Someone Like You

Chapter 6

          The next two weeks past as fast as they could. Sophia had been wanting to apologize to Peter properly but every time she got near him, he'd just push her away. Peter secretly wanted her back, but the hurt from the break up and her not remembering the night they'd had together four months ago was eating him alive and he just couldn't deal with her anymore. In Literacy, they were just finishing up their peer projects. Sophia and Christina weren't being so kind to each other. Sophia still despised Christina because she blamed her for ruining her relationship. Sophia still couldn't connect the dots on why Christina had been so urgent about their relationship.  

"What hobbies do you like?" Sophia groaned, leaning on her elbow and taking notes. Christina eyed her suspiciously. 

"What's up with you? You already know. We're supposed to be working on the essay." Christina sighed and went back to her own laptop, typing on the keyboard. Sophia shook her head and typed on her own but very slowly. Christina grabbed Sophia's laptop and turned it towards her. "Really? You only have like, three sentences done? I have one paragraph!" she shouted and the teacher glared at her. "Sorry." she apologized and turned back to Sophia, raising her eyebrows. "Pick up the pace, Baker." 

"Oh. I'm sorry." Sophia said sarcastically, "How does this sound? Christina is a back-stabbing wannabe that damages her friend's relationships. Better?" Sophia typed it in and smirked. Christina forced a smile, 

"Just perfect." she giggled then her face went blank with no expression. "Delete it." Sophia rolled her eyes and deleted the sentence. A few rows back, Jamie and Peter were compromising. 

"Okay, okay. I'll say you're a dashing gentleman if you say I'm a, I don't know... beautiful singer." Jamie laughed and Peter smiled. 

"You sing?" he asked her, giving her his attention and closing his laptop. Jamie sighed and shrugged, looking at her finger nails. 

"A little. When I'm alone, you know." her smile faded and looked out the window. Peter sensed something was wrong. 

"What's wrong, Jamie?" he asked her, tapping her shoulder and she turned to face him. 

"I guess since you know almost everything about me, one more thing wouldn't hurt anyone." she shrugged and he nodded, sitting up straight. "When I was little, my mom and I would always sing together. It was my passion and she really helped me a lot with it, you know... but when I was nine, she got diagnosed with cancer. I started fundraising to give me something to do and to show my mom that I cared about her. She finally died when I was eleven. Singing just wasn't the same without her by my side and carrying me through it all... so I stopped singing all together. I only sing sometimes to calm me down and I feel like singing is the only real thing," Jamie's tears finally formed and were running down her cheeks. "that keeps me connected to her somehow. Makes me feel like she's still with me." Peter wiped away Jamie's tears with his thumb. 

"That must've been hard for you. How did you cope?" he asked her, knowing it was probably a stupid question, but wanting to know more. Jamie scoffed. 

"I didn't. I dealt with it the worst way possible. I fell into a stage of deep depression. I-I, I started cutting..." her voice trailed off and she sniffled. "I knew it was bad, but it made me feel good. I don't know why. My dad finally found out when I almost thirteen. He took me to counseling and things like that. It helped me, it really did. But I was still tanking my grades in school, I hadn't seen my friends in months... that's when we moved here. I like Carolina. It's nice. Sometimes we visit my old friends in the South, and sometimes they visit us. You're probably wondering why I room with Sophia. My dad is an addict. Has been since their anniversary the year she died. I didn't like coming home to him all drunk and tipsy." she shrugged. "So I found a place and asked Sophia to come with me since she'd been kicked out of her own home. I'm seventeen and I haven't seen my dad in five years. My life's messed up." she played with her fingers.