500 Words in a Chapter

3. Inevitable (Excerpt)

STORY CHAPTER.

The minute Johnny walks into the room, all the control I thought I would have disappears, and it leaves me with a pounding heart, and the dark, uninvited presence of Reality.

I wish I could tell it to go away. To let me live in peace for at least another day, another week. But it won’t budge.

Reality reminds me that it can’t go away.

I am forced to remember the unrequited feelings that slowly seep into my very being, and sit in a loud classroom with thirty other students for the next forty minutes pretending that I haven’t noticed him.

But I’ve noticed him. I’ve noticed the way his eyes aimlessly scan the room, the sounds that his shoes make as he walks to his seat. I’ve noticed the way he sits in his chair. The way he smiles when he says hi to his friends.

And it won’t leave me alone. Just like Reality.

I hate the way this works. One rejection from someone you have feelings for, and it seems impossible to escape. My heart feels suffocated by my own feelings because it has no one to give them to. My subconscious is held hostage by dreams of him because it is the only place I can have him.

And my lungs are exhausted, tired of malfunctioning at the mere mention of his name.

I don’t know what to do.

I guess I was naïve in thinking I would be what Johnny wanted. But I knew I wasn’t perfect. I just thought I had a chance.

"Alissa," someone in front of my desk says.

And when I look up, I realize class has started. Mr. Lisboa rocks back and forth on his heels in front of me and I bring my head up further to see his gaze fixed on the paper that rests on my desk.

I look down at it the same way he does.

My heart stops when I realize what day today is.

“It’s your turn to read an original poem to start the class,” my English teacher says. When I look at him again, I open my mouth to say something, but nothing comes out.  His impatience is clear as he raises his eyebrows at me. “Stand up, Alissa.”

Slowly, I do what he says. My hands grip the paper so tightly that I am certain it will rip in two. My eyes focus in on the words.

I clear my throat.

“Reality took my heart in his hands, and he squeezed.
Twice.
The first was a warning that I should take my heart back.
That I should put up a fight.
But in his hands, my heart was still beating.
And I clearly hadn't changed my mind.
And so Reality squeezed again, and this time my heart fought.
But it was almost over, and he knew it, and so he squeezed until I wasn't alive.”

I sit down immediately when I am finished, and a loud noise from the action echoes through the classroom. It’s silent now.

I feel everyone’s gaze on me as I stare pointedly at my desk.

“Wow,” says Mr. Lisboa. “Excellent work, Alissa.”

But it means nothing to me, because all I can think about is the fact that Johnny is looking at me. All I can do is wonder if he knows the poem is about him.

All I can do is stare at my desk and try not to cry for another thirty-two minutes.

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Point out any mistakes, and let the commenting begin! c:
If anyone is even still reading this thing.

'AwesomelyBlaze