Pretend (8 page)

"Hey," he said as he gently slipped his hands around my waist. His skin touching mine
,
felt amazing.

             
I felt his warm breath on my cheek as he began to pull me closer to him. I
 
could feel a tingling sensation shooting up my
spine as
 
his finger tips
 
traced my lower back. My eyes were now closed as I waited in anticipation of his next move. He stroked my cheek before whispering something
 
into my ear.

             
"April.”

             
"Yes," I barely whispered back.

             
"I love you.”

             
As the words danced
 
around my mind, my lips formed into a smile. The moment was surreal, it was so perfect. I wanted to bottle up the memory forever.

             
As I opened my eyes, to stare at his beautiful face, I heard a low vibration
.

             
Suddenly my eyes flicked open and I realised that it was
coming from under my bed.
It was just a dream.

My unknown,
 
mysterious lover, faded into the depths of my imagination.

             
I grumbled to myself as the feeling of tiredness encompassed my body. I slipped my hand from under the warmth of my pink duvet and began to stroke the
 
carpet in search of what I now realised, was my cell phone. After a minute or two of searching, I found it. I
 
lifted it from under
neath
the bed and attempted to read the screen. I didn't understand the nu
mbers that were displayed on it. T
hey were certainly not the type of numbers that I was used to seeing. As I allowed my eyes to focus, I realised that I was holding it upside down. If I wasn't so tired, I would have laughed at my own stupidity.
 
Instead, I quickly turned it around to reveal a set of numbers that I still didn't recognise.

             
"Hello," I mumbled into the receiver as I still struggled to adapt to my new surroundings.

             
"You're still in bed!" A familiar voice shouted down the phone.

             
"Crystal?" I asked, still half asleep.

             
"Yes, I've got no allowance left on my cell, so
 
I'm using
 
Aiden's
. Anyway I wanted to know
if you wanted to come out to the park
later
.”

             
"The park?"
I asked, still confused by the sudden jump from my dream to reality.

             
"Yes, you know that place with grass and trees. Jeez April, did Hayley give you some of her drink last night or something?" Crystal asked in a sarcastic tone.

             
Although Crystal was currently annoying the hell out of me by interrupting my sleep I still noticed the fact that she had made an effort to pretend as though last night had never happened. That was the one thing that I loved about our friendship.

             
"No, I'm just tired. Look, can we
talk about this in like an hour?
" I said as I began to drift off again.

             
"No we-"

             
I cut her off, turned my phone onto silent, placed it
back
on top of
 
my chest of draw
er
s and turned back around. I allowed myself to immerse in the warmth of my duvet in
the
hope that I would return to my dream and discover who the mysterious guy was. Unfortunately my plans were interrupted by a knock at my door.

Great!

             
"Come on kiddo, time to get up. We're leavin
g in an hour," Bob's voice said
 
from behind the
 
door.

I forgot that it was Sunday. It was the day tha
t we all went for dinner at my g
randma's house.

             
"Ok," I mumbled.

             
I slowly slipped my legs from under
neath
the cover
s
and lifted my body up. My arms stretched through the air as I began to let out a loud yawn. That felt good. As I
 
allowed my eyes to focus, I realised just how bright it actually was. I walked through my door and into the bathroom.

             
I set the shower and beg
an to brush my teeth
. As I stared into the m
irror, images of Rachel's face appeared in my
mind. I couldn't believe that last night, actually happened and although no one was around, my cheeks still changed to a deep
shade of red
. If only I could have swapped my recent dream for my reality, things would be so much easier.

             
I did
plan to listen to Aiden’s advice
though
. He was right, happy, confident April was in there somewhere and I wanted her back. I needed her back.
It would be hard but I’d try.
Who would have thought that Aiden Daniels would be the one to give out good advice?

             
Once I was finished, I slid open the cabinet above th
e sink and removed my
facial gel from the bottom shelf. I let a small amount slid
e into the palm of my hand
, rubbed my two hands together and applied it to my face,
 
in a circular motion.

             
As the final splashes of water hit my f
ace and all traces of the facial wash
had vanished
a refreshing feeling came over me. I slipped my
pj
bottoms down to my ankles, unbuttoned my top, took off my pants and threw them into the washing basin. I stepped into the shower, letting my toes test the temperature before immersing my entire body. As the
 
sprays of water hit my skin, I smiled. A good shower always helped to wake me up after a long night.

* * *

             
It
was my mom's voice, calling me
 
from downstairs that signalled the end of my shower. I quickly flicked the switch
off
, grabbed my towel and stepped out. I took the moisturiser into my bedroom and clos
ed the door behind me. After twenty
minutes I was completely dressed in my black leggings and
 
my pink,
 
'Keep Calm & Go Shopping' top that Crystal had bought me last Christmas. It wasn't something
that
I would have bought for
 
myself but it looked ok on and it kept Crystal from accusing me of rejecting her presents. I didn't have time to straighten my wet hair and so I quickly threw it into a bun. I applied a thin layer of black eyeliner, slapped some
 
clear lip gloss on my lips, packed my bag and headed downstairs.
 

             
"Mor
n
ing," I said as I walked into the kitchen.

             
"Hey Kiddo," Bob said as he stuffed the remains of his bacon sandwich into his mouth.

             
"Oh Bob, you've got red sauce
everywhere. Morning honey," my
m
om said as she handed him a cloth to clean up his mess.

             
"Sorry angel," he replied before kissing her cheek and wiping up the mess that he
had
made. This made her smile of course
.

             
"What do you want for breakfast sweetheart?" My mom asked.

             
"I'm not really hungry right now, I'll just eat when we get to Grandma's," I replied.

             
"Ok, if you're sure," she said, staring directly at me.

             
"Positive," I replied as I took a seat on one of the stools, in front of the breakfast bar.

             
I suddenly remembered that I had cut Crystal off and
so I took my cell out of my purse
. There were seven missed calls, she must be
mad
by now. I decided that it would be safer to text her at this point.
 
As I unlocked my screen, a message from Kyle immediately
popped up. I had forgotten all about his text from last night. My stomach dropped as I read the message that was written on my screen.

             
You were a mistake. Move on. Kyle

             
I felt sick, literally sick.

             
"Honey, are you ok? You don't look too good," my mom asked, staring
 
at my face. I couldn't began to explain what kind of expression she was faced with as I had never felt anything like this before, so I could only imagine the look that I had on my face.

             
"Yeah, sorry I just have a slight headache," I lied.

             
"Ok, well if it gets any worse
then
you just let me know," she said as she crinkled her forehead.

             
"I will," I mumbled.

             
I deleted the message and his number. I locked my phone and put it back into my
purse
. Crystal would have to wait.
I needed a minute to understand how I was feeling. The closest I got to figuring out how I felt, was numb.

* * *

             
I was silent for most of the journey to Grandma's, just answering yes and no when asked a question. The sick feeling still hadn't left my stomach yet and I wasn't sure how much longer it would just remain a feeling.

             
I suddenly saw a light fl
ashing through the gap of my purse
. I opened it up to find
that
my phone
was
ringing. It was
the number that Crystal had called me from
earlier. It was probably about time that I answered. I took a deep breath and hit the green button.

             
"Do you know how many times I have called you? I thought something was wrong with you!" She squealed down the other end of the phone.

             
"Sorry," I mumbled down the receiver.

             
"Are you ok?" She asked in a softer tone.

             
"Not really," I
replied. T
here was no point in lying and to be quite honest I didn't want to.

             
"What's up?" She asked.

             
"Nothing.”

             
"Oh, you can't talk?"

             
"Nope," I replied, happy that she had gotten the hint straight away. I've tried that with Jess a million times and she still can't grasp the whole phone code conversation.

             
"Ok, well
you've got to come and meet me later so that we can talk," she said in a sympathetic voice.

             
"I can't, I'm going to my g
randma's today," I replied, feeling rather disappointed. I love
d
seeing my
g
randma, but I just wasn't in the mood to put on a fake smile all day and pretend that I was ok, when I'm not.

             
"Ok, so stay at your
g
ran's
for a few hours and them come and chill at the park later," she said as though it were the most logical thing that had ever been said.

             
"Ok, I'll just ask my mom and text you after," I replied.

             
"Yeah and just make sure that you do this time," she said before hanging up.

             
"Mom, Crystal asked if I could go hang out with her later, is that ok?"

             
"Yeah, that shouldn't be a problem sweetheart, you go and enjoy yourself," she said as she threw me a smile in the rear view mirror.

             
"Thanks. O
h and Mrs Daniels invited me to dinner tomorrow, after school. Can I go?"