The Days Before 16

Chapter 2

Wednesday, October 22 2014
It's been a week already? Wow...
Enjoy:
I ran to the kitchen to the phone dock. It wasn't there. I ran to the living room where the ringing seemed louder. It was there, on the table next to the couch. I answered it.
"Hello?" I said breathlessly from running around like a headless chook.
"Hi. Is this Willow?" said the stranger on the other end. Who would call me? Great. Friday afternoon and I can't even be left alone for more than two seconds. What made it worse was that I fell, all of a sudden, into a bad mood because of this one phone call. Should I answer as me or not? I don't know who this person is, could be a creep. I realised that my Friday afternoons don't consist of anything then there's this caller. Didn't help much, it made it worse. Where have I heard that voice before? It wasn't a telemarketer on the other end then, but then who?
"Yes?" I replied hesitantly.
"It's Trevor. You told me to ring you." The other end answered. Trevor? Like the Trevor from my Maths class? How'd he get my number? But more importantly, we only met today and he's already calling me? Good or bad sign? I think bad.
"Oh really? Sorry the day has just gotten away from me. Umm... I'm sorry I don't remember today, well I do remember most of it but other bits were a blur. Do you know what I was going to tell you?" I said, a bit of embarrassment in my voice from babbling.
"No, I wanted to talk to you." He answered. Oh. And if I was to be there when he was saying this I bet he'd have a smile on his face. Not that I minded his smile. It was hot. Why would he want to talk to me?
"Did you forget the Maths homework?" I asked because that was the only reason I could think of for him to call me.
"Uh no. That's not it." He said sounding surprised.
"Oh ok, then let's hear the reason you really called me on this fine Friday afternoon." I said in a ridiculous voice. As soon as I said it I slapped my forehead with the palm of my hand. You're an idiot, Willow. An idiot. Hot guy calls you for something and you say something like that? Need something? Medicine maybe?
"What was that?"
"What was what?"
"Did you just hit yourself?"
"No. Why would I do that?" I said eyes wide.
"You sure?"
"Positive. What were you going to say?" I said trying to avoid Mr Twenty Questions. It worked.
"Will you go out with me?" he said sweetly, but there was no missing the sternness in his voice. I nearly started choking. It surprised me so much that I nearly started choking on air. On air! Ummmm? Out there much? I only just met him today! When I imagined getting asked out for the first time I didn't expect it like this. Not one bit. I always imagined that he'd come up to me at school and just ask me out really cutely. I was still waiting for that but I knew it was farfetched. That only happened in books not real life but if it did man, that would be awesome.
"What?" I finally managed to choke out when I got my breath back.
"Will you go out with me." he said as if I was stupid. He said each word about two seconds apart; drawing out the words. I could sense that darkness again when I hadn't during the first bit of the phone call. I only just met him; I have no idea who he is.
"Um, look, I um, don't um, know you. We only just met today."
"Well if you want to get to know me then go out with me so then we can spend time together, that way you'll get to know me."
"Um. Let me think about it ok?" I said knowing the conversation was over.
"Fine." he grumbled and hung up. I listened to the 'beep beep beep' on the phone. I let out my breath in a huff and hung up too. I was walking back up the stairs when the phone rung, again. I ran back to the living room and picked it up.
"Hello?" I said. Who could it be now? It couldn't be Trevor asking if I'd made a decision, surely. You can't just ask someone you barely now out and expect them to say yes straight away. Well not in my world, maybe in Trevor world you could. Wow I sound bitchy, that bad mood's still there.
"Hi, it's Daniel. Is this Willow?" What? Daniel? Both guys call me? What, Trevor's awkward phone call wasn't good enough? It has to be both of them?
"Yeah this is Willow. Let me guess, I gave you my number." I seemed to be doing a lot of that today. Forgetful Willow today guys. My bad mood seemed to be getting worse.
"No." he said as if he was surprised. Then I think he realised that I'd given my number to someone else because he sighed like he was depressed. But if I didn't give my number to him how'd he have it?
"How did you get my number then?" I asked, nervously tapping the table beside me with my sky blue painted nails. I looked at my hands like a popular girl would- from the back of my hand then my hand half in a fist.
"I asked your brother, Todd. He said to tell you 'I gave him the tick of approval'." How did he know who my brother was?
"Oh that sounds like him. Sorry." Don't, don't don't please don't.
"What does it mean?" He did, he said it. Crap. I can't tell him the truth.
"It doesn't matter. Don't worry about it." I said quickly trying to cover my tracks.
"I think it does." he said. Was there a hint of a smile in his voice? What? Both guys are smiling while talking to me? I don't think I'm that funny. This was really strange. I'm probably dreaming and when I wake up it will be Friday and everything will go normally, not crazy like today was.
"Fine I'll tell you later, ok?" I lied.
"Ok." he said the smile still there.
"Um, I don't want to sound rude but, um, why did you call me?" I asked.
"Oh yeah. Um, I wanted to know if you wanted to hang out sometime, with me." He said. I thought for a moment. Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes? No? What do I say?
"What day did you wanna hang out?" I said suddenly. Wait. Hold up. Why am I 'hanging out' with Daniel when Trevor asked me first and I turned him down? Trevor had been nice to me. Daniel had nearly ripped out my arm when he pulled me up. So again, why did I say yes to Daniel? Why am I saying yes at all?
"I'm not going to forget about you telling me later about what your brother meant, you know. I'm thinking Sunday." Damn.
"Yeah Sunday sounds great."
"Awesome, see you then." he said before he hung up. Like the time before, I listened to the 'beep, beep beep' before I hung up as well. I went back to my room; went in for a quick shower, put on my purple summer PJ's, brushed my teeth and pulled out the vacuum cleaner from the upstairs closet. I quickly vacuumed up the feathers from my pillow on the floor and my bed so I could turn the deafening sound off the vacuum cleaner off. I chucked the pillow into the bin in my room as I was walking to the closet to put away the vacuum. After, I pulled down the big thick warm doona and got into bed. It was nearly five o'clock in the afternoon and I had gotten into bed. Strange for me but I was so tried.
There was this noise that awoke me from my slumber. I opened my eyes. I rolled over to get the time off my digital clock. The blue numbers showed it was seven o'clock. I had only been asleep for two hours. What the hell was going on? The noise that had woken me was the sound of something knocking on my bedroom door.
"What?" I said loudly, annoyed. Todd entered a second later, wearing his long red PJ pants and an old brown T shirt.
"Someone wants to see you." He said. My heart stopped for a second thinking it was Daniel or Trevor but it wasn't. Sonny walked into my room, wearing the exact same thing from school today.
"Thanks Todd." She said. He got the hint and left. She looked at me with a straight face and said, "It's seven o'clock."
"And?" I asked. I sat up to see her better. She took a seat on my bed.
"Nice bed head you got there." She said and pointed.
"Well that comes with being in bed. So, what's up?" I asked, trying to manage my case of extreme bed-head. She looked at me with a 'ýou-can't-not-know' look. I gave her a very clear 'I-don't-know' look.
"We never got to talk at lunch about... " she said and lifted her eyebrows. It took me a second to answer.
"Oh. Oh yeah." I said knowingly, nodding my head slowly.
"Yay she knows what we're talking about, yay!" she said as if I were a child. I gave her a little push on the shoulder. She smiled.
"Hey, I was asleep. Gotta give me a little slack."
"Whatever. So... "
"So... " I said, waiting. Sonny gave a little squeal.
"I can't take it anymore! How was that guy in your Maths class? What's his name? Tell!"
"His name's Trevor. He's alright."
"Alright? Girl, you need glasses or something? Did you not see him? How hot he is? You could melt butter on him! Better yet, you'd melt from looking at him for too long!" she said. I laughed lightly at her. She was being so... teenage girl stereotype-ish. She had her eyebrows raised, eyes wild in the good way and had the biggest smile on her face.
"I guess."
"You guess?"
"Yep. Now, what about Daniel?" I asked wanting to know something about the guy I was 'hanging out' with on Sunday.
"Oh. Oh. Oh. I see what's going on here! Go girl! Ha!"
"What are you going on about?"
"You want Daniel. I want Trevor. No bitch fights over them. We'll still be friends after this! Aw!"
"Aw what?"
"Well there won't be a massive fight between us over these guys and it's like colossal, then in the end we make up and are best friends again."
"Wait so are you saying that you want us to have this massive fight then become friends again? Like in all the movies we see about two best friends and one guy?" I said. She didn't hesitate to answer.
"Yeah, pretty much."
"What about that rule?"
"What rule?"
"Uh. Isn't it 'Best friends before boyfriends' or something?"
"Oh yeah. That wouldn't apply when it came to them."
"Why?"
"Because their super doper hotties!"
"I guess I see your point there." I agreed, laughing.
"So Daniel. He seems really sweet. Perfect for you. Whereas Trevor seems all bad boy, totally up my alley."
"When did you become a bad girl? I didn't realise you were bad. Wait, does that mean you really did steal that dollar from your mum?" I asked.
"No." she said and looked away.
"I won't tell."
"I know."
"It seems weird that we're doing this."
"I know. We haven't done this for ages. I miss it."
"Me too. Well if hot guys just kept coming we'd be doing it over and over, right?"
"Sure would be."
"Oh before I forget-" I started.
"Bets." She finished for me.
"Yep. I give them one day before their sucked in."
"Huh."
"What?"
"I was thinking the same thing."
"Great minds think alike."
"They sure do." she said and started laughing. I couldn't help but laugh with her. "I have to go. I'll see you at school?"
"Yep." I said as we got up. We walked down stairs to the front door. I held it open for her. "Bye."
"Bye. See you at school." She said as she walked to her black second-hand Suzuki Swift. A couple days till my birthday then I can go for my license. I'm so excited and scared. Poor people on the streets with me. They better watch out. I loved this town; it was awesome when it came to people getting their licences. I lived in the only town in America where when you first get your licence you can drive by yourself before you get your full licence, so I don't have to drag people along with me wherever I go, yay! I shut the door as Sonny got into her car.
"Going back to bed Todd!" I called out to him as I walked upstairs.
"Ok. Night. Again." He called back. "Wait you hungry?"
"Nope. Night." I got back into bed. My body relaxed and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.