Just How Life Is.

Just How Life Is. Chapter 7

I yawned as I walked into my bathroom in the morning. It was Thursday, mom and Dan left last night. There were tons of “Be good” and “I love you”, even a few “Don’t kill each other”.  I had to laugh a little at the last one, but it was obvious that the next few days would not be happy ones.

Once I finished washing my face I looked at myself in the mirror. Wow, I love my eyes, but not in a conceded way. My eyes were very unique, I thought. Around the pupils there was a forest brown that looked like a sun to me. Around that was an array of different greens. They looked so deep. But when my pupils got really big, it was hard to tell any difference, so no really noticed my eyes. At least not that I know of.

I slowly brushed out my brown hair. My mom told me it’s the color of my dad’s hair; I would just smile when she said that. I hardly remembered him.

When I was waiting outside for the bus, it started to drizzle slightly. I looked up at the sky; it’s been raining lot lately, huh?

During the bus ride my thoughts were quiet as I watched the rain fall.

~*~*~

“I really don’t think I can handle reading The Black Cat anymore,” I said, complaining to Faith in English. Troy has barely said a few words as we started reading Edgar Allen Poe stories.

She looked at me with an “are-you-serious” glare.

I shrugged and smiled, “I’ve just read it so much before. And this dude is seriously messed up.”

“True,” said Troy.

We both looked at him, and he looked at us with a “what?” expression. He didn’t have the bandage on his face anymore, and the bruise was fading. But the cut was starting to scab.

“Care to elaborate?” I said with a warm smile.

His eyes flickered from mine down to the table, “Well, uh, this guy has a clear alcoholic issue, along with anger management issues, probably crazy, too. So he takes all of his problems out on the things he loves.” Each word got quieter and quieter as he spoke, and he seemed engrossed on the table he was looking at. And his voice seemed to almost crack on the last sentence.

Faith was jotting down everything he was saying though. Once she finished she looked up at him, “And what makes you think he’s crazy?”

He snorted and rolled his eyes, “Don’t you think it’s obvious?”

“True, true,” she nodded.

But the way he spoke, it just didn’t seem like someone talking about a story. He seemed connected to it in a way. He looked up and his blue eyes connected with mine. It felt weird somehow, and then he looked back down at the paper in his hands.

“Well, I think we have enough for The Black Cat,” Faith said, looking satisfied at the paper on the desk in front of her. Then she looked at me, “So you don’t have to suffer anymore.”

“Haha, yes!” I laughed. “How ‘bout some poetry of his?” I suggested.

I heard Troy groan a little. I smirked and looked at him, “What? Don’t like poetry?”

“More like I don’t feel like reading anymore depressing crap today,” he said bluntly.

I kept my eyes on him, but he was looking off to the side. He was such an interesting person, but so private. He was wearing a gray long sleeved shirt today instead of a hoodie. I must say, it showed off his lean muscles nicely. Oh, shut up Skye!

Faith started flipping through her book of Poe’s writings, “Well, let me see if there’s happier stuff.”

He let out a little snort again and scratched the back of his head, when he pulled back there was slight blood on his fingers. His eyes widened with a questioning look when he saw his fingers.

“Uh dude?!” I said, getting up. Faith then took notice of what was happening and her face became full with questions.

“I-I’m fine,” Troy said quickly, but I ignored him and rushed around to behind him and forced his head to face down so I could get a good look at his scalp. He tensed up a lot and tried to move his head but I just told him to stay still.

I pulled apart his thick black hair so I could get a looked at his scalp. By now, everyone in class of course was staring. Faith was looking around awkwardly, twirling her purple hair with a finger.

Then I found a large cut on Troy’s scalp. My eyes widened, but then I realized it was old, he just picked at the scab, which I doubt he even knew was there.

I let go of his head and he relaxed a little, while he was fixing his hair I cleared my throat and walked back to my seat.

“Is it all clear Miss Nurse?” he said in a very sarcastic tone, his blue eyes piercing mine through his black hair.

I cleared my throat again, feeling embarrassed as everyone in class was watching us, obviously confused. “Well dude, you have like a large cut on the back of your head. You’re lucky it has a scab and you just picked at it.”

His hand flew to the back of his head, “I have a cut on the back of my head?” he said, clueless.

I nodded, “Duh, dude! What’d you think, you just scratched too hard?”

His eyes looked guarded as he shrugged.

I lowered my voice and leaned closer to him, “How are you getting all of these wounds anyway?”

His eyes flew to mine again, but they looked hard and angry, “None of your fucking business!” he shouted harshly as he got up and walked right out of the classroom.

Everyone was silent, even the teacher. Then all the rumors started as everyone began to talk to each other. Faith looked at me, “What do you think that was about?”

“I don’t know. Probably a lot though,” I said blankly. I really need to find out what’s going on.

Then Mrs. Wilson walked up to us, looking worried. “Do you know what all of that was about?”

We both shook our heads; she looked at the door, biting her thumb. “Maybe one of you should go after him and see if he’s ok?”

Faith and I looked at each other. I really did want to go after him, but I didn’t want him to get angry at me. But maybe Chloe was right. “You know, maybe he just needs some people to help him get through some things,” he words floated through my head.

I got up, “I’ll go after him,” I said to both Mrs. Wilson and Faith, then I walked out into the hallway to look for him.

I wound up in the next hallway when I finally found him. He had just punched a locker and was staring at it angrily. Right next to the rows of lockers was a glass panel wall that showed to a court yard. But because it was raining outside it gave the hallway an almost beautiful eerie gray glow. Well I thought it was beautiful anyway.

I quietly walked up to him and started fiddling with my fingers. His head was bent down and his arms dangled at his side. I rubbed the back of my head awkwardly, realizing I had no idea what to say.

I took a chance, “Are you ok?” I said quietly.

He whipped in my direction, his nostrils flaring. He kind of reminded me of Jared. “Am I ok?! Did you really just ask me that?”

His blue eyes were on fire, there was so much intensity and emotion I couldn’t look at them. I wound up looking at my purple converse. “Well, I didn’t know what to say… but uh, I wanted to… um, make sure you were ok.” My voice basically faltered through that whole sentence, and I was mentally slapping myself for it. My shyness took over, I had my head bent down and was still fiddling with my fingers. Troy hadn’t said a thing yet.

Then, suddenly, there were fingers on my chin, directing my head to look up at Troy. He was staring at me; almost as if he was looking through my soul and judging my character, which made me internally shiver. Luckily not on the outside, though.

We stood like that for a while, just staring at each other. His fingers on my chin, then his eyes softened and he let go. I hoped I wasn’t blushing.

He sighed and looked conflicted, and then he looked up at me, “Meet me today at town center?”

I nodded. He smiled a little.