Falling Awake (4 page)

The bell rang and I grabbed my bag from off the desk and stormed out of the classroom with Mellissa hot on my heels.  

“Whoa, what’s wrong with you?” She asked, catching up to me.

“Nothing.” I continued to barge my way through the crowds. “I just forgot something in my locker and I need to get it quickly before first period.” She grabbed my arm and I slowed to a stop.

“I’ve got Mrs Anderson now, so I’ll see you at lunch?”

“Yeah, I’ll meet you in the cafeteria,” I said half-heartedly, scanning the hallway for any sign of Caleb and his new girlfriend.

“Right, and you can tell me what is going on with you and lover boy in there, because I have known you all my life and not once, have I ever seen you look at, or act that way around a guy before.” She raised her freshly plucked eyebrows. I should have been surprised at her accurate observation skills, but I was just angry with myself for being so freaking obvious.  

“There’s nothing to tell. I’m fine,” I said, turning and walking away in the direction of science class.

“Don’t tell me, tell your face!” She shouted after me.

***

I’d made it all morning without bumping into Nathan. It was mostly because he was a senior and I was a junior, so obviously we had no classes together, but as I walked into the lunchroom my heart sank at the sight of him sitting there surrounded by most of the football team. He was the centre of the conversation and they all seemed to be laughing at an animated story he was telling. One of them gave him a high five and I really hoped he wasn’t telling them about what happened last night.

I decided to skip lunch and grabbed an apple instead that I kept in my locker for hunger emergencies, and sat outside on the grass to eat it. I sent Mellissa a text telling her where I was and to meet me out here. After I finished my apple, I lay back and propped myself up on my elbows with my bare legs crossed in front of me, with the warm sun on my face. The morning had started with a damp, dewy chill in the air that rolled in from the Olympic mountains, but I was now thankful for deciding to wear my shorts it had turned out so warm. I was wishing I’d brought my sunglasses with me when a shadow fell across my view and I squinted up into Nathan's face.

"Mind if I sit with you a minute?" I quickly sat up tucking my legs under me.

"I'd really rather you didn't," I said honestly. Ignoring me, he sat down with enough distance between us that there was no risk of him pouncing on me again.

Turning to him I asked, "What exactly do you want Nathan? I really have nothing to say to you." He lowered his gaze to the grass and tugged at the lush strands as he spoke.

"No, but I have something to say to you." He wiped his arm across his sweaty brow and I noticed a scabbed over, bloodied split in the corner of his mouth. "Wow it's hot out here," he said, removing his letterman jacket to reveal a royal blue sleeveless vest underneath. His messy brown hair flopped over his eyes and he pushed it back out of the way.

"I'm so sorry for last night,” he said in a hushed tone. “I was an ass to you; I was totally out of order. I really don’t know what I was thinking, I wasn’t thinking." He met my gaze with mildly apologetic eyes but I wasn’t buying it, no way.

"I'd had way too much to drink," he continued. “And seeing you, and how you looked and everything. I just got carried away." Anger slowly started pulsing its way through my veins. "What's that supposed to mean? Seeing me and how I look?" He looked away from me, shifting positions so he had one knee up with his arm resting on it.

“And I would say getting carried away is a massive understatement,” I threw in.

"It's no secret I'm crazy about you. Everyone knows it. And then you just went and humiliated me like that." He looked embarrassed. "No one’s ever rejected me before, and I couldn’t stand that rejection coming from you of all people."

I decided I’d heard enough and I stood up hovering directly over him. "Well actually that's news to me. I hadn't heard that, and for you to sit there and use that as an excuse for what you did to me…DO YOU EVEN SEE MY LIP?" I was aware that my voice had now risen to a high enough noise level that people were beginning to stare.

He looked away guiltily. "I'm sorry. You know that was an accident."

That was It. "AN ACCIDENT OH RIGHT," I practically screamed.  

"Then I'm sorry I hit you in the balls for forcing yourself on me and you accidently bit my lip because of it.” I was shaking with rage.

He started frantically looking around us, probably to see how many people were witnessing this spectacle, and then finally he stood up and grabbed me by the hand. "Please," he begged pathetically.

"No. Get lost Nathan. I don’t want to hear it, and I don’t want to ever speak about this, or to you again. You’re lucky I didn’t go to the cops." I peeled his fingers off my arm and shoved his hand away.

"Everything okay here?" Caleb stood beside me. He had a knack of just appearing out of nowhere. He was slicker than a ghost.

"Argh not you again," Nathan groaned.

"Why, what you gonna do about it tough guy?" Caleb glared down into his face menacingly. I had thought Nathan quite tall but Caleb’s well over six-foot frame dwarfed him.

"You can get lost as well," I shouted. "I don’t need your help." And I stormed off leaving them both standing there alone with each other.

Mellissa was heading towards me, looking from Caleb to Nathan confused. "What the hell was all that about?" she demanded as I dragged her away with me by the arm.

***

The rest of the day went by without incident and I only had one class with Caleb, where I spent the whole of the Math lesson ignoring him. I knew it was immature but I was pissed at him for letting Tamara throw herself at him and refusing to acknowledge my existence up until he swooped in again as the hero.

I met with Mr Kelly after school and was relieved to find out that I had been invited on a trip to Paris thanks to my academic excellence. The trip would be a mix of students achieving the highest grades and those who, well, weren’t doing quite so well. Mr Kelly was always trying to find ways to bring the divided students together somehow.

Mellissa however, was less than thrilled when I told her about the trip as she waited for me outside of homeroom, and stormed in after me demanding an explanation as to why she hadn’t been considered to come along.

I explained everything that happened yesterday to her on the ride home to my house, and we now sat in my bedroom, her on the window seat and I lay across my bed on my side with my head propped up in my hand.

"I can’t believe it, I really can’t," she gaped at me. "That jerk. I swear I could kill that animal right now," she said with a scowl. She had pretty much gone on like this since we arrived home about forty minutes ago. “I mean, I always thought Nathan was a bit of a chauvinistic creep, but this? Even for him it’s bad. His mother broke the mould when she gave birth to him, I’ll tell you that. I think she needs to jump back in her time machine and seriously re-consider ever having sex with his dad.” I cringed at the thought, scrunching up my face.

She leaned forward grinning at me. "Get you though, having Caleb save your ass like that. He is so hot he should come with a flammable warning."

"God you did not just say that,” I said laughing. "He is hot though." I agreed, smiling back at her.

"So how did it go with Mr Kelly anyway?" I asked, changing the subject. Caleb was a rocky subject for me. He unhinged me every time I thought of, or spoke his name.

"Well, I told him I wasn’t happy that he didn't think enough of me academically to invite me on his smarty pants vacation, and he practically implied that I could come along as an under achiever and get some tutoring," she said highly irritated, and  I couldn’t help but laugh as I pictured the hilarious scene in my head.

She looked at me unimpressed. "Come on, let’s go downstairs and eat. I’m starving." She arched her back and rubbed her perfectly flat stomach. I was starving too I realised, remembering I hadn’t eaten much today or yesterday, and my stomach growled in agreement.

After searching the kitchen, I fixed us frozen pizzas and salad. While we were eating, the front door opened then slammed shut and my dad walked into the kitchen.

"Hi girls." He ruffled my hair and planted a kiss on my cheek.

"Hey dad," I said in between chewing. I reached up a hand to straighten out my hair. I wasn’t expecting to see him home so early.

"Hey Mr Jensen, how you doing tonight?" Mellissa asked, smiling at him seductively. I hated it when she sweet-talked my dad like that. I swear if he gave her the opportunity she would pounce on him quicker than a lion in heat.

He was thirty-five but he looked twenty-five with his rugged good looks as Mellissa would say, and physically, he was very fit. His hair was an unusual dull shade of grey with hints of the odd silver streak.

"I'm good thanks for asking, how was school today?" We both looked at each other and just as Mellissa was about to open her mouth I quickly spoke first.

"It was fine dad. Uneventful but fine." I swallowed my mouth full of cheese pizza. He scrutinized my face carefully and grabbing my chin, steered my face upwards towards the light.

"What happened to your lip?" he demanded. Ah crap I thought, and noticed Mellissa suddenly become very interested in her once abandoned pizza crusts.

"This little thing, it's nothing. Jenny threw a wayward ball during volleyball yesterday like she had butter in her hands and it hit me right in the mouth," I lied. He would go crazy if he knew what had really happened.

"It looks nasty; did you put some antiseptic on that?" He released my face and went to wash up at the kitchen sink, seemingly satisfied with my answer.

"All taken care of dad, don’t worry about it. It'll practically be gone tomorrow. There’s a plate in the microwave for you." I looked at Mellissa. She was sitting there shooting me daggers.

  "Stop it," I mouthed.

"Great," he said, removing his flannel shirt and throwing it across the counter. "I’m starved."

His white t-shirt underneath was streaked with black grease as usual. He took his plate from the microwave and sat on a stool opposite us at the kitchen island.

"I have to go back to the garage shortly. I’ve left Caleb on a job that really needs to be finished up tonight." He shoved a slice of pepperoni pizza into his mouth. I was still struggling to get my head around the fact that my dad would actually consider letting someone else into his self-built man fort.

“I never knew you were hiring,” Mellissa said with a smirk on her face, looking at me sideways. She knew fine well Caleb worked for him. I’d not long ago filled her in on all the details and I wondered what on earth she was playing at.

"I didn’t have a choice. I’ve got too much on lately for one person."

"Well I think it's a great idea dad. Maybe you'll be able to spend more time at home now." I added quickly.

"That's the plan.” He nodded, chewing on a mouthful of food.

“Or-” Mellissa said, with a look on her face that I knew all too well. “You could spend more time at the garage Pria.”

She cried out as I kicked her hard under the counter, and my dad looked between us with a frazzled expression on his face. He was obviously missing what was going on here.

"So, what's this person like? I mean is it someone we know?" Mellissa asked, rubbing her leg and shooting me a look of disgust.

I was seriously going to kill her.

He shoved the last bit of pizza into his mouth then wiped his mouth and hands with a paper napkin. I looked down at his plate.

"Dad, your salad." I stabbed my fork at the untouched green pile sitting on the side of his plate.

"Honey, you know I can’t digest that stuff. And to answer your question... You might know him, he’s just enrolled at your school, and I’ll tell you this. I had a string of women turn up at the garage yesterday wanting their cars fixed. I had to turn them away because I couldn’t find a single thing wrong with them.”

I grimaced at the thought of them throwing themselves at Caleb, and I pushed my almost full plate away. My appetite had all but disappeared at the turn of the conversation.

“And these women,” he continued, and I wished he would just shut up and get back to work already.

“They had like twenty and thirty years on him.” There was definitely admiration in his voice.

“That’s strange,” I said, folding my arms in front of me. “I found him to be quite rude and unfriendly. Not great customer service if you ask me. Maybe you should consider finding someone else for the job.” It was a low blow, but I couldn’t stand the idea of Caleb using the garage- the garage that had been my hideout for most of my life, as his new spot to pick up women. He obviously didn’t give a crap about my dad’s business.

“Well I know about ten or twenty women who would disagree with you.” He gave a satisfied nod of the head and I pulled my eyes into slits, drowning him with the blackest look I had in me.

“Okay dad that’s great,” I said, before he shattered my soul even more.

“Listen, I have to go and pick up a few things, then I’m heading back out to the garage." He stood up, throwing his plate into the sink.