Hope «h.s.»

Twenty.

Chapter 20:

It was once again Monday and back to schedule. I was taking extremely small bites from my sandwich. I had not been very hungry lately. When I made dinner on Sunday, I encouraged Rene to eat a lot more than me. I guess I was not in the mood; I was never in the mood lately.

I set my sandwich down to focus on my book more. It was an odd choice this week. Malice, by Danielle Steel. But on the first few pages, I somehow connected with Grace, the protagonist, so it urgered me to keep reading. So far, it was fairly interesting.

That was how I usually spent my lunch and free period: outside sitting on the corner picnick table, alone, reading. Sometimes this outcast couple would sit across from me and suck on each others face, but that only happened occasionally and thankfully it was not today.

I heard many birds chirping since it was only noon and halfway through our alloted free time. It was a beatiful day -- actually sunny and a reasonable tempurature of sixty degrees. My freshly curled hair was sitting on my shoulders, bouncing with the slight breeze that March brought. I was absentmindedly twirling my hair as I tried to concentrate on the words decorating my books page. But there was one distraction: Harry.

Harry and his normal crew were sitting and leaning around two pushed together outdoor tables. Rebecca and her friends were wearing short skirts as always with nothing too warm covering their top half either. It was only the start of March and they were pushing it.

As I glanced at them, I hugged my jumper closer to my body despite it making me a bit hot. I was happy with my outfit choice.

I tried to not roll my eyes as Rebecca leaned into Harrys ear, mumbling something making him smirk, chuckle, and shake his head. I tried to not think about how that was the exact guy that made me leave the party Saturday night and then proceeded to tell me that he thought I looked good. It made me sick.

It made me even more sick to think my dad was right that night. I should stay away from parties and guys like Harry and possibly Ben too. I did not want to have any chance to relive my mothers life. Getting drunk in spite of Harry was a mistake, a huge one.

I shook my head and started reading again. By the time I got distracted, I was finished with chapter 2 and starting 3.

The table wobbled a bit as if someone took a seat across from me. When I glanced up, I was right. Harry with his messy curly hair hanging in his face, was looking at me intentivly. I looked over his shoulder to see everyone gone from the spot I last saw them on.

"Can I help you?" I asked. My hand left my curly hair and grabbed for my new bookmark I had got from the school library since I stopped there before heading outside. I put the bookmark in my page, still stunned that he was talking to me at school in broad daylight during our free period.

"Well hello to you too," Harry replied smiling with his full rack of pearly whites. His deep raspy voice never ceased to surprise me. I looked at him funny for a moment, trying to figure out what he was doing infront of me. If I recall correctly, we did not seem on the best of pages two nights ago.

Harry sat up and cleared his throat.

"Look, Piper, I am sorry for Saturday night, for all of Saturday really. I should not have let you go to the party. That would have solved so many issues."