Chapter 6: Flashback

“Skylar! Are you coming? You’re going to be late for school!”

“Coming, Mom!”

I hurried to put my hair into a slightly chaotic bun and straightened my top. And after a final look in the mirror, I rushed into the kitchen and grabbed the breakfast Mom had prepared for me.

I always felt bad for throwing it into the nearest trash can, but I simply wasn’t a breakfast person. And as long as she didn’t know…

“I love you,” I said and offered my biggest smile after hugging her goodbye.

“Love you too, sweetie. Good luck on your test today. Oh, and you need to call Aunt Viv when you get home. She has some clothes…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I will. And thanks.”

Aunt Vivian and her clothes were the last thing on my mind today. She had enough to fill five stores, and it was a never-ending story to find where to put them all.

That’s why she often asked if I could come over to pick out whatever I wanted, which would’ve been a kind offer. ~If~ we shared the same sense of fashion.

Unfortunately, we didn’t, so I usually just accepted whatever she gave me and pretended to be thrilled. To me it was more like taking one for the team.

Everything that came out of that house was a good thing. If only she could stop filling it with new things…

The school bus was just about to leave when I stepped inside, breathing like a whale.

“Late again, are we?” the female bus driver commented dryly. Her face looked like a piece of granite, as always, and her lips were almost nonexistent every time she pursed them into a thin line.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Jameson. It won’t happen again.”

“Just like you said yesterday and the day before, and the day before that again. Sit your ass down.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I muttered and rolled my eyes when I’d walked past her. “I’m still sorry, though. Have a nice day.”

That woman loved to call me out and made sure everybody heard. It had almost become a habit now. Nevertheless, I tried to be polite and did as she told me.

I quickly found my usual seat and slumped down with a huff. My best friend, Keesha, was waiting a couple of stops down the road, and I actually felt both anxious and excited to tell her my little secret.

The houses passed by like gray-and-white shadows in the corner of my eye, randomly spiced with bright colors from commercials signs, a few colorful buildings, and some trees here and there.

The suburbs of Chicago simply couldn’t be any less boring, and the thought of the long day at school that lay ahead of me was downright depressing.

The math test today and the midterm exam next week just made it all worse.

“Hi!” Keesha exclaimed when she saw me as she entered the bus, and then, “Tell me!”

Her excitement made me giggle. Especially since I remembered how angry she was yesterday when I didn’t want to tell her the news. I just didn’t want to say it over the phone.

Also, she was usually not angry for very long, and I really needed to see her face to face when I said it. So that’s the way it went.

“Okay, okay, I will! Just calm down.”

When she finally sat down next to me, she threw herself around my neck just like she always did when we met, and we giggled until I snorted, and then we giggled even more.

“Well…?”

Keesha nailed me with her eyes and rubbed her hands together.

“Will you give me a moment?”

Keesha pretended to wait for an eternity and a half until she looked at her wristwatch and tapped her finger on it. Calling her patient was a waste of breath.

“There! A moment is gone. Now, spill the beans,” she demanded, and I sighed and blushed. Then I leaned forward to whisper in her ear.

“Please be quiet. Okay?”

She nodded frantically and grinned from ear to ear.

“I-I…I sort of…Imetsomeone,” I mumbled as fast as I could.

There was a short, stunned silence, and I was wondering if she’d heard me or not.

“WHAT?” she exclaimed in a lousy attempt to whisper and eyeballed me. “Say that one more time. Slowly and understandably, please, because I’m sure I heard wrong.”

“I met someone,” I whispered a little louder while glancing around. Luckily no one seemed to be interested in our hushed conversation.

Everyone seemed to be busy talking about the upcoming barbecue party this weekend.

One that everyone knew would end in a terrible mess of drunken teenagers, and possibly also cops that had to break up the fights that were destined to happen.

“But don’t tell my mom, because he’s kind of…old.”

“What? Skylar!”

She shoved my shoulder with her fist and gave me one of her absolutely widest smirks.

“Nice going, girl! How old?”

I writhed in my seat and thought of all possible ways to avoid the question, but I knew Keesha would never leave it unanswered. If you say A…

“Come on. How old? He’s not over thirty, is he? Because that would totally…”

Then she looked at my face and stopped herself.

“He is? Oh, my God! How much over?”

I felt so awkward and embarrassed that I didn’t know what to do with myself. But I coughed discreetly and said it into my hand as I covered my mouth from possible lip readers.

“Thirty-two.”

“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!! That’s…Wow! Where did you meet him?”

“At the library.”

She gasped dramatically and held her hand over her heart.

“Since when did you start to go to the library? You always study at home.”

“Since I saw him,” I said, and my cheeks felt awfully warm. Then I felt the need to elaborate a bit. “Uhm…He kind of works there.”

Her eyes widened.

“You stalked him?!” she exclaimed, and I started coughing.

“No, of course not! I just walked by a few times, and then there was this book my mom told me to look for, and…”

“Girl, that’s the lamest excuse I’ve ever heard. We both know that your mother only reads gossip magazines,” she retorted with an eyeroll. “But seriously, what does he look like?”

I bit my lip to hide a smile. My stomach fluttered so badly that I wanted to laugh just at the thought of him.

“He’s tall, not too muscular, and his hair is kind of messy.”

“Blond?”

“No, dark brown,” I explained, and lifted an eyebrow when she looked relieved.

“Oh, phew.”

“What? Why?”

“Oh, nothing,” she shrugged, and I was about to tell her to explain when she bombarded me with questions. “Are his eyes brown too? The eyes tell everything about a person, you know. If he’s a nice, bad, or just dumb.”

I giggled at her silly analysis of men.

“Gray.”

“Gray? That’s definitely different. Dark-brown hair and gray eyes? Interesting combination. So how is he? Have you kissed yet?”

Then she gasped dramatically.

“Nooo! You’re planning to give him your V card? Oh, my gosh!”

She was still whispering, but really loud, and I almost died on the spot.

“Keesha! I swear to God, if you don’t stop, I’m going to murder you right on this bus!” I hissed through my teeth. Then I continued whispering again.

“I’ve barely talked to him. Of course, we haven’t kissed! And on that last part, I don’t even want to answer.”

“Aw,” she whined, and I elbowed her hard enough to make her groan instead. And then we both started laughing. “So, are you ready this weekend? Brad and the guys are going to be there.”

She always seemed so happy talking about her boyfriend, and I wondered when it was my time to feel that way. But when she hinted about her boyfriend’s best friend, Simon, my smile morphed into an unamused pout.

“Oh, I’m not sure. I think I’m going to st…”

She cut me off before I even knew how to finish my sentence.

“Don’t you dare say you’re going to stay home and study! You already study 70 percent of your weekends, and the rest is sleeping.

“You need to get a life, girl. And you can’t just forget about Simon because you’ve met some mysterious librarian.”

I scoffed.

“At least Simon is your age,” she added, and I actually felt a bit annoyed at her. She was supposed to be on my side in this. Not ship something that would never happen.

“Why don’t you ever listen? I’m not interested in Simon. He’s too…”

I gestured out into the air because I couldn’t find the right word, so Keesha took the opportunity to fill in the blanks.

“Nice? Caring? Fucking hot? Skylar, he’s perfect for you.”

“But he’s…Argh! He’s boring. And appearance isn’t everything, you know.”

She rolled her eyes at me. Both of us knew he was incredibly handsome and made lots of girls swoon at his feet. Me? Not so much.

“God, you’re so picky!” Keesha scoffed when she realized she didn’t get to play Cupid. Then she took a deep breath that she let out just fast enough to make me know how she felt.

“So, when are you going to meet your handsome, gray-eyed bookworm again?”

Both of us burst out laughing at his new nickname.

“Gosh, now I’m never going to look at him the same way. Thanks a lot.”

Keesha suddenly grinned like the Cheshire Cat and had a mischievous glint in her eyes.

“Yeah? Great! You’re welcome. Then Simon will be happy, and I will picture your bookworm with a small…Let’s just call it a ‘worm’ between his legs.”

“KEESHA!” I exclaimed, before we both broke into fits of laughter. She was just too crazy.

“Sorry. It’s just that you and Simon would be such a great couple. And I already know he adores you.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Oh, I know,” she nodded and actually looked serious for a moment. “He told Brad. He started asking a lot of questions about you, and Brad eventually asked him straight out. Girl, he’s crushing on you big time.”

I blushed and hid my face.

“Keesha, I just can’t. He’s not my type, and I’m just not interested, okay?”

I felt bad now that I knew how he felt. Especially since I didn’t feel the same way. But that was just how it was. He never caused any explosion of butterflies in my stomach.

He never made me speechless with his mere presence. But most of all, his eyes didn’t enthrall me the same way as Kemar’s did. He was like a flame, and I was drawn to him like a moth.

“Okay,” Keesha sighed and shook her head. “But promise you’ll go to the party on Saturday. If not, I’m going to hit your head with one of those damn schoolbooks and drag you there by your hair!”

She squinted at me before she started smirking. “You never told me when you’re going to meet him again.”

“Shh.”

“What? You can’t shush me, and you know it. Now tell me, when is the bookworm going to meet his little flower?” she teased, and my eyes went wide.

“Flower? For Christ’s sake, Keesha! Don’t lecture me about the birds and the bees. Or even bookworms.”

I struggled hard to keep serious, but I managed—barely.

“Oh, come on. Tell me!”

“Nope.”

She groaned loudly when she realized that I wasn’t going to budge this time.

“You’re going to kill me one of these days, girl. I hate you.”

Then she winked at me with a half-smile and shoulder-bumped me.

“Love you too, bitch.”