Chapter Six:
I take my phone out of my back left pocket, take my earbuds out of my front right pocket, plug them in, and open up Spotify. Putting in my right earbud, I walk out to my small group of friends.
I smile at them, and greet them "Hey" I say softly.
Josh is still not having it, he turns and leaves abruptly, the words you were about to say die in your mouth, leaving a bitter taste.
"Guys, I'll see you tomorrow" I say to my friends, as I run after Josh. I see that he's heading out to the woods behind the school.
"JOSH" I yell out. He stops for a second, I see him turn his head, and look at me, then he keeps running.
"Dammit" I say to myself, pushing my legs to go faster. I keep running, I'm almost there, I can almost touch his clothes with my fingertips.
"Josh, please" I say to him, as gently as I can while running. He starts to slow down.
This is it.
I tackled him to the ground, out of breath, and out of focus I yelled at him "What the hell was that?!"
"Leave me ALONE" Josh says, getting louder with each word.
"Josh" I whisper gently, placing my hand on his cheek, "please tell me what's wrong" I ask.
He looks away, hurt. He sighs "I like you Ally, and you keep brushing me off, and then today you let Jackson touch you without any problem" His voice got louder as he finished his sentence.
"Josh, look. I'm not in the dating market right now, I don't want a relationship with you or anyone for that matter, not even Jackson. And I know this hurts right now, but I'm just not looking for anyone." I say trying to let him down gently.
It seemed to work at first, until Josh stood up abruptly, he was shaking in anger, his face became red. I watched in horror as he tried to grab me.
"JOSH" I yelled. "Get away from me!" I screamed.
Josh halted, unmoving, in shock. I took my chance, and ran. I ran away, back to the safety of school, of my car. I could hear my heart pounding in my ears, as my adrenaline pumped through me.
I get back to the edge of the school campus, I still see two of my friends there, when they see me, they immediately get up and run over to my shaking and sweating form.
"Oh my god Ally. What happened?" Angala asks, highly concerned.
I go to respond, but when I hear my name being called out by Josh. I freeze, the only thing I can say is "run".
Angala and Catelynn lookup and see Josh by the tree line. I run to my car, grabbing my keys and unlock my driver side door, quickly stuffing myself into my car, I shut my door and lock it. I shove my keys into the ignition and start my car.
I'm safe, I'm safe. I keep repeating in my head.
I let out a sigh.
After my car has been started, I unlock my phone and open messages. I tap the one that says Work. I open the photo that has my schedule.
Thank god I'm off today.
I back out of my Work contact messages, and open Angala's.
I text her *I'm okay. Josh just scared me is all. I'll see you tomorrow at school.*
Turning off my phone, and setting it in the console. I put my car into reverse, and back out of my parking spot. I drive slowly through the parking lot, and go to the exit. I turn onto the main road, and head to Walmart.
I need to pick up some groceries for next week. Driving there, I almost got into a car accident.
At least it wouldn't have been my fault.
I continue driving, it's about a ten minute drive. When I get there, I try to park near the front, as it would be less walking, and I'm kinda in a rush.
I park and exit my car, locking it, checking that my keys are in my right hand with my phone. I shut my car door with my left.
I walk to the automated entrance doors, grabbing a shopping cart. I open my phone, and click on my dads messages, I see the list he sent me, along with the amount he transferred into my bank account.
I smiled, he knew he didn't have to do that, but I still appreciated it. I walk around grabbing the stuff dad wanted from his list. I go to the non food section first. I grab the toilet paper, paper towels, some cleaners for the bathroom, and kitchen. Grabbing some paper and plastic ware, and some coffee to-go cups.
I go to the fresh produce next, I pick up some fresh fruit; apples, bananas, a bag of grapes, then the vegetables, some shredded lettuce, a 5-lb bag of russet potatoes, celery, and some carrots. Finishing up with the produce, I head up to the frozen foods section. Grabbing some quick frozen meals, for when neither me or my dad want to actually cook. I picked up some frozen veggies too, and some frozen breakfast burritos.
Lastly, I headed over to the refrigerated section, I grabbed some lunch meat, eggs, milk, butter, and the cheeses. When I saw the bread sitting on a rack near the lunch meats, I grabbed two packs. I headed to checkout. A little under $200 later, I'm heading out to my car and putting all of the groceries into my car.
I get into my car and I head home. When I pull up to my two story white house, I smile, when I see that dad had just gotten home. He steps out of his patrol cruiser, and walks over to me.
"Hey sweetheart, did you get the list I sent you?" Dad asks me.
I nod with a smile, and pop my trunk, "I got a few other things as well that we needed."
"Okay, honey", dad says, while walking over to the trunk with me.
He grabs a few bags, and I do as well, he turns to the house, and walks over to the front door, fishing his keys out of his pocket, he unlocks the deadbolt, and then the door handle. He opens the door wide, for us to make multiple trips.
Once all of the groceries and non-food have been brought inside, we both start putting everything away where it goes. And once that's done, he pre-heats the oven to 375, and takes out four burritos, and sets them on a baking tray.
"You okay with burritos tonight?" dad asks me.
"Yeah" I smile at him, and pull out the sour cream and guac, "with these too?" I ask.
That's when I hear dads stomach grumble. "I suppose so," dad laughs.
I join his laughter with my own.
Later that night, after eating, I pull out my laptop, and my school work, and start doing the assigned homework. After finishing most of it, I look over to the time.
It's almost 11, I need to get to bed.