The Day I Met Merridew

Chapter Four: The Boy Who Liked Me

As soon as Jack left, Summer felt empty. Every few minutes she'd look over at Jack's supposed friend and wonder who they were. 

When the lesson had ended, the people inside the classroom piled out of the door. But Summer stood up slowly and engaged with her thoughts. Too lost in her mind to realize that the friend of Jack's had slyly walked up to her.

"Well, we finally have met. I'm delighted to make your acquaintance Summer." The friend smiled whilst tilting their head to one side. Sending shivers down Summer's spine. Brushing her hair behind one ear she took a breath and looked at them reluctantly. Standing with light struck across one side of their face; the friend looked at Summer shadily. "My boy Merridew has said a lot about you and I'd just like to mention that he is MINE!" The tone of their voice drastically deepened, mirroring a crescendo.

"Ha, ha. I didn't mean to make that impression actually. I'm not looking for anybody to go out with or become significantly close to. In fact, I'm a nobody. Don't worry about Jack being stolen away because it just won't happen." Bowing her head, Summer trailed out of the room quickly, but bared no dramatic exit.

"HEY! THE NAME'S FREDDIE! I'M WARNING YOU!" Freddie screeched out to Summer. The blow of their voice smashed against Summers back, causing her to wimper and edge out the door in agony.

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Stirring a plastic fork in her tangled noodle pot, Summer pondered; but much deeper than usual. Her thoughts dragged her eyes closed, and to her shock she was walking down a wide set of stairs with someone close behind her. As she walked round the bend, her eyes collided with another's. They seemed very eager to look away, but something kept drawing their contact back to her eyes. Once reaching the end of the stairway, she let out an unexpected jolt of laughter and another was let out closely behind her. It gave her quite a shock, especially since she rarely came into contact with anyone. But she recognized this boy. A rather dark skin tone, 2 clear, green-blue closely inset eyes, and the way he looked at her. 

But she couldn't hold onto something so shallow and basic. She barely even knew who this boy was, let alone how he felt about her. Biting her nail, she peered out the canteen window; spying a pair of students walk by. One of the students looked at her. Her heart jumped. But in flash he had already looked away, and he never looked back again. 

She kept watching the people walk past the window, intrigued by the difference and unique touch that each person had. Pulling out her iPod, she opened the camera application and turned her attention to a silhouette of a person on the screen. Summer looked and looked, and the more she did so, the more she felt ridiculous and awful about herself. "Who am I?" 

Wearily, she knew that she had to be doing work on her art piece. A large canvas portraying a saddened soul. Summer. 

As she brushed passionate strokes upon the canvas, she noticed something tucked in the pocket of her bag. Placing the paintbrush down gently, Summer lifted the object out. Which edged a long sigh too be let out of Summer's mouth. It was Jack's phone. No pass-code was needed to access its contents, it was like Jack had purposely deleted the boundaries, and opened himself up to let her in. She clicked on the twitter app. Realizing that it was under his name; Jack Merridew. Tweets about sadness, neglect, striving to be the person he wanted to be. But then. There it was. A short insignificant statement. 'Jack Ky Merridew'. With her heartbeat raising, she tapped on messages; revealing the message that she had sent to Ky and that he had seen it and replied. 

"Oh, hello. Whats up then?" The words lay on the screen making Summer ponder. Who is Ky really? Thinking deeply, she tapped about the phone screen producing a sentence. But before she even thought about sending the message, a feeling struck her in her chest. What if she called him? Clicking on the phone icon immediatley, it seemed she had no control for what she was doing. And the next thing she knew, a deep, frequent tone was vibrating against her ear. After a few seconds, it stopped. There was silence. Summer doubted what she had lead herself into. But then...

"Hello?" a wobbly, young, airy voice reached though. Like a bolt of lightening she suddenly reacted to the situation.

"Is this... Ky?" Looking about fearfully, Summer worried about who could hear this conversation nearby.

"Yes... And you are?" She stopped for a second, what if Ky was actually Jack's brother. And Jack had set up this whole thing because he generally hated her.

"Errm, err... SUMMER! I'm Summer. Like...The person who messaged you earlier."

"Ah, ah-ha. So, I'm kinda busy right now, just a tad. Would you consider maybe..." The voice faded away into a gentle buzzing sound at the end of the line. After 20 seconds a feint concern whispered into the speaker. "Oh well." And then the call was hung up. 

Synchronizing with Summer's melancholy, the school bell rang which stopped her time spent in the art room. A waste of time. Inspite of her lost cause, she bundled her belongings into her burgundy bag, rolled her eyes and pressed on to her next lesson.