A Monster (Pt. 1)

I wake up to a group text including everyone other than Kyle. It’s an invitation from Simon to hold another meeting today after school. A meeting not about the gems, but the bond we share over them.

I reply saying that it sounds great. After a few minutes worth of responses, it looks like all of us can go.

After getting ready for school, I walk downstairs and sit down for breakfast.

Eggs, again.

“So, Allen,” my mom asks me inquisitively. “You stayed at a friend’s house the other night?”

“Yeah, why do you ask?”

Unable to hold back the emotion, her eyes well with tears.

“My little boy has friends!”

Ouch. But, I guess I never told her about them. I haven’t had friends for a long time, so I see why she’d be worried about me. Mom isn’t usually home after school, so I never bothered to tell her where I was. She would’ve never known that I was going out with friends this whole time. She only knows now because I was forced to spend the night at Christina’s.

“Yeah, I’ve made a lot of friends recently. Sarah, Dylan, Simon, Rachel, and Christina,” I recite while leaving Kyle out on purpose. I’m still annoyed from the last time I saw him.

… am I petty?

“That’s so many! Good for you. You said Sarah’s name first…” She winks at me. “Is she special to you?”

The scrambled eggs in my mouth get caught in my throat, causing me to cough violently.

“Mom! N-no of course not.”

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding,” she laughs. “But from that reaction…”

I glare at her with the meanest face I can muster.

“Right, right. Still, you’re back in the game. Only a few months of school left before you graduate, but that’s plenty of time!”

Wow. I’m really close to being an adult. That’s… scary.

“So, whose house did you spend the night at?”

Uh… this might cause a misunderstanding.

“… Dylan’s?”

Before I could catch myself, I lied.

“That’s fun. I’m glad that you’re finally in the groove of socializing again. Don’t try to ‘set them straight’ anymore, you got it? That’s where your other friends went.”

Yeah, I did do that a lot. I still won’t give up on my justice, luckily Dylan and Sarah haven’t bothered me yet. We seem to fit well together. I can’t promise not to set them straight, I will only believe that I won’t have to.

I pull out my phone and…

“Look at the time! Sorry, mom! I’m going to be late!”

Mom smiles at me, “Bike safe!”

Hopping on my bike, I pedal like I never have before!

After school, Dylan and Rachel go home on the bus while I stay with Sarah. I’m going to do it. I’m going to ask her on a date.

To start, I chat with her on the way to her car.

“What’s your favorite genre of movie, Sarah?”

“… Horror, probably.”

Oh, I’m bad with horror.

“Horror movies are cool… want to go see one with me?”

Again, like it was natural.

She glances up at me, then quickly looks away again, “That sounds good.”

“How’s tomorrow? We’ll be hanging out with Simon and the other’s today.”

“That sounds good.”

“Do you have a certain one that you’d like to see?”

“That sounds good.”

“I think I broke her.”

Her lips stretch into a soft smile.

Mission success!

“Sweet! I’ll see you at the meeting!”

I sit on my bike and prepare to leave.

“Wait…” Sarah interrupts. “Do you… want to ride with me? You can put your bike on the back of my car.”

This is the best day of my life.

The ride to the meeting is mostly silence. Not an awkward one, I think. Just the typical silence you get with her. I understand now that she doesn’t always want to talk, so I’ll start conversations occasionally. If she doesn’t add much to it, I’ll leave her alone.

It can feel like she doesn’t want to talk to me, but I don’t want to misunderstand her. That would be bad. She already unloaded all of her thoughts on me, the ones she didn’t want to tell anyone else. She trusted me because she believed that I wouldn’t misunderstand her. I need to live up to that.

Sarah is a person who doesn’t always enjoy social interaction, not because she dislikes the person talking to her, it’s because she dislikes the talking. I can’t really understand that because I get lonely easily, but it’s a part of her I’ve accepted.

We arrive at the old school building and get out of the car.

We park in the same spot as always, a short walk from the actual building.

“Hey guys!” I smile as I walk through the door.

The old building feels a little like home now. As I turn into the doorless doorway, I can’t stop myself from grinning.

Simon, Christina, Rachel and Dylan are already here. Sarah and I were last to arrive.

“Welcome!” Simon greets us with a smile.

“Hey, why’d the two of you show up together?” Christina smirks at Sarah.

Why does she have to be so observant?!

“Well you see,” I begin, it’s already too late to be shy now. Sarah can’t stop herself from blushing, though. That’s how she is. There’s no reason to hide it, it’s just a little embarrassing for late bloomers like us. Actually, now that I think about it, would even beating around the bush or understating be rude to Sarah who is right beside me? Better to be blunt, “I asked her out on a date.”

Dylan’s the only one who shows even relative surprise.

Christina claps her hands together, “Good goin’ girl!”

Simon nods his head, “Congratulations!”

Wait, did they already know Sarah liked me? Was it that obvious? Maybe they were just happy for her, but it sounds to me like they knew already.

Dylan was confused, “Wait. You two are like, dating now?”

“Heh heh heh,” I laugh nervously. It wasn’t something I thought about at first but it could be awkward for Dylan from now on, “Yeah, I guess so.”

Sarah stares at the ground and avoids making eye contact with anyone. I hope I made the right decision.

“Wow, that surprised me. Congrats guys.”

Christina looks excited for this fresh drama, “Have you been on a date yet? When was it?”

“Not yet. We’re going to see a movie tomorrow.”

“Ah, I see, I see. You love birds have fun!”

Again, as weird as she phrased that, I’m not in a position to deny it with the girl in question right beside me. Christina is really good at making the most of this opportunity. She’s messing with us hard.

“Anyway,” I try to change the topic. “What’s up with you guys?”

“Not much,” Simon says. “We’re preparing for our finals at school, they’re coming fast. They even gave us this giant packet to study.”

“You’re still a junior, right? You’ve still got another year. It’s weird that this is the end of highschool for me.”

“I’m only a year younger, it can’t be that big of a difference in feel.”

Christina goes pale, cutting our conversation short, “I forgot about the finals. I haven’t studied at all! I could fail…”

Simon pats her on the back.

“I’m sure you’ll do fine. Maybe we could hold a group study session? That would be fun!”

“I’m all for it,” Dylan chimes in. He’s probably behind in his studies too.

Actually, I haven’t studied either. I’m smarter than Dylan, but I still really should study to be safe.

I’m sure Sarah has it covered though. Her and Rachel might not even need to study to ace the finals! I guess I don’t know if Rachel is smart, but she somehow feels that way.

“Guys, I hate to do this, but I have to go for now,” Christina explains while hurrying out the door. “I’ll come back, but I left all of my textbooks at school. I’m going to need them this weekend, so hopefully the school hasn’t locked its doors yet. I’ll try to be fast!”

“Bye!” Simon shouts to her.

Once Christina is gone, Sarah quietly asks, “… Can you tell us more about Christina? She’s one of the few people I don’t know that much about yet. She seems a lot like Dylan, but I haven’t heard too much from her.”

We really don’t know anything about her. I didn’t realize until just now how little I knew about her. Sarah must’ve had it on her mind for a while, seeing as how fast she brought up the topic after Christina left.

“Hm…” Simon thinks for a moment before speaking frankly. “She talks big, but she’s actually a small person. Not in a bad way! She just isn’t very strong on her own. That’s why I need to be there for her.”

How sweet. The cute little Simon looks out for the significantly bigger and tougher Christina. It seems like the opposite on the surface.

“That’s really nice,” Dylan says.

“Yeah, she’s great. She’s funny and talkative and is always looking out for me. Well, she tries to, but all she can really do to look out for me is make sure nobody is mean to me. I don’t have any enemies anyway, so it’s not super helpful to be honest,” Simon looks up and smiles brightly. “Still, I really appreciate her.”

Man, I really hope Christina is hiding behind the door, listening. I’d love to see her face hearing all this.

… I wonder what Christina’s Delusion is. The fact that she has one means there’s got to be a little more to her, right?

“Sounds more like you two are dating than Allen and Sarah,” Dylan remarks.

Simon’s cheeks go a little rosy and he looks at the table, “N-no! We aren’t.”

“I know, I know,” he winks. “I’m just teasing ya.”

“C’mon!”

We all chuckle at Simon’s expense. Although, he laughs too so it’s all in good fun. It was me a couple minutes ago, so it’s only fair.

We continue to chat and mess around for a while. Eventually Christina returns with her textbooks and throws her arm over Simon’s shoulder.

“I’m back! You wouldn’t believe how close I cut it,” Christina sighs deeply.

I can’t help but smile at the sight of Christina hanging off of Simon again.

Our little meeting continued until the sun began to set. There were plenty of laughs and we had a great time. Dylan eventually needed to go and everyone began to leave.

First it was Dylan and then Rachel, and then Christina and Simon, leaving me alone with Sarah.

“Are you ready to go?” I ask.

“Of course.”

We both get in her car and begin to drive back to my place. I don’t really know much to say to her, so the car drive is mostly quiet.

You know what? I could use some music right now.

“What type of music do you listen to, Sarah?”

“… Probably indie rock or alternative rock.”

“That’s a pretty good choice. Want to listen to some?”

Sarah always kept her radio off until now. She probably prefers silence.

“Sure.”

Sarah turns to her favorite station and some music begins to play. She keeps it at a relatively low volume.

“We’re here.”

“Thanks for driving and I can’t wait… for our date tomorrow.”

“Yeah! I’m looking forward to it,” she smiles.

Waving goodbye, I unpack my bike and walk through my front door.

I pop a frozen dinner in the microwave and wait for it to cook. My mind wanders in anticipation for tomorrow. It’s going to be great, I hope.

“Knock Knock Knock”

It hasn’t been long, I wonder if Sarah forgot something?

I open the door and Sarah looks up at me.

“Sorry I’m already back. I forgot to tell you something.”

“What is it?”

“Well, my phone broke so I just got a new one. It’s from a different provider so it has a new number, I wanted to make sure you knew before tomorrow.”

“Oh, alright. What’s your number?”

“Here, can I see your phone?”

She isn’t a talkative person, maybe she doesn’t want to say every number?

I hand her my unlocked phone on the contacts app.

In a flash, she hands my phone back with her updated contact.

“Thanks.”

“Of course! I’ll see you tomorrow.”

The door shuts and she’s already gone.