Collision Course(21)
Author: S.C. Stephens

He nodded to her and looked back at me. "I’ll see you around, Luc…and be careful. Someone has it out for you."

I smirked at him. "Who doesn’t, Darren?"

He frowned at me and looked about to argue, when I suddenly woke up.

Chapter 7

What the Hell Happened to Me?

I woke from my dream with a fogginess in my head. The moments of the dream were slipping from me but I tried to hold on to them. Darren and Sammy. I closed my eyes and committed what details I could to memory – joking around with Darren, him teasing me again, him concerned for me, him wondering what had happened to me. What had happened to me?

I opened my eyes and looked around my filled with light bedroom. By the looks of things, I’d slept ’til nearly the noon hour. My head felt better…thick, but better. My limbs felt heavy with sleep, but I stretched them out and attempted to work out the kinks. Memories of the pep rally filled my brain over the memory of my dream. I’d seriously made an idiot of myself.

Sighing, I sat up in my bed, stretching my arms over my head. I was sore and stiff…and so thirsty it hurt to swallow. I stood up and my head swam. I stayed perfectly still until the rushing feeling passed. I had no idea what had been done to me yesterday, but I knew I didn’t do it. As I took small, calculated steps to my door, I ran through a list of people who’d love to embarrass me. Unfortunately the list was exceedingly long.

By the time I shuffled my way to the bathroom, I had a list that consisted of a third of the high school. That wasn’t helping. Leaning over the sink, I turned on the water and forgoing a cup, held my head under the sink, letting the cool water hit my tongue and nearly sighing at the joy of the hydrating liquid coursing down my throat.

Yes, yesterday had been embarrassing…but there were several other ways to embarrass me. That had been a rather elaborate plan to get me messed up at school, and while I’m sure that had been hilarious for my tormentor, that was just a side effect of their true purpose…to get me expelled. Water continued streaming down me, parching my thirst as I thought about that. The school was cracking down on drugs and alcohol. Everyone thought I had a problem anyway, so no one would question me being messed up on school grounds. And now, one more strike and I was gone from that school. Well, at least Josh would love that.

I immediately stood straight and stared at myself in the mirror. Water dripped off my chin and I listened to the surging force of it pouring out of the faucet. Josh. On the list of who not only wanted me embarrassed, but wanted me gone…he was at the very top. But what did he do to me…and how? I tried to think back to when I’d seen him last. It was easy to remember. He’d smacked into me and then sat on my chest until I couldn’t even breathe. His words early that morning echoed in my head – ‘Have a good day at school…you deserve it’.

That’s what he’d meant…he wanted me out.

I shut the water off on the faucet and stared at the few remaining droplets hanging ferociously to the chrome metal. Water…Aspirin. That’s when I’d started feeling…different. If Sawyer really did only give me Aspirin, and I believed that she did – she was the only person in that school that genuinely cared for me, then it had to be my water. He did something to my water. But when?

I thought back to when he’d tackled me. He’d held me down for a long time. I’d been more concerned with trying to breathe than what else was going on. Maybe he got Randy to go through my bag, dose my water. I closed my eyes and ran a hand down my face as I remembered picking my bag up from the floor…and putting the contents back inside. I’d assumed they’d fallen out from slipping off my shoulder, but a lot had fallen out. It really made more sense that someone was rifling through it. I used to eat lunch with those guys all the time. Randy would have known I always had water with my lunch and I usually saved some for after school. They used to tease me about it – that I couldn’t even down a water.

I clenched my hand into a fist and slammed it into the wall next to the mirror. I heard the plaster crack and felt the pain jolt up my arm, but I ignored it. Josh must have figured that if he hurt me enough, I might take something with my water. Truly for him it was a long shot that it’d actually work…that I’d actually drink it at school, but odds were, I’d drink it somewhere and I guess he’d hoped I’d get busted by someone; the school’s new policy was being messed up anywhere…it happening at school, at a pep rally, well, that was just a happy bonus for him. Fucking Josh and his f**king vendetta. Darren would have his ass if he knew what he’d orchestrated against me.

I didn’t know what to do about Josh now. A part of me had hoped that somehow, over the course of time, some of our old friendship would come back. A part of me hoped beyond anything that he’d stop hating me. I’d wanted to talk to him on several occasions, but his baleful glares or cruel words had always stopped me. He didn’t want to talk, he wanted to fight. So now what do I do? I really didn’t want to fight with a friend…but then, we really weren’t friends anymore. If yesterday was showing me anything, it was that I was failing at not letting him engage me, and in my current mood, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to not engage him. If he kept this up, I wasn’t sure what I’d do, and that thought didn’t thrill me.

God, I just needed one more year. Less than that, really. I could be out of this town by summer.

I removed my fist from the wall and guilty looked at the cracks in it. I’d have to fix that before Mom noticed. I gingerly opened my hand and looked at my raw knuckles. I ran a finger over them, wiping a smidge of blood away. Great. I turned the faucet back on and washed off the blood. Harming inanimate objects wasn’t going to help anything. Hastily, I finished up in the bathroom and then shuffled my way out to the kitchen for food. I was starving.

I walked slowly through the living room, looking around for my surely angry parent. Not seeing her, I cautiously continued on into the kitchen. I peeked my head around the corner, but didn’t see her there either. Curious at her absence, I headed to the fridge. Plucking a note off the door, my curiosity was instantly squelched.

‘Had to go into work to cover the hours I missed yesterday. Eat something. I love you, Mom.’

I sighed and read the note again. Guilt washed through me that she had to work this afternoon because she’d missed her shift at the diner last night. She didn’t get paid time off and we couldn’t afford even a few hours without pay, so she went in on what was supposed to be her day off, to make up the hours. Because of me.

I sighed and put the note on the counter. Nothing in it sounded angry. No ‘we’re talking about this when I get home’. No ‘you are grounded, so no leaving the house’. Nothing. Just, I love you, eat something.

Once again, Mom was going to let this slide. I sighed noisily as I went about making myself a sandwich. Mom may let this one slide, but the school was not. I was out of there for two weeks. I had to smile a bit and shake my head that being released from the obligation of school was considered a punishment…but then I frowned. Two weeks without school meant two weeks without Sawyer. She couldn’t skip with me, and she might already be in trouble with her super strict parents for being so late in coming home, waiting around school for so long with me. They may have even grounded her for that…which meant I really wouldn’t see her for quite a long time. I wasn’t sure if I could handle that. I may have crossed the line in our friendship, but I’d meant it when I’d said she was my best friend. She was…and I was going to miss her.

I finished making my peanut butter and jelly sandwich and shuffled into the living room to eat it. My head felt marginally normal, if three times too big for my body. I found if I sat still and didn’t move much, it wasn’t so bad. I turned on the TV while I ate at a snail’s pace, trying not to move and trying not to think.

I’d finished my meal and was getting lost in the simplicity of some cheesy tween show, when a soft knock sounded at the door. I looked down at myself, at the lounge pants and ratty t-shirt that Mom had helped me change into last night when she’d gotten me ready for bed, and sighed. Nothing like a nearly grown man needing help changing. I pushed aside that humility and stood up, deciding that I was decent enough to answer the door. It was probably just the mail anyway.

Walking slowly and carefully, each step meticulously plotted before being executed, I finally made it to the door as another soft knock echoed through it to me. "Hold on," I muttered as I turned the knob. Expecting to see our squat mail lady, with a frazzled look on her face and a stack of mail too big for our box, I was beyond surprised at seeing Sawyer standing on my step, rubbing her hands together and shifting her weight nervously.

I smiled and opened the door wider. "Hey…what are you doing here?"

She returned my smile and twirled the ring on her thumb, a habit she sometimes did when she was nervous. I frowned as I wondered if I made her nervous. How badly had I messed things up yesterday?

"I wanted to make sure you’re okay?" Her pale eyes ran over my face, studying me like my mom sometimes did.

I shifted my weight and noted the heavy feeling throughout my body…and the return of my thirst. "I’m fine, I guess." I shrugged and she frowned, but nodded.

An awkward silence built up as I stood in the door and she fidgeted on the steps. Finally she muttered, "Well, okay. I just wanted to make sure…"

She started to turn away, to go to her car, when I reached out and grabbed her arm to stop her. She looked back at where we were touching and then up at my face. I couldn’t read her expression, but I hoped she was okay with the contact. "Wait…will you, will you stay with me for a little while?" My brows scrunched hopefully as she looked me over. It would be so nice to be with her for a little bit before our forced separation.

Finally, she nodded and stepped forward. "I guess, for a little bit. My parents had to run out of town on an errand, so I have a few hours before they send a search patrol out for me." She raised one corner of her lip and I got the feeling she was only half teasing.

I relaxed my grip on her and stepped back from the door, so she could enter. "My mom is gone too…so you don’t need to be nervous about running into her."

She nodded as she entered my house and a part of me thrilled that she was finally inside my home. She looked over things as she entered – photos on the wall, knickknacks on the shelves, the mismatched furniture. I followed behind her as she made her way to the living room couch and motioned for her to sit when she looked back at me uncertainly.

She shrugged out of my jacket, slinging it over the side of the couch, before she finally did. I carefully sat next to her, my head and body still feeling the effects of yesterday’s multiple abuses. Suddenly I remembered my aching thirst and I looked over at her.

"I need some water…do you want anything?" She shook her head and continued looking over my home while I slowly stood back up and got a large glass from the kitchen. When I sat back down, she was picking at the sleeves of her shirt but a soft, genuine smile lit her lips. I smiled in kind at seeing it…and at seeing her on my couch. "I’m glad you came over. I’m glad you finally came inside." I raised an eyebrow, or tried to anyway, and she laughed quietly.

"Yeah, well, yesterday was…" she pulled at her long sleeve and studied the fabric of the couch in the space between us, "…weird." She looked back up at me and I felt my cheeks heat in remembered embarrassment. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay."