. Please?" Macey pleaded.
"I'll see. I need to make a quick stop after school." I said.
"And why would that be?" Macey asked in her knowing voice as we started walking towards biology.
"No reason." I said quickly. Macey stopped.
"You are so going to go prank Zach aren't you." She said smiling. I pursed my lips and continued walking.
"Tell me what you're going to do." She asked excitedly catching up to me.
"Just going to make a quick stop at the tux place and maybe a little rigging with Zach's car." I said quietly as we passed Winter and Zach as Winter reached up to brush Zach's hair back. I knew it was a show. Just this morning I saw them fighting like an old married couple. But then they showed up looking ruffled and no guessing what they were doing.
I let out a deep breath running my hand through my hair. "So I'm guessing you do not have a date?" Macey asked. I gave her the 'duh' look. "Of course you don't. Me, Bex and Liz all have dates. What are you going to do?" she asked shaking her head.
"Don't make me go?" I asked hopefully.
"Oh you're going. And you will looked beautiful once I'm done with you." I mentally groaned.
"One question Mace," I said putting my bag down on the lab table and taking a seat. Macey leaned against it. "Who's your date? You said you were going without a date." I said resting my head up my hand.
"Simon Carter."
"WHAT?" I said.
"I'm not doing anything else with him. I just need him to do some dirty work for me." She said observing her nails an evil smile gracing her face.
"Mace." I said.
"I am not telling you." She said.
"Great."
"Romeo and Juliet. Perhaps on of the greatest love story's ever written." Mr. Whitt comes in the class room with that speech. We all turn our attention to him. "Two teenagers much like yourselves, fall in love but can't be together because of their warring families."
"Now Shakespeare we know little of his life but we do know he traveled a lot, mostly to England and joined the theater. He based Romeo and Juliet off of the story 'The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet.' Written by the notable author Arthur Brooke. Yes Ms. Sutton?" he said.
"Didn't we learn this freshman year?" she asked.
"All AP classes did. Regular did not. Now the language in this story is different than the one we do not use now, still English but different. Archaic to be exact. Now…" Mr. Whitt was cut off by the door opening.
"Sorry I'm late I got lost." My head jerked up when I heard the voice.
Flynn was here. Finally here. Mr. Whitt took his sheet and signed it handing it back to him. "Please take a seat next to Ms. Hays over there." He said. Flynn made eye contact with me. He smiled a bit and then noticed Zach behind me. His face harden, his eyes cold. I noticed that Flynn gave a small nod. I frowned. I was getting more and more confused. With Zach, the secret my dad might possibly be keeping from me, the conversation I heard to Flynn telling me to walk away.
"We will Read, Summarize than talk about this story as we move through it. A major part of your final will be on this story, so I suggest you really read it." Mr. Whitt said as he began handing out books.
I walked cautiously towards the tux rental store. This was the only tux rental place in Roseville and just about every guy wanted a tux for Homecoming would be coming here for a tux. I had to be careful. Knowing Zach he wouldn't open up his suit protector until he got home which would be perfect. This tux place was called Tux's Rose. Stupid name if you ask me. It dates back to the early 1900's or something like that.
"Can I help you miss?" an elderly lady asked.
"Uh, no, just looking." I said trailing my fingers over the colorful fabrics. The lady nodded and walked back to an ancient sewing machine in the back of the shop. I found the tux I was looking for, slowly removing it from the rack. It was perfect. I checked to see if the lady was watching but she was distracted.
Smirking I slid into the back room to where they kept the tux's that were waiting to be picked up. "Goode, Goode, Goode." I murmured running my hands over the black covers. Finally I found Zach's and I left that place triumphant.
Bex was babbling on and on about how sweet Grant was to her and that she thought maybe they really could make it work but how she was conflicted about the whole relationship thing. I had, had enough of the whole relationship thing to last me forever. I picked my orange chicken before lifting a piece to my mouth.
"Is the new guy going tonight?" Liz asked. I looked up realizing the question was directed at me.
"Oh… I don't know… he just had his first day today Liz so chances are he's not going."
"Aw, too bad, I would not mind to have seen him in a tux." Macey said popping some of her Kung Pow Chicken in her mouth.
"You said he's German right?" Bex said. I nodded.
"You seem confused." Macey said reading me. I looked up and smiled a semi encouraging smile.
"Just… wondering what tonight will hold." I said.
"Which means it is time for us to start getting ready if we want to be on time." Macey sung going to her extensive closet and pulling out our dresses.
A half an hour later after much poking, prodding, hair-pulling, cussing and the occasional punch we were ready. And Bex, Liz and Macey all looked great. Bex… her palest of blue sheath dress fit her perfectly. Hints of gold eye shadow above her eyes brought out the warm caring side of her eyes. Not the 'I'm going to beat you up' look Macey said she wore way too much.
Macey can make even a workout outfit work so she did wonders to the pure black dress that stopped at her mid-thigh. . Her eyes stood put against her smoky eye shadow and black eyeliner. They were the first thing that you noticed. A simple side braid with a dark blue ribbon finished off the look.
Liz. Liz was… beautiful. Her white dress sparkled in the light and as she moved. Then she spun it flared out to her hips and landed gracefully at her knees. Her blonde hair came down in tendrils from a bun.
"Jonas already doesn't know what to do with you now, wait till he sees you like this." Bex said. Liz blushed. Than they all turned on me. Oh God.
I stood timidly by the punch bowl weighing the option of it being spiked. Bex, Liz and Macey had gotten me in a pretty red dress that came to my knees. My head hurt from being pulled and burned to be pulled up in a complex hair-do.
My thirst winning over my fear of the punch being spiked I poured myself a glass of the red liquid. "Hey." I whipped around momentarily forgetting the fact I had punch I n my hand. It slurped spilling onto my dress.
"Shoot." I muttered.
"Sorry I didn't mean to do that." I looked up.
"Flynn you have got to stop sneaking up on me." I said.
Flynn laughed. "Sorry about that." I gave him a look.
"What?" he asked.
"Your accent. Where is it? Again?" I said. Flynn looked away.
"Sorry, force of habit." He said.
"Um hum." I said taking a sip of my punch, making a sour face after I did. Yep, defiantly Vodka.
"We might want to get you cleaned up before Macey see's you." Flynn said.
"Ugg, good idea." I said my throat burning.
As Flynn and I walked through the doors of the gym an angry looking Zach came through. He had on the tux that I had replaced. When he had ordered black I had changed it out to a nasty floral, like something from the late 1800's. "Nice tux Zach." I said.
"Shut the f**k up." He said glaring at me and then Flynn.
"Don't talk to her like that.' Flynn said in a hard voice. Zach glared at him even more.
"Go get cleaned up. I'll take care of him." Flynn said. I frowned a bit as he gave me a small push down the hall. I walked into the bathroom. What did Flynn and Zach have going on? They barely knew each other. I shook it out of my head as I walked into a stall. I locked the door sighing as I leaned against the door. I wished I was at home with a pizza and a collection of James Bond movies.
Footsteps enter the bathroom. They were heels. They were slow and meaningful, sneaky even. But that was the only noise. The heels. Than they just stopped. Right in front of my stall. A barely audible click reached my ears. I had heard that kind of click before. It sounded like the one that I had heard the night my mother died.
"CAMMIE!" Flynn yelled sounding distraught. I shuffled my feet causing a small noise. The heels turned away from the stall and towards the wall. "CAMMIE!" Flynn's voice was in the bathroom. As I stepped out into the bathroom it was empty. And I had not heard the footsteps leave.
I shot out of the bathroom and right onto Flynn. "We have to get you out of here." He said wrapping his arm tightly around me as he walked to the door.
"What's wrong?" Macey asked running up the best she could in heels.
"Cammie has to leave. NOW." Flynn said. Realization dawned on everyone's faces. Bex, Liz, Grant and even Jonas who stood by.
"THAN LEAVE!" Macey whisper shouted.
Flynn hurried me out to a car. Sleek and black in the cloudy evening.
"Sorry Cams." I heard Zach's voice. A needle went into my arm. Immediately I felt drowsy. Blackness consumed my every being.
A/N
Dun dun duh. Cliffe for you all.
Anybody got any idea what is even going on?