Chapter Nineteen (Yes, I know it's late. But the novel is done!)

I woke up the next morning, my first thought being Damien. I thought about how happy he made me feel, and how in love with him I really was. But then I remembered the bad part of last night. The part where Aunt Clara screamed her lungs out at me. I was worried for what was to come next.
“GIRL, GET YOUR USELESS ASS DOWN HERE,” she screamed from her couch.
I quickly tip-toed towards her, as if that was going to make a difference. “Yes, Aunt Clara?”
“Pack your stuff, you’re leaving today.”
“Wait, what?”
“You’re going to go live with your uncle Stephan in Orlando.”
“Orlando?” I exclaimed. “Like, Florida?”
“No, Orlando, China,” she commented sarcastically.
I felt like crying on the inside. Orlando. No friends. No home. No Wal-mart. No Damien.
This morning I was supposed to go to work with Damien, but I called him and told him that I would walk to work today because I was going to be late. He asked why, but I just said that I’d explain when I see him.
Packing took longer than it usually took me. It still didn’t take me too long because I never really unpacked when I came to a new guardian, but it took me longer than packing used to take me. I was in a state of denial. I didn’t want to leave this place. This place had real friends, real love.
Slowly, I sauntered to work.
“Mornin’, Paige!” David greeted me at the door.
“Oh, hello,” I said quietly.
He frowned at me. “Everything all right?”
I gave him a sad smiled. I could have told him. I could have said that I was in love with his son, but I was going away. I could have said that this was the first place that I ever felt at home, and now I was just leaving it forever, never to look back.
“Eh. Could be better,” was all I said. “I guess I’ll be fine.”
“All right. Well, I’m putting you and Damien in charge of the same department today. That all right with you?”
I was a bit skeptical, but I thought this was a good opportunity. It would be best if I didn’t tell him yet so he wasn’t depressed the whole day. I decided to take this chance and spend the rest of the day with him and have a good time. I would tell him at the end of the day.
“Paige!” he greeted happily when he saw me.
“Hi, Damien,” I said, forcing myself to smile.
He put his arms around me, and I fit into his hug like a lock in a keyhole. I knew I was going to miss him more than anything.
“Hey, why were you late?”
“Oh, I, um, had some stuff I had to do this morning. You know my Aunt.”
“Yeah. So anyway, we got the whole day together. We could try to get some work done or we could slack off and spend our whole shift being with each other.”
I sighed. It was so hard pretending to be happy. “Whatever you’d like to do. Today just feels… different. So I’m good with anything.”
He gave me a genuine smile. I could tell by the way his face lit up that he was going to be enjoying this day with me.
“Let’s skip work,” he suggested.
I was going to tell him how wrong this was, but then again, I didn’t care if I got fired. I was never going to work here again. And he couldn’t get fired, he was David’s son. What was there to lose?
“Where do you want to go?”
“Nowhere,” he said. “Let’s get in my car and go nowhere.”
“Like how we did that night of the Prank?”
“Exactly,” he said, excitement making his voice shake. “You up for it?”
“Up for it? Damien, I’ve been up for it before I was born. Let’s do it!”
“Ha ha. Excellent.”
So we snuck out the back door and crept past the dumpster were Damien’s alcoholic beverage was still hiding.
We drove. That’s it. The second we got into his car, we did nothing but drive. Occasionally we looked at each other and laughed for no good reason, but it was mostly driving.
“Why?” Damien finally said.
“Huh?” I asked, confused. “Why what?”
He shrugged. “Just why? You could pretty much ask your question to anything, couldn’t you?”
“I guess… but why are you asking that?”
“See? Why?”
“Because.”
“Hm?”
“Because,” I repeated. “Could be the answer to ‘why?’ almost every time, couldn’t it?”
He laughed. “Clever.”
After that, it was mostly silent. I usually loved our seemingly intelligent conversations that usually truly meant nothing, but I couldn’t help but continue to think of this one.
Why was I treated like this? Why did I have to keep guardian jumping? Why is it that once I finally find happiness, I have to leave it?
Because.
Time passed by to quickly. It upset me because I wanted to spend more time with Damien. I wanted the last day to be something epic, not just us driving around.
“Hey, Damien,” I spoke up. “Do you want to do something amazing today?”
“Any day,” he answered. “Got any ideas?”
I smiled. I loved his attitude. He didn’t even question me, he was just ready to get up and go for it.
“Absolutely no ideas,” I told him. “You got any?”
“Yes,” he said. “Let’s drive up to the lake.”
“Lake?” I asked.
“Yeah. You know. Lake Michigan.”
He shocked me. “How long is that going to take?”
“Eh,” he said. “What is time, anyway?”
“Something we’re deprived of,” I muttered quietly.
“What did you say?”
“Oh, nothing,” I said, as if I didn’t know what he was talking about. “I guess we could go. But what would we do there?”
“It doesn’t matter what you do, it matters who you’re with.” He glanced at me and smiled. “And I’m with you, so it’ll be awesome.”
And before I could even answer back to him, he set his gear shift on drive, and sped off towards Lake Michigan.”
“Why?” I asked him.
“Depends,” he said.
“Damn!” I exclaimed.
“What?”
“I expected you to say ‘because,’” I laughed.
“There are multiple answers to every question.”
“What does it depend on?”
He shrugged. “Who knows?”
“That’s not an answer, that’s another question.”
“You could answer a question easily with another question.”
“Damn,” I said again.
He laughed. “What? Why do you keep saying that?”
“You are too damn smart for your own good.”
“Not really, I’m just making up some crap to sound smart.”
I laughed.
“There’s one thing I hate about that question, though,” he said. “You don’t know what it’s referring to. That’s why I answered ‘depends’ instead of ‘because.’”
I shook my head and laughed. “Too smart, Damien, too smart.”
He gave me his infamous Mona-Lisa-smile. “Depends on what you’re asking.”
I thought about it for a second. “Why does life have to be so unfair?” I asked.
“Because life can be too fair at times and it needs to balance out,” he answered.
“Why the hell are you so smart?”
“Depends. What do you define as smart?”
“Good question.”
“Good answer.”
“Was that a joke?” I asked, starting to get confused.
“What do you think?”
“Huh?”
“Hm?”
“Oh, never mind.”
He laughed. “The beauty of question and answer. It’s times like this where you truly understand that there is an answer to every question. It all depends on the question and what you expect the answer to be. You just need to be careful with your answers, or you’ll get lost.”
“Why?”
“Depends.”
“Just because?”
“Exactly.”
Silence filled the care for an even longer period of time. I was getting worried, because my flight to Orlando was tonight, and if I was late, Aunt Clara would be sure to murder me. I could tell she didn’t want to catch another glimpse of me ever again.
“Shit, I don’t think we’re going to make it to the lake,” I said, looking at the time. “I had to be home at a specific time.”
“Why?”
I was thinking of the best way to explain to him. I’m moving away, I could’ve said. You’re never going to see me again. But instead, I just said, “Because.”
He sighed. I could tell he was disappointed. “Oh well. Maybe next time.”
Damien was starting to turn around and drive away when I said to myself, “Yeah… next time…”
I didn’t speak to him for a very long time. I wanted to talk to Damien. Talking to Damien was one of the best things in the world. But I felt that if I were to open my mouth, I’d burst out into tears. So instead I just bit my lips, tried to keep tears from welling up in my eyes, and shut up the whole way.
“You want me to drop you at your Aunt’s house?”
I turned to the window so he couldn’t see my face in case I cried. “Sure,” I managed to say.
“Paige… are you okay?” he asked, still keeping his eyes on the road in front of him.
I didn’t answer, and just sighed.
Damien quickly glanced at me and then looked back at the road. He knew now that I was sad about something, but I’m glad he didn’t ask.
And then the tears started. They filled my eyes, and when I blinked they slowly ran down onto my cheek. I was still looking out the window, so Damien didn’t see.
Finally, we arrived back to the streets that I was just barely familiar with, and within a few short minutes, we stopped in front of my Aunt Clara’s house.
I didn’t look at Damien. I couldn’t bear to. I knew it would hurt too much.
“Paige, please tell me what’s wrong. You’re crying. I know you. What’s up?”
Still not answering, I opened the car door and stepped out. I was still facing away from him, but I spoke just loudly enough for him to hear. “Bye, Damien.”
He sighed. “Paige, you know how I feel about saying ‘bye.’ I think it’s so stupid because it’s not really ‘bye.’”
“No, Damien,” I told him. “This time it’s ‘bye’ for real.”
I didn’t see him, but I heard him get out of his car, and then I felt his arms on me.
“What are you talking about, Paige?”
I looked into his eyes. I was going to miss his eyes. “I’m moving away. Aunt Clara gave up on me just like everybody else. No one can ever stand me.” I sniffled, and Damien put his arms around me. I could tell by his reaction that the words I said were still trying to sink into his brain.
“But where are—”
“I’m going to Orlando, Florida,” I answered before he finished. “And it’s not just a ‘see you later’ it’s a ‘goodbye.’”
“Are you going… now?”
I sniffled again, and nodded. “Aunt Clara is going to call a cab to take me to the airport soon.”
“No need,” he said. “I’ll drive you there.”
Without looking at him I went into Aunt Clara’s house, quickly grabbed my stuff without her noticing, and went back outside.
I didn’t want Damien to drive me, but I didn’t want to argue with him. He set me back into his car, and before I knew it, the engine revved.
It was completely silent. Of course, I didn’t expect us to talk. The only thing I could hear was my constant sniveling and the car’s tires against the road.
Finally, we reached the airport. I got down, and so did Damien. I felt him next to me again.
He turned my head so our eyes met. He bent down and kissed me. It was the thing I would miss more than anything. His warmth, his arms around me, his love.
We pulled apart, and I looked into his eyes for the final time. “Goodbye, Damien.”
I started to walk away, pulling my suitcase with me.
“It’s never goodbye,” I barely heard him say. I didn’t turn around. “My love, it’s never goodbye. I’ll see you later.”

Chapter Eighteen (It's short, but it's the one with 50,000 words!)

School the next day couldn’t be more awkward. I mean, Chrissy and the Great were no longer a problem, but Damien started acting all couple-like once we started spending time together. I mean, I guess I loved him by now, but it always feels awkward at first… right?
So Damien and I were officially like a couple now. Charlie was no longer hanging out with us at brunch or lunch. He was back to taking care of Katie with Angela. He did visit us once at lunch to tell us that people have been talking about the two of us, but I didn’t really care. I just ignored it.
Damien and I were good friends, and now a bit more. We were hanging out more, talking to each other more, texting each other more. I didn’t know if I was ready to say I loved him or not.

The next day was a lot better. Damien and I talked a lot and we finally made it so I was a lot more comfortable around him. He was wondering why I was uncomfortable in the first place, because I had always been comfortable around him. I kept trying to explain it to him, but he simply laughed all the time.
I couldn’t pay attention in Calculus—no big surprise there. But it wasn’t because of any of the other reasons. Basically I kept on thinking about Damien. I couldn’t get him out of my mind. I don’t know why. I never really recognized most of his good attributes until that day in Calculus. He was smart, kind, and all around a wonderful person. I also didn’t realize how good-looking he was until then, too. I was kind of turned on by his red moppish hair.
I also couldn’t pay any attention to Ms. Romander because my phone kept vibrating due to the fact that Damien kept texting me from his other class. Some made me smile, but others made me go “aw” on the inside. He was really very sweet. He said he couldn’t wait to see me next period. And then we did.
He kept giving me a weird stare every time he looked at me. And it was a kind of stare where he put his eyes on me and then he never took them off. I glanced at him and laughed.
“Why the hell are you staring at me like that?” I said, laughing.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said.
“Well,” I started, “I was thinking about you in Calculus…”
“Were you really?” he asked, slightly shocked.
“Of course. So I was thinking about you, and I was just thinking about how hot you really were.”
He smiled. “Maybe I should wear all black.”
I laughed again. “That would be so sexy.”
“Just like you.”
It was kind of amusing. And feeling awkward around Damien felt like a distant memory. I was really starting to get into this just as much as he was.
“You sure you’re not drunk, right?” I asked him once we got out of Literature.
“I wouldn’t be able to analyze metaphors in that class if I was drunk.”
I laughed again. “You are so amazing.”
“Not as amazing as you.”
“I love you.”
Damien’s eyes lit up with something I’ve never seen before in anyone, and he gave me a smile that was unlike any other. “You love me?”
I nodded. I half didn’t believe that I actually said it myself, but once I really thought about it, I always loved Damien. When I met him, I loved him. When he gave me a job, I loved him. When he gave me so much more, I loved him. When we tortured Chrissy, I loved him. When we were together for so long… I loved him. He was always there for me, and I have always loved him. But I didn’t realize it until then.
Once brunch ended, I left towards World History. Chrissy caught a glance at me, but I ignored it. Then to my surprise, the Great actually walked up to me.
“Hey, Paige, I heard you and Damien Caster are going out now. What happened to that Charlie fellow?”
“Oh… um… it’s a long story, I guess.”
“Ah. I see.”
“Yeah. Well, Chrissy and I broke up. I’m kind of surprised that you and Caster are together after what you two did at the dance.”
“Surprised?”
“Yeah. I broke up with Chrissy because Damien and her kissed, you know? And I kind of think that the whole point of him kissing her was so that I could break up with her. So I guess I did. But I’m surprised that you got together with him because he actually kissed Chrissy.”
“That was all part of the plan, though,” I explained.
“Oh, I see. Well… good luck with that.”
He sat down, and I felt that I really wouldn’t ever be talking to him like that again.
Damien was still a bit shocked, by the time we made it to Chemistry, by the fact that I still told him that I loved him. I didn’t understand why, though. I guess it was just because he didn’t expect it or something. But neither did I, because I didn’t just start loving him, I had only just found out that I had loved him since the very beginning. It’s those kinds of epiphanies that make up life, you know?
I proceeded to Drama in an extremely happy mood. Not only because Drama was the most fun of all my classes, but also because I couldn’t stop thinking about Damien. Was this truly a sign of love? I wouldn’t know. All I know is I didn’t really constantly think about Charlie when I started going out with him.
Even the atmosphere at work seemed to be in high spirits. Everyone seemed to be working efficiently because of all the good moods. I enjoyed it so much, it was the most amazing time at work I’ve had in a long time. Or maybe it just felt like that because comparing it to the last time I had work it was so dull without Damien.
So Damien dropped me at my Aunt Clara’s house, which ended up being a huge mistake. Aunt Clara had apparently meant it when she kicked me out of the house. She was absolutely furious when she saw that I was back. But instead of kicking me out again, she simply forced me into my room. I knew what she was going to do. She was probably going to call the agency that always sent me to a new guardian, and ask to have me sent to someone else. So I went up into my room, and simply waited.

Chapter Seventeen

It was the first time I pulled an all nighter. I was awake the entire night. I could’ve just fallen asleep, since nothing really happened, but I felt like I owed it to Damien. So I was up until the sun barely raised over the horizon. I didn’t even move, come to think about it. Damien was asleep on me, and I didn’t want to wake him, so I was still the entire night. Just sitting there. Watching Damien. Looking at the night sky. Nothing else.
Finally, he shifted in his spot. I moved a bit, and then he sat up.
“Ugh… what happened?” he mumbled.
“You got drunk last night,” I answered, handing him back the bottle of whiskey. I didn’t bother to mention what else he did last night, especially if it included something he did to me.
“Oh. Right. I remember now. Shit, I’ve got a headache. Fuck. Thanks for letting me sleep, I really needed that.”
“Of course.”
“Are you sure nothing else happened last night? I didn’t drive did I?”
“No, you didn’t drive. Thankfully.”
“Yes. Oh, now I remember.”
“What do you remember?”
“What I did last night.”
“Um…”
“I kissed you.”
“You did.”
“Yes, I did. And you accused me that it was only the alcohol speaking.”
“I did.”
“It wasn’t.”
“Oh.”
“I love you.”
“Okay.”
He smiled. “Aw, shit. I should be going home, right? My parents are probably freaking out. I keep telling them not to worry about me.”
“We care about you, Damien,” I told him.
He looked at me. “You’re amazing, Paige.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I am so fucking in love with you.”
“Stop that.”
“Why?”
“Are you sure you’re not drunk?”
“Positive.”
I sighed. “What about Charlie?”
“He might never forgive me for stealing the girl he likes twice, but that does not matter to me one bit if it means I get to keep you.”
“Please stop.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m still with Charlie,” I told him. To be honest, I was unsure. I mean, I liked Damien… maybe not in that way… but I didn’t want to hurt Charlie. He didn’t deserve it.
“Of course,” Damien said. “I’ll wait.”
“Wait?”
“Wait.”
“For what?”
“For you.”
“I’m sorry?”
“God, I love you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Let’s just get you home.”
“I’ll follow you until the ends of the Earth,” he said.
“Don’t say that, it’s too cheesy.”
“Of course, my love.”
I ignored him.
We went up to his car, which was in the parking lot in the building next to Wal-mart. I can’t believe I didn’t see it before.
“I’ll drive,” I told him.
“Why? It’s my car.”
“Yes, but I don’t want you to drive.”
“I’m not drunk, Paige, I swear.”
I still didn’t believe him, because he kept telling me that he was in love with me. I just couldn’t believe it.
Somehow, I managed to make him agree with me. He got into the passenger seat, and I into the drivers one. I hadn’t driven anything in a long time. So I was a tad bit nervous, but I felt a lot more comfortable knowing that I was driving it instead of a drunk Damien.
So I drove to his house. It wasn’t exactly a smooth ride, but I still drove to his house.
“Are you tired?” he asked.
“I was up all night,” I answered. “Of course I’m tired.”
“Come in and sleep,” he said.
“I couldn’t do that,” I said.
“Your Aunt just kicked you out of your house,” he told me. “You were up all night making sure no one murdered me while I slept. I think you should come in and rest.”
He was certainly convincing. But the first thing that happened when we walked into his house was that his parents literally jumped on him.
“Damien, you’re okay!” “Where were you?” “What happened?” “Why is Paige here?” “What’s going on?” And things along those lines.
“I’m really sorry for worrying you, but… I just needed time alone and… I sort of wasn’t thinking. Paige was up all night trying to find me, so she’s really tired right now. When she finally found me, she convinced me to come home. I told her I wasn’t ready yet, but that I’d go in the morning. She didn’t trust me, so she stayed with me until now and she dragged me home.”
“Don’t ever do that again!” “You had us so worried!” “At least you’re all right.” “Thank God Paige was there!” “Just stay safe.”
“Don’t worry about me,” he told his parents. “It’s really Paige that I’m worried about. She’s was up all night, and—”
“Say no more,” Damien’s mother said. “Paige, you know where our guest room is.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Caster.” She smiled at me sweetly, and I walked into their home, going into the guest room.
I completely collapsed onto the bed, and was asleep in less than a second.
“Paige, wake up,” someone said. It felt like I was only asleep for a second, but I felt well rested. I rubbed my eyes open, and looked up. Damien.
“Oh, hi,” I said.
He gave me a tray. There was food on it. Things that would be for dinner, though, like chicken and rice and things like that. “I figured you were hungry, but I didn’t want to force you out of bed, so here you go.”
“Wow, Damien. Thanks a lot.” I sat up, and took the tray from him. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I started eating. “Hey, do you know what time it is?”
“It’s six fifteen,” he answered.
“In the morning?”
“In the evening.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
“Wow.”
“Why?”
“That’s late.”
“Oh.”
I shifted around on the bed so I could get comfortable, but I felt something was missing. Something that was in my pocket.
“Hey, where’s my cell phone?” I asked.
Damien handed it to me. “I kept it just in case. I think you got a missed text or something.”
I flipped open the phone to look. It was from Charlie. “Do u want to hang out 2day?”
“Oh,” was all I could say. “Are you drunk?”
“What? Of course not, Paige.”
“Do you know what you did to me last night?”
“I kissed you and told you that I was in love with you.”
“Right.”
“I still mean it.”
I sighed. Damien couldn’t still be drunk for this long, so I guess he was telling the truth. I just didn’t know how to respond to it.
“Do you still love Charlie?”
“Yes.”
“Do you still love him more than me?”
“I love both of you equally.”
“Do you still love Charlie like a boyfriend and me just as a friend?” he asked.
I didn’t have an answer. To be honest, I was unsure of it. So I didn’t answer it at all.
“I think I’m going to go talk to Charlie.”
“I wouldn’t,” Damien said.
“Why not?”
“I was just talking to him,” he continued. “And I told him everything.”
“Everything?”
“Everything.”
“Even the…?”
“Yes, Paige, I told him. I told him how I felt. And I told him what I did. Even what I did to you.”
“You told him?”
“I told him.”
“Fuck.”
“Sorry.”
“No, it’s okay. That’s just who you are, I guess. Honest. What did he say?”
“He didn’t say anything. I told him and he didn’t respond, and then next thing I knew I was hearing the dial tone. He hung up.”
I sighed. “I need to talk to him.”
“Whatever you say.”
“I’m not going to call him. I need to talk to his face.”
“You want me to drive you to his house?”
“I don’t think you should come with me.”
“You don’t know the way, though.”
This was true. “Take me, but drop me off. I mean, leave right after I get down. I think it would be better if I just talk to him alone.”
“I understand.”
“Can we go now?”
“Of course.”
So I quickly got up, tried to control that mess on my head that I called hair, and then went into Damien’s car. We drove. I memorized the way so that I could easily make it back to Damien’s house without any help. Finally, he stopped the car, and pointed at the house we stopped at.
“That’s his house,” he said.
“Thanks, Damien,” I said. “I think it’s best if you leave now.”
“Yes, of course.”
I got down from his car, and it took him a minute, but Damien finally drove away. I only walked up to the house when I saw that Damien had fully driven away, and when he was out of my sight.
I knocked on the door, nervous about what was going to happen. I waited for about a minute before the door opened.
“Paige,” Charlie said to me. His tone didn’t sound angry, but more dejected.
“Hey, Charlie,” I said back.
“I’m hurt.”
“I understand.”
“I don’t know what to say to you.”
“I don’t know how I should respond if you say anything to me.”
“But I think I might forgive you.”
“Hm?”
“You didn’t kiss him, he kissed you. And he was drunk. I think it’s okay.”
“Oh. Yeah. Of course.”
“You didn’t kiss him back did you?”
I didn’t want to say I didn’t, because I did for that split second.
“If you mean I certainly didn’t mean anything, then I didn’t kiss him back at all.”
He gave me a look. “Are you sure about that?”
“Um…”
“You kissed him back.”
“Charlie, don’t—”
“Don’t say that to me, you kissed him back.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“Do you love him?”
“What?”
“You heard me perfectly fine, Paige Aarroh. Do you love Damien Caster?”
“I don’t… I mean, I do… but not—”
“Just don’t even say it,” he interrupted me again. I was getting a bit annoyed. He wasn’t even giving me a chance to speak.
“Charlie, this is unfair. Let me speak.”
He crossed his arms against his chest. “All right. Fine. Speak, Paige.”
“I…uh… um…” After thinking about it, I really didn’t have anything to say.
“I thought so,” he said. “You know, Paige… I really don’t care who kissed whom, or who was drunk and who wasn’t… I just think it might be better if we just… stay friends, you know?”
“Charlie, please,” I said. I was extremely upset by his decision.
“Do you want to stay with me that badly?”
“I don’t… I really don’t know, Charlie…”
“Paige,” he said, lifting my chin up so he could look directly into my eyes. “I’m not hurt. I’m really okay. But I can see it in your eyes. And the way that you act usually… I can just sort of tell.”
“What exactly can you tell, Charlie?”
“Well, you know that way Damien can see people extremely clearly and stuff?”
“Yeah.”
“I can just sort of tell… I can tell that you love Damien. Please, just save me the suffering. I think you should be together with him.”
I didn’t know what to say to him. I was never as lost for words as I was at that moment.
“Paige,” he continued, “Damien is one of the most amazing friends that I have ever had. And… I’ve known him for a while. I think… I really think you’d be good together. I mean, you gave me a shot, right? And you liked me. So… maybe you should just give Damien a shot? For me?”
I was really bewildered at what he told me. I couldn’t imagine why he would want me to be with Damien, but I decided it would be best not to ask.
“You want me to…” I started.
“I want you to be with Damien. You love each other, and your happiness means the world to me. Please, do it for me.”
“I…” I was still lost for words.
“Will you do it, Paige?” he asked, his voice still quiet.
“I guess…” I said quietly. “I mean, are you sure?”
“No,” he answered. “But do it anyway.”
I smiled at him. “Charlie, I really do love you.”
He put his arms around me for what could possibly be the last time. “Now go before I change my mind.” He let go, and I nodded. He smiled at me one last time before he shut the door. I walked back to Damien’s house.
Damien opened the door before I could knock on it.
“I talked to Charlie on the phone while you were coming here,” he told me.
“Oh,” I said, since I seemed to lack the capability to say anything else.
And then Damien put his arms around me. They felt different from when I was in Charlie’s arms. I didn’t know whether they felt better or not, and I didn’t know if I liked the change or not. I was never unsure if I liked change or not. I usually always hated change.

Chapter Sixteen

I slept in that morning. It was wonderful having a later shift. And getting a little extra sleep was an amazing feeling, especially sleeping in during the morning instead of sleeping earlier in the night.
It seemed useless to try to brush my hair down, but for some reason I continued to try. Once the frizz had told me it had won, I gave up. I shoved my glasses onto my face, and proceeded towards work.
Damien didn’t pick me up from my house today, and I didn’t even realize it until I had already walked all the way to Wal-mart.
“Good morning, Paige,” David greeted me.
“Morning!” I said back. “Is Damien already here?”
David frowned at me. “No, he did not, Paige,” he answered. “And I don’t know if he’ll be coming in today or not.”
“Why wouldn’t he?”
“You kids had that dance yesterday at school, right?”
“Yes.”
“He didn’t come home after that.”
My eyes widened and my jaw dropped.
“Damien didn’t go home yesterday?”
David shook his head slowly. “He left with Charlie, picked you up, went to school, and then I have no idea what happened after that.”
I frowned. Damien was starting to worry me. I knew he wasn’t in the best mood last night after the dance had ended, but I didn’t expect him to suddenly disappear.
“Gee, I’m really sorry about that, David,” I said, still shocked by the news. “I really don’t have any idea, either.”
David sighed. “Well, that’s all right, Paige. Maybe you should just go on to work.”
“Right. I’ll talk to you later, David.”
He nodded. “I wish us both luck with this whole Damien situation.”
“Yes. Definitely.”
I don’t know why, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Damien during work. I mean, it was hard to ignore him when you constantly acknowledged his absence. Usually I would be with him and talk and laugh and hang out with him all through work. It was hardly even “work” because I’d be having so much fun with Damien. It was upsetting having him gone. I couldn’t get it out of my mind.
I didn’t do that much work today. It was hard to focus on my duties and such when so much was missing from my daily routine. I hadn’t realized before then how big of a part of my life Damien was. I decided it would be a good time to take my break now. Sort of relax before trying to do anymore work.
All of Charlie, Angela, and Katie were sitting in the break room. I tried to smile, but found out that I couldn’t. First knowing that Damien was missing, and then also considering that Charlie could be immensely upset with me. I simply just waved at the three of them.
“Paige, do you have any idea where Damien is?” Angela asked, her voice tense with worry.
I shook my head. “I didn’t even know he was missing until I saw David this morning when I got here.”
“You don’t know where Damien is?” Charlie asked. “That’s odd. The three of us thought you would know.”
“Charlie, I’m really sorry about everything. I mean, I—”
“Don’t worry about it, Paige,” he said. “Really. It’s cool. Just… next time you want to do something as awesome as pranking Chrissy, you have to let me be in on it.”
I smiled because I couldn’t laugh. “Sure thing, Charlie.”
I didn’t expect it, but he got up out of his seat, and wrapped his arms around me. “I can’t wait,” he whispered.
“What about Damien kid?” Katie exclaimed, sounding like she was about to burst out into tears. “I want him back! I miss him! Where did he go? Where did Damien kid go?”
“We’re really sorry, Katie girl,” Charlie said, letting go of me, and sitting down next to her. “We thought Paige kid would know, but then she didn’t. We don’t know where he went, and we don’t know when he’s coming back.”
“Damien kid will come back?” she asked, sniffling.
Charlie nodded. “He will most definitely come back, Katie girl.”
I sighed, but Katie and Charlie continued going back and forth like this. Charlie constantly told her that everything would be all right in the end, and Katie kept sniveling like a little girl.
“Katie,” Angela said. “Let’s try to get our minds off of Damien. What do you say about getting back to work?”
Katie sniffed. “Working, Angela girl? Working will only remind me more of Damien kid.”
Angela sighed. “We still need to get our jobs done, Katie girl. How about it?”
She frowned, and rubbed her eyes before saying, “All right, Angela girl. I will try not to think of Damien kid. I want him to come back now.”
“We all do, Katie girl,” Charlie said. I don’t know why, but this slightly surprised me. I thought he would still be upset with Damien about the whole “stealing girls” thing or something.
“It’s going to be all right, Katie girl,” I said. “Maybe you should go back to work.”
She sniffled again. “Okay. Katie girl will go work now.” She got up, and slowly and sadly walked out of the break room.
“Do you want to keep an eye on her, or should I?” Charlie asked Angela.
Angela sighed again. “I will, Charlie. This whole day hasn’t been good for anyone has it?”
Charlie shook his head. “Whenever things happen, they always seem to be hardest on Katie, no matter what it is.”
“Of course,” Angela said. “It’s understandable.”
“Yes, it is.”
“Well, I had better go make sure she’s all right. I’ll see you later, Charlie. You, too, Paige.”
“See you, Angela,” I said.
Charlie sighed once Angela had closed the door behind her. I decided to go sit down next to him.
“Are you worried about Damien?” he asked me.
“Yes. But are you all right?”
He blinked, his eyes blank. “Of course I’m all right. Why wouldn’t I be all right?”
I shrugged. “You left early yesterday because you told me you weren’t feeling well.”
“Oh. Right. About that… I may have been… a little jealous of Damien,” he said, struggling to get the words out. “I mean, you’ve been spending a lot of time with him lately, and you’ve just been keeping me out of the loop and things like that… and I guess I just…”
“Listen,” I interrupted him. “Just forget about it, all right? It was partially my fault, as well. I mean, I completely understand why you’d be upset with me being with Damien too much. Like, I understand. Because of your whole thing with, you know, Jessica.”
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “Not exactly the best times, you know?”
“I perfectly understand,” I told him, even though I didn’t completely. I hadn’t really been in that situation, but I could imagine it completely.
“Thank you, Paige. And… Damien is your friend. Hell, he’s my friend, too. I know that I’m really—I mean, we’re really worried about him. But like I told Katie, it’s going to be all right. He’ll come back soon enough.”
“Yeah,” I said, more to myself than to Charlie. “You know, maybe I should just get back to work. Like Katie, I mean. Like, try to get my mind off of it for a while.”
“That’s my girl,” he said. He kissed my forehead, and smiled down at me. “It’ll be all right.”
By the time I was walking home, work just felt like a distant memory. I could barely even remember what I did due to the fact there was nothing memorable that had happened since Damien wasn’t there. I didn’t even think twice about it by the time I was home.
I closed the door behind me once I reached home. For the first time in what felt like a century, I saw that my Aunt Clara was awake on the couch. She looked at me. That was extremely unusual since she barely even acknowledged my existence.
“Yer the girl that I’m supposed to be lettin’ live in mah house, right?” she asked, her voice sleepy. I felt like yelling at her. First Damien went missing, and now I had to put up with whatever this bitch wanted to say to me.
“Uh. Yes, ma’am,” I said, unsure of what I was supposed to be doing.
“What’ve you been doin’ lately, girl?” she asked, her voice gruff.
I was confused. “Nothing, really.”
“I think it is comin’ to be too much to take care of ya. I can’t handle the responsibility, girl.”
What responsibility? I wanted to scream. She hadn’t done a single thing to take care of me. I was practically living on my own. I looked down at her hand. A glass of wine, sitting there in her fat hands, almost tipping over and falling onto the floor. My guess was she was drunk or something, and that’s why she even cared to look in my direction.
“Oh,” was all I managed out of my mouth.
“I don’t like you muckin’ up my house,” she said. “Go.”
“I’m sorry?” It took me a minute to let her words sink into my brain.
“Go on! Git! Get outta mah house, girl, I’m speaking English fer ya!”
She was kicking me out of her house? She must have been really drunk, then, to actually tell me to do something. Let alone speak to me at all.
She got up out of her seat. My eyes widened. I did not expect this at all. She almost never got up out of that couch.
But then she started getting a little touchy. She started shoving on my shoulders, and constantly yelling at me to get out of her house.
“I don’t want to take care of you anymore,” she told me. I wasn’t surprised in the slightest. No one really wanted to take care of me. It was about time that this guardian started hating me so I had to move on to the next. Always getting neglected, always getting pushed away. Things of that sort.
“Well, I don’t want to live with you anymore!” I screamed back.
“THAT’S THE LAST STRAW, GIT OUT OF MY HOUSE,” she yelled. To be honest, it didn’t hurt me at all. It wasn’t the first time that someone pushed me out of his or her life, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last time.
I wanted to go up and get my stuff so I could just run away from here, but she didn’t give me a chance. She was now starting to hurt me a bit as she pushed me out of her house.
So before I knew it, I was outside. I was outside with nothing and nobody. I don’t know why Aunt Clara rejecting me like this affected me more than any other guardian. It could have probably been due to the fact that this place I was actually loved by some people. I had friends, and even a boyfriend. I really didn’t want to leave this place. I really didn’t want to learn what other relative would accept me and then dump me on the side again.
I put my hands in my pockets. I felt something. My cell phone was still with me, thank God. I decided to text Damien for help.
“Damien, where r u?” I typed. I waited for a response. I waited. And Waited. And waited. I didn’t know when he was going to reply back, but after about fifteen minutes, I knew that he probably wasn’t going to respond back. So I tried to text him again. “Dude, I got kicked out of my house. Where r u?”
After about a minute, my phone vibrated. I quickly pulled it out of my pocket, almost dropping it in excitement.
“Come to dumpster behind wal-mart,” it said. I was lost for words. Was he there this whole time? And what was he doing? I didn’t question it, because I was glad I had finally found out where he was. I practically ran all the way there, and was completely out of breath by the time I made it.
“Damien?” I called. “Damien, are you here? Where are you?”
“Hm? Paige?” I head a voice. It was with that same sleepy tone that Aunt Clara had when I first started talking to her when I got home.
“Damien?” I called again. “Is that you?” I looked around frantically, searching for where his voice had come from. He was sitting down by the dumpster, his back against the wall of the store. His head was lying on his shoulder, and his eyes were half closed, as if he was trying to fall asleep.
He looked up, and smiled. “Hey, Paige,” he said quietly, as if he was sleep talking.
“Oh my God,” I said. I crouched down so my eyes were at his level. “Dude, Damien, you scared the crap out of everyone. You have no idea how freaked out and worried we were. Especially David… God, you scared us. Are you all right? Were you here the whole time? What happened after you left?”
“Paige, how many fucking times do I have to fucking tell you to stop worrying about me, Paige…?” he asked, still with that sleepy tone.
“Damien, you don’t sound very good,” I said. “Are you sure you’re okay? Please, just tell me what happened.”
He reached under the dumpster, and pulled out a bottle. I did not know the contents of what was in this bottle, and the label was ripped off. But at the same time, I partially did not want to know what the contents of this bottle were.
“Do you want some?” he asked.
“What?” I said. “This isn’t the time to offer me things.”
“I’ve been drinking it,” he said. “And it’s only polite to offer some.”
I wrinkled my nose in disgust. I could smell the dumpster next to me. I didn’t understand why Damien would be here. “No, Damien, I don’t any. What is it, anyway?”
He uncorked it, took a huge gulp from it, and put it down. He sighed, and whipped some of it off of his mouth. “Cheap whiskey,” he said.
My jaw dropped. “Damien, you shouldn’t be drinking that! Are you drunk?”
He yawned and shook his head. “No, no, no. Of course… no… I’m not… Paige, why would you…? …Yes… oh, Paige… yes. I think maybe… no, I know of course not… well, maybe a little… I don’t…”
“Damien, it’s a simple yes or no answer. Are you drunk or are you not?”
He tilted his head back and grinned at me. It wasn’t a normal smile, though. It made me feel like something had gone horribly wrong.
“My dear, Paige, why don’t you tell me? What the fucking hell do you think?”
“This is not a good thing, Damien,” I said, worried about him. “You shouldn’t be doing this. Why are you doing this?”
He took another swig from the bottle, and shrugged. “I don’t know anything anymore, Paige.”
“Look, stop drinking it,” I said, grabbing the bottle from his hand. “Now, tell me what the fuck made you do this?”
“Listen, Paige, I’m feeling really down. I invited you over here because I’m sure you feel rejected, too. And I trust you. So hush down, and just hand that back over to me.”
“No,” I told him, holding the bottle farther from his grasp. “Tell me what the fuck happened. What do you mean about you feeling rejected?”
He sighed. “I guess I had to tell you some time, huh?”
“Now would be a good time, Damien. What the hell is going on?”
He smiled. “I got dumped.”
“What?”
“At the dance. Jessica. I got dumped. She dumped me. Broke up with me, I mean. She doesn’t love me anymore. I don’t know… what happened… but all I know… is that… I think I still love her… I don’t… I mean… I just…”
“Stop,” I said. “Don’t talk to much, you start to only say part of your sentences and thinking the other parts. Just… take breaks while talking.”
“Gotcha, Paige.”
“So is that why you were so… what’s the word? bitter yesterday?”
He nodded.
“I see. But why come here and drown your sorrows in alcohol?”
He shrugged. “Lotsa people do it, ya know? I mean, people do it all the time. What I’m trying to say it… people do it… but they know it’s bad for them… and they… still do it anyway… and no one ever said that it didn’t work for… when you’re upset or something… so I figured I would give it a shot… because I do things like that… bold and stupid… now that’s a bad combination… but what can ya do?... I just wish… and I think… maybe I should have just…”
“Okay, I understand,” I said, even though his reasoning wasn’t too strong. “But I really think that’s no excuse.”
“Paige, I am not perfect. I am not like Charlie, who is such a great person. Or I am not like the Great… Alexander… he’s just, like, flawless. I’m not like that. I make mistakes. Some more dumber than others. Sometimes I’ll make a mistake that will kill my entire life, and some times it’s just something like… something on a math test or whatever. I make mistakes. Mistakes…. I’ll do… stuff like… ya know… I just…”
“I see, Damien. Just… don’t go off like that ever again. Were you here the entire time?”
“No, of course I was not, Paige, how could you… no. Yes. Yes. I was here. Through the night, I was here. All day, I was here. I dropped you at home, and I couldn’t… I couldn’t even think anymore… so I came… I didn’t want to talk to anyone… I didn’t want… I came here… drank… it was hidden… under dumpster… I never thought I would need it, but then I came here and… yes… I was here.”
“Oh. Wow. Oh my God. You scared the shit out of me, I was so worried.”
“Paige, what did I tell you about worrying about me?”
“Damien, I do not care. You constantly tell me not to worry about you, but you’re my friend, Goddamn it, and I do give a shit about you, just so you know. So stop telling me not to worry about you, because I do worry about you because I still freaking care about you. You could have killed yourself with this alcohol stuff, and do you know how many people would be worried about you then? You can’t go around telling everyone not to care about you, because we do care about you.” I was out of breath by the end of my speech. I inhaled. And exhaled.
He looked at me. It was a peculiar look. He raised one eyebrow. “You care about me, huh?”
“No, Damien, I just gave you a speech longer than Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech telling you about how people give a shit about you. Of course I don’t care about you,” I said as sarcastically as possible.
He smiled, and looked down at the floor. “You care about me, huh?” he repeated.
“Of course, Damien,” I said. I figured that my sarcasm didn’t go all the way through him due to the fact that he couldn’t really think straight at the moment.
“May I please ask you a question?” he asked calmly.
“What?”
“Whom do you care about more? Me or Charlie?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but then found out that I was lost for words. “I… um…” I didn’t really have an answer.
Damien raised his eyebrows. “Whom do you care about more? Me or Charlie?”
“What kind of stupid question is that?” I snapped at him.
“Charlie,” he said. “You won’t answer because it is Charlie.”
“No, of course not!”
“So you care about me? You care more about me than your own boyfriend?”
“Damien, stop talking like this. I love the both of you equally, just in different ways. I love you like a best friend, and I love him like a boyfriend. You get it?”
“No,” he said. “I know you love us just about the same, but that did not answer my question at all. Whom do you care about more? Me or Charlie?”
“I care about both of you.”
“I care about you,” he said.
“I love the both of you.”
“I only love you.”
“What?”
“Jessica doesn’t love me anymore. She doesn’t… I don’t… you…”
“All the words that are in your head need to come out as well, Damien,” I said.
“Paige, I am… you…”
“All the words!” I snapped. “Stop dozing off!”
“…in love with…”
He wasn’t even paying attention to me anymore.
I leaned over to him, and started lightly patting his cheek, trying to get him to make sense. “Damien, stop doing this. Speak!”
He opened his eyes, and looked directly at me. His mouth was a little open, so I could smell the cheap whiskey smell come out of his mouth. I had never actually been this close to Damien before.
“Paige, I am in love with you.”
And the next thing I knew, he was on top of me. His lips on mine, his alcoholic smell coming in from his mouth, into mine. I just barely started kissing back before I realized what both he and I were doing. We were kissing. And it was wrong. I pushed him off of me.
“No, Damien, stop it,” I said. “I… this isn’t right. I’m with Charlie and you… you need to get over Jessica. You don’t really mean it, this is just the alcohol speaking… You don’t love me, Damien, you’re drunk.”
“Hush,” he told me, putting his fingers to my lips. “Charlie will not know anything about this, and if Jessica does not love me, then I do not love her back. I’m in love with you, Paige. I’ve never said anything more truthful. I love you. I love you. Believe me, Paige, I am in love with you.”
“You’re not, Damien, you need to get some sleep. You need to wake up and not be drunk and just… get all of this out of your mind, okay?”
“I can’t go home,” he said. “Not when I’m… not when I’m like this. I just… I just can’t… my dad would be… so… disappointed… I can’t… Paige… will you… please… just… pay me back… that one time…”
“Complete sentences, Damien,” I reminded him. “Complete sentences.”
“Do you want to pay me back?” he asked. “For that one night where you slept in my car and I stayed awake all night?”
“What do you want?” I asked. I didn’t know whether I should do whatever he asked or not. I was still a bit skeptical about the fact that he had kissed me.
He fell over. His head ended up on my lap, and he was lying down, his foot barely touching the dumpster.
“Let me sleep, Paige.”

Chapter Fifteen

So I waited. And waited. Until I finally got another message from Damien. “We’re there. Come on down.”
So I rushed downstairs, trying to avoid any looks from Aunt Clara. Thankfully for me, she was still asleep.
I looked at the two boys in the front seats of Damien’s car. They looked sharp in their dress shirts and their fancy get-ups.
“Whoa,” I heard Charlie say. “You look amazing.”
“Oh, please,” I said, laughing. “This looks ridiculous.”
“Maybe so,” Damien said, “but it’s got to be better than what Chrissy looks like.”
“Are you kidding me?” Charlie said. “Of course Paige looks better than Chrissy. Paige always looks better than Chrissy.”
My cheeks turned red. “Thanks, Charlie.” I got into the back seat of the car. “You two are looking pretty good yourselves.”
Damien smiled, and Charlie laughed.
“Please, Paige,” Charlie said. “Damien always looks better than I do.”
“Oh, Charlie,” I said to him. “You both are handsome.”
“Yes, but I’m hot,” Charlie joked.
Damien laughed.
So we continued on in this fashion until we reached the school. There was a surprisingly large amount of people there. I didn’t expect that many people from that school to be that into dances and stuff like that.
“I see Chrissy,” Charlie pointed out, giggling.
I looked out the window, and saw where he was pointing. I saw Chrissy, too. Her puke green hair still in a butchered mess, and her dress super stained from what Damien had done.
“Wow,” Damien said. “I half thought she wasn’t going to make it tonight.”
“She’s with the Great,” Charlie said. “That is the only reason why she’s here.”
I smiled at myself, starting to get excited for part three. “Yeah. Of course.”
So we got down from the car, and proceeded towards where the big crowd of people was going. Charlie inched closer to me, and we ended up holding hands.
“Ready?” Damien whispered into my ear.
“More than ready,” I answered. “Just say when, all right?”
“You got it, Paige,” he said, winking at me.
I smiled, and proceeded towards the dance.
I wasn’t much of a dancer. So I stood by the wall and sort of just gazed around and watched everyone else make fools out of themselves instead of me. Charlie wasn’t exactly happy at the idea that I wasn’t doing anything, so every now and then he’d try to convince me, but I kept turning him down. I felt a little bad, because I could tell he wanted me to dance so badly, but I just couldn’t find it in myself to actually dance.
My phone in my purse vibrated, and I took it out. Charlie looked at me.
“Who’s that?” he asked.
“A text from Damien,” I answered. I flipped my phone open.
Charlie looked around. “Where is Damien?”
The text read, “Hey, meet me by my car.”
“He’s at his car,” I told Charlie. “He needs something from me. I’ll be right back, all right?”
Charlie gave me a sad smile. “All right.”
I smiled back, and left the gym and quickly and briskly walked out to the parking lot. Damien was leaning against his car, looked down towards the ground. He looked particularly mysterious considering the fact that his car was under a lamp light, which shone down on him, casting a shadow.
“Damien,” I called. “What’s up?”
“You ready to start part three?” he asked in a deep voice, looking up at me.
“Sure I’m ready.”
He smiled. “Cool. I’ve got the coffee in the back. It’s not that big of a mug, I’m sorry, but I figured it would be easier to carry if it was just a small thing, you know.”
I went to the trunk, opened it, and picked up the coffee mug the size of my forearm. “No, it’s perfect. Is it full?”
“Yes, completely full.”
I felt the side. “It’s hot. Perfect.”
“Yes, I practically baked it,” he said.
I laughed a bit. “Good. I need it to be scalding.”
“Don’t worry, it is.”
“And are you ready on your part?” I asked.
“More than ready,” he said, licking his lips with his tongue.
“Awesome,” I said. “Let’s get to it.”
So together we walked back into the gym. As we walked through the crowd of dancing people, I saw Charlie, still standing against the wall. He looked at me, but he didn’t smile.
I felt a little awkward, so I didn’t smile back.
Damien and I walked over to where the DJ was, and Damien said something to him. Something I couldn’t hear because the music was too loud. But I didn’t need to hear it. I already knew what he said.
“Hey, hey, yo, yo, listen up!” the DJ said into the mike once Damien was finished saying something to him. “We’ve got a little announcement here from my home boy Damien!”
Everyone stared. They looked slightly angry because the music had stopped, but slightly intrigued at what could have caused the disruption. Charlie was in the back, barely paying attention.
“Thank you, sir,” Damien said. “My fellow students,” he said, as if he was running for president or something. “It’s a pleasure to have you all here today. I would like to request a little something from you. Please, could you move over to the sides for a bit? I would like to create an empty space in the middle of the gym.”
A wave of confused chatter flowed through the crowd. People looked around at one another in a bewildered state.
“Excuse me,” Damien said again. “Now would be a good time.”
Everyone looked slightly taken aback, but obeyed what Damien had said. They all moved in unison backwards, creating the empty space in the middle of the gym. I was surprised this whole thing was actually even working.
“Thank you all so very much,” he said. “Now, I have just a couple more requests from all of you, which will be greatly appreciated. First, I’d like your full, undivided attention.”
Silence hit the gym in an instant, and everyone was staring at both Damien and me. I didn’t know whether to feel awkward, or to just ignore it completely.
“Thank you all again,” Damien said. “Now, I’d like your attention on Paige.” Everyone turned to look at me, and I simply smiled.
I walked over to the center of that empty area in the middle of the gym, and I turned around once to make sure everyone could see me.
“You got this, Paige,” Damien said, still talking into the mike. “Do it just like we planned.”
I nodded at him, and smiled at everyone staring at me again. “Hey, everyone,” I said loudly, my voice slightly shaking due to nervousness. “How is everyone doing?”
No one answered me.
“Um, all right, then,” I continued. “I hope you’re all enjoying this dance. I know I am.”
Still no answer.
“Okay…” I said. “Well, like Damien, I’d like to request a little something as well. And that is a conversation.”
Everyone started muttering to themselves in confusion, trying to understand what I meant.
“No, not a conversation like that,” I said, laughing. “I want to have a one-on-one conversation with a special someone in front of everybody here today. If I could have her come up here, Chrissy White.”
Another wave of silence filled the gym, and soon, Chrissy came out of the crowd, and joined me in the empty space.
“What do you want, Paige Aarroh,” she whispered to me so no one else could hear.
“You’ll see,” I whispered back, winking at her. “So my fellow students,” I said, talking to the crowd again. “My friend Chrissy, here, has been terrorizing my other friends as well as terrorizing me. Now, this is a shocker, so brace yourselves. As you can see, my friend here has… changed her style a bit in the past couple of days.”
“I knew you had something to do with it,” Chrissy screamed.
I ignored her, and continued my speech. “So now I’m going to tell you how it happened. You know that boy over there, right? That was talking to you all in the microphone earlier?” I pointed over at Damien. All heads turned to him for a brief second, and then back to me. “It was him. Well, not only him. Him and I. We did it.”
“I KNEW IT,” Chrissy screamed, her voice high pitched and irritable. “I KNEW IT WAS YOU, YOU LITTLE BITCH!”
Everyone gasped, but I simply smiled to myself and ignored it.
“Why did we do it, you ask? Well, let’s just say it was a calling. You could say it was revenge, but we just wanted to set order again. So that’s why we did it. But the thing is, we’re not done.”
“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?” Chrissy continued to scream.
“Yes. We’re not done. You see, a little while ago, Chrissy came to visit me at work. Sweet thing. She gave me some coffee for all my hard work. Now I’m about to pay her back for that.”
I walked over to Damien, and he handed me that huge mug of coffee. I didn’t think twice, and I didn’t give Chrissy a chance to say anything. I quickly stepped over to Chrissy as fast as I could, and pulled off the cap on the mug.
“I hope you like it hot!” I screamed, and dumped it on her. The whole gym exploded with gasping noises.
Chrissy screamed. It wasn’t just a scream. It was the shrillest noise that had ever come out of any human being.
I winced at the noise, but continued to dump it on her head until the last drop was gone from the mug. I watched her as she acted in a similar way as I did. Falling down to her knees. The coffee flowed down to her dress, staining the green into brown, and she cried in a similar fashion when the liquid penetrated her eyes. I just stood there, and laughed.
“Thank you for those few words, Paige,” Damien said into the microphone. “Now I’d like one more person to come out to this empty space we all have formed here. Mister Alexander ‘the Great’ Carlson.”
The Great came out, looking bemused and unsure of what was going on. “Um. Hello, I guess.”
“Hey, Alexander,” Damien said. His voice was quiet and calm, but since he was still talking in the microphone, everyone was able to hear. “I’d like to compliment you.”
“Thanks…?” he said, his voice nervous. “Um, on what exactly?”
“On your choice. I think Chrissy is an amazing girl. Far superior than any other I have ever met or seen.”
“I’m sorry?” Alexander said.
“Chrissy is very beautiful,” he said. He moved away from the microphone, and walked up to Chrissy, who was still on the floor. He offered her his hand, which she took. Damien pulled her up so she stood up straight.
“You are very beautiful, Chrissy,” Damien said to her. “I think I might be in love with you.”
“What?” I could tell she tried to scream it, but was unable to.
Damien moved into her too fast for me to see exactly how, but by the time I blinked and opened my eyes again, Damien was kissing her, lip to lip. I smiled to myself. Alexander was starting to back away slowly from the whole oddness of it.
Chrissy pushed Damien off of her. “EW, WHAT IS WRONG WITH—” But before she completed her sentence, she turned around, and saw the Great slowly walking out of the gym. “Alexander, please wait!”
The Great was leaving the gym, and Chrissy was running after him. “Alexander, I didn’t do anything! Please wait!”
Damien smiled in that same mysterious way that he did when I met him a little while ago by his car. Slowly, he proceeded back towards the microphone. “Thank you all again for your attention. I will hand the microphone back to our DJ for the night. You all can continue your dance.”
“Yo, I don’t know what that was,” the DJ said, taking the mike from Damien. “But I think we should just continue with this party!” He hit a button on his laptop, and another song started playing. It took a little while, but eventually everyone filled the center of the gym again, and everything was back to normal.
“So it was you,” someone said. I turned around. It was Charlie.
“Hi, Charlie,” I said, smiling. “Yeah, it was us. We really showed her, didn’t we?”
“Yeah. I guess. Listen, Paige. I’m feeling… not so well. Do you mind if you spend the rest of the night with Damien? I’m going to walk home.”
“Charlie, are you okay?” I asked, worried.
“Yeah, I’m all right. Just… yeah, don’t worry about me. I’m going home. I guess I’ll just see you later, okay?”
“All right, Charlie,” I said, disappointed he was leaving. “Feel better soon, all right?”
“Sure.” He gave me another smile, and then left.
I looked around for Damien. He was nowhere in my sight. I walked around the gym, passing people who gave me a lot of awkward looks, which I just ignored. I still couldn’t find Damien. I was getting a bit worried, but then I realized that it would be smarter if I just waited for him somewhere where I knew he would show up. I left the gym, and went into the parking lot to stand by his car.
After a while, I didn’t know how long I was waiting. I was slowly falling asleep due to boredness, but then finally, Damien showed up, coming into the parking lot from behind the gym.
“Paige,” he said, his voice quiet.
“Hey, Damien, where were you?” I asked him.
“Oh. Just… um… well, are you ready to leave?”
“Huh? Oh. Uh, yeah… I guess…”
“Okay. Get in the car. Should I drop you off at your aunt’s house?”
“Yeah, that would be great. Hey, do you think I could ask you something?”
He got into the car, and I followed him. “Well,” he started. “I think you could ask me whatever the hell you want, but it may or may not come with an answer.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Are you all right?”
“That would be a perfect example of a question I will not answer.”
“Okay…”
“Is that all you wanted to ask me?” he said. I only just noticed how bitter his voice was sounding at the moment.
“No. Um, I was just wondering… what do you think is up with Charlie?”
“What is up with Charlie?” he asked.
“Well… I saw him after we were done with part three, you know? And he seemed really… weird. He told me he wasn’t feeling well, and told me to just spend the rest of the night with you. And I asked him if he was okay, and he told me not to worry about it. So… what do you think is up with him?”
“Hm,” he said. “Well, I have a theory. Charlie… well, let’s just say he’s not too fond of me anymore.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I am going to tell you what I think,” he told me. “Now, this may or may not be true, but this is just my opinion.”
“Tell me.”
“You see, Charlie liked Jessica before, right?”
“Yeah, he told me that.”
“Jessica liked me.”
“Of course. That’s why you two are going out.”
Damien took a deep breath, and then exhaled it slowly. “Right. He… he wasn’t exactly ‘thrilled’ with the idea that we started going out, right? So he was sort of bitter towards me. But then he cooled off for a bit, got over Jessica, and that’s why we’re all right now.”
“Yeah, that’s why you two are still really good friends.”
“Exactly. Now, Charlie likes you.”
“Mhm.”
“And… I think that he thinks I’m ‘stealing’ you away from him like how I ‘stole’ Jessica away from him. He trusted you and all when you told him that nothing was going on between us, that’s why he wasn’t murdering me up until that point.”
“So what happened tonight?”
“You broke his trust.”
“I what?”
“I don’t think he trusts you like he did before.”
“What? Why? What did I do?”
“If you remember, earlier the two of us told him that it wasn’t us who did anything to Chrissy. And just now we just sort of admitted it in front of everyone. And he was disappointed by the fact we didn’t tell him the truth because you’re like his girlfriend and I’m like his best friend. We lied to him.”
I didn’t know what to say. The news sort of caught me off guard.
“Also, in addition to that,” he continued, “we did the Prank, right? And we didn’t include him in it at all. He felt left out, I guess. Also, the two of us were alone that whole time. He probably thought you were cheating on him or something along those lines.”
“But I wasn’t!” I forced the sound out of my mouth.
“I know you weren’t,” he said. “But I’m not Charlie. You should probably talk to him tomorrow or something.”
“Yeah. I think I will.”
“That’s good.”
“Can I ask you something else?”
“You can ask, but like I said before, I might not answer it.”
“Are you in, like, a bad mood or something?”
“Yes,” he answered simply. “Yes, Paige, I’m in a very bad mood. I’m slightly agitated, very disappointed, and upset beyond reason.”
“Are you all right?”
“No, I am not okay. But I guess I will be in later time. Maybe. Maybe not. It all really depends.”
“Oh. Um. Anything I can do to help?”
“I don’t think so, Paige. Not at the moment, at least.”
“Okay. Can I ask what happened?”
“You just did ask,” he said. I was getting a bit tired of the snide remarks. “But I’m not going to answer it. I just… I just don’t really feel like talking about it, is that okay?”
“That’s fine, Damien, I get it.”
“Thank you for understanding.”
“Of course.”
“We’re almost at your house.”
“Oh. Thanks a lot.”
“Anytime, Paige.”
He slowed the car down, and stopped by my door.
“I’ll see you later, okay, Damien?” I said, getting out of his car. “Feel better, all right?”
“Sure thing, Paige,” he said. He didn’t smile. “Just don’t worry about me. I’ll see you tomorrow at work. Good night.”

Chapter Fourteen

I woke up. I was still in Damien’s house. I used his mother’s hairbrush, and wore my same clothes.
Damien’s family was nice enough to give me some breakfast and then Damien took me to school.
“Oh my God,” I suddenly said.
“What?” Damien asked.
“Dude, Chrissy is going to be so pissed today.”
“Oh, right,” he said. “That’s going to be so awesome.”
“Yes.”
“So what exactly did you do with her hair?” he asked.
I laughed. “Oh, you’ll see.”
Damien parked the car, and went our separate ways for class.
I could hardly contain myself; I paid absolutely no attention in Calculus. I mean, I wasn’t as tired as I was yesterday, so I actually got a bit of work done. But I couldn’t stop thinking about what Chrissy was going to look like.
I even went completely nuts about it to Damien in Lit/Writ. He thought I was going insane, but I was okay with it. Because I wasn’t about to fall asleep at that moment, unlike yesterday.
Damien started getting worried about me at brunch because we were finally going to get to see Chrissy and how mad she was, and I was literally too happy for my own good, and Damien thought I was going absolutely insane.
“Hey, Paige,” greeted Charlie once we made it to the library. “Why so happy?”
“Not that happy,” I said, smiling. “I just had a good night.”
Charlie smiled. “Good to hear.”
I heard someone walk into the library and scream, “ALEXANDER!”
I turned around, scared, and then laughed when I saw it was Chrissy. Her skin was very pink due to the fact that Damien had adjusted her plumbing to make coffee come out of her shower. And her hair was just as it was when I had left it.
“Uh, Chrissy… what happened?” the Great asked.
“I woke up. Hair gone. Coffee in shower. Don’t want to talk about it.”
I could see the Great smiling a bit after seeing her.
Chrissy left, and Damien and I started going red with laughter.
“Oh wow!” Damien exclaimed. “Either it was the coffee that turned her face red, or it was her head filled with all that anger.”
“Whoever did her hair must have been a butcher or someone,” Charlie joked. This made me laugh even harder.
“That was positively brilliant,” Damien said.
“I wonder if that’s it, though,” Charlie said.
“What do you mean?” I asked him.
“Like, something happened yesterday. And then something happened today. Is that it? I mean, nothing tomorrow?”
“The dance is tonight,” Damien said.
“Oh, right!” I exclaimed. “Wow, I almost forgot about that.”
Charlie looked down at me and smiled. “Just don’t forget to go… there’s no point in me going if you aren’t there.”
“What about making sure Katie doesn’t go nuts?” Damien asked.
“Good point, Damien,” he said.
Damien laughed. “I wonder if Chrissy is still going. I mean, her dress and hair are both ruined.”
“Yes, but she’s not about to go and give up her chance to go to a dance with the Great,” Charlie explained. “It’s a pride thing. She’s not going to let it go so easily.”
“That’s true,” Damien said. “She also wants to show the people who did that to her that all that stuff that happened isn’t going to stop her from being on top.”
“Well, we won’t let Chrissy ruin that night,” I said to Charlie, smiling. But on the inside, the smile was meant for Damien.
“I’m glad,” Charlie said.
The bell has a habit of ringing at times that specifically annoy me. So basically, it rang, and it annoyed me. Because the bell doesn’t understand that I’d rather be hanging out with Damien and Charlie in the library than being bitched at by Chrissy in World History.
I went, and sat down in my seat. Alexander sat in front of me as usual, but Chrissy wasn’t there yet. I wondered where she was until she walked through the doors.
“Hello, Paige darling,” she greeted in her too-sweet voice. “Have you noticed my new look?” She pointed at her hair, and smiled like some sort of model.
“I have,” I said, smiling. “It suites you.”
She smirked. “It does. And my clothes all have the green to match,” she said, as if she was bragging about it. “It’s my new style for the dance.”
“Oh, I see.”
“Yes. Do you know how I got it?”
I looked at her. “Um… I’m sorry?”
“Do you have any idea how I got this look?”
“Why would I know?” I snapped.
“Oh, I don’t know. I just thought you would know.”
“Why the hell would I know?” I repeated, a little more angrily this time.
She shrugged, and looked around as if completely innocent.
“Well, for your information, Chrissy White, I don’t know nor do I give a shit about the way you look. So get off my back.”
“Touchy,” she said in a sing-song voice. “But I’d watch out if I were you.”
“I’m not too worried about it,” I said. She shot me a look, but I just smiled.
I told Damien what Chrissy said when I left for fourth period, but he just told me to ignore her, and that we would really show her at the dance tomorrow.
Charlie kept telling us more about the rumors that he had heard about Chrissy once lunch hit. Usually I found them extremely hilarious, but today I just sort of ignored them.
We acted in Drama. Not a lot much happened, so I’ll just end the school day there.
I drove with Charlie to work again. He seemed a little too overly happy with me being in the car. Don’t get me wrong, I was glad he was happy. But I just felt a little bit awkward with him constantly looking at me.
But the three of us, Charlie, Damien, and I, all made it to work at the same time again. We didn’t speak much, and quickly got to work.
“Paige,” Damien said once we were in our respective department. “What’s the plan for tonight?”
“Who: You, me, and Chrissy,” I started.
“Of course.”
“What: Well, we already know what.”
“We’ve been over it many times.”
“Where: At school, during the dance.”
“Mhm.”
“When: The dance starts at 8 o’clock. I’m meeting you and Charlie around then in front of the gym.”
“All right.”
“How: I’m going to walk there, and I think you and Charlie are going together, is that right?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“Good. And how the prank is going to work… I think we know that.”
“We do.”
“And why: It’s the call to adventure.”
Damien smiled. “Sounds good to me.”
I smiled back. “Great. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll be working.”
“I will join you.”
So we worked. It was a lot more fun with Damien there with me. We talked.
“Damien, whom are you going to the dance with?” I asked.
“I like your grammar,” he answered.
“Uh, thanks.”
“Yeah. A lot of people don’t know the difference between ‘who’ and ‘whom.’ It annoys me sometimes.”
“Um, yeah, that’s great and all, but it didn’t answer my question.”
“Paige,” he started, “I am going with Jessica, because I still love her.”
“I see.”
“What does that mean?”
“What does what mean?”
“You said, ‘I see.’ What does that mean?”
“It doesn’t mean anything,” I said. “I just said ‘I see.’ I tend to say thing that sound awkward when I don’t know what I’m supposed to say.”
“All right. I believe you.”
“Okay.”
“I just haven’t seen Jessica in so long,” he said.
“I know.”
“She said she wanted to talk to me,” he continued, as if I didn’t say anything at all. “I don’t know. I haven’t heard her voice. She sent me a text message. She wanted to talk because we haven’t in so long.”
“Oh,” was all I could manage.
“Yeah. I should be excited for seeing her again, but I’m equally as excited for the last part of the Prank.”
I smiled. “Yeah, it’s going to be…” I had to think of an adjective.
“Epic?” Damien suggested.
I laughed, mostly to myself. “Incredibly epic.”
Working went by fast when Damien and I went over the plan of our prank over and over again once it was engraved into our heads. We laughed several times at some parts that were going to be hilarious. But eventually, Damien told me to stop living in the future, and get back to work. I was a bit bitter, so I just went and took my break.
“Hey, Paige kid!” someone, obviously Katie, greeted the second I walked in.
“Hi, Paige,” Charlie said soon after.
“Hello,” I said back. “Angela here?”
“Angela girl said she couldn’t take a break today,” Katie explained. “Some employees are sick, and she needs to fill in for them and things of that sort.”
“Oh, that kind of sucks.”
“I want Angela girl!”
“Hey, Katie girl,” Charlie said to her. “I’m here. What’s wrong with me?”
“You love Paige kid,” she said.
“I love you, too,” he said.
“You love Paige kid!” she repeated.
Charlie laughed. “I do love Paige kid, but I will never forget about you, Katie girl.”
“Katie girl loves Charlie boy, too!” Katie exclaimed.
I smiled at the two good friends, and sat down on the opposite side of them.
“Paige kid, did you know?” Katie said to me, excitement in her voice.
“Know what?” I asked.
“Charlie boy is going to the dance with someone!”
“Oh really?” I said, smiling at Charlie. “Who’s going with Charlie boy?”
Katie smiled, as if the greatest thing in the world was hearing me call Charlie “Charlie boy.” “Charlie boy is going with you, silly!”
I took a quick glance at Charlie, and laughed with him.
“Are you going to the dance with anyone, Katie girl?” Charlie asked.
“Angela girl?” she answered, more of a question.
Charlie laughed. “No, I meant as a date. Are you going with anyone as a date?”
“No, no, of course not!” she exclaimed as if it were the most absurd thing ever to go on a date with someone. “You have to be as amazing as Charlie boy or Paige kid to have dancing dates!”
The two of us laughed again.
“Well,” Charlie started. “I should probably be getting back to work.”
He left the room, and Katie smiled at me.
“Hi, Katie,” I said, trying to break the awkward silence.
“Paige girl, Charlie boy loves you lots,” she said, frankly, a bit randomly. “I know it. Charlie boy can’t stop talking about you all the time.”
I smiled at her. “I’m really glad,” I said. “Charlie is an amazing guy.”
“Charlie boy makes me laugh lots!” she said, laughing herself. “And he can make sad people laugh. And he takes care of me lots, too. Angela girl does, too, but he does lots.”
“Okay, Katie,” I said.
“Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay? Okay. I go work. I got work. I need to—”
“I understand, Katie,” I told her, laughing a bit at how she stuttered a bit as she talked. “Have fun working.”
“Have fun, Paige kid!” She smiled, and leaved.
I sat in silence until the door opened again.
“You in here, Paige?” Damien asked.
“Oh, hi, Damien,” I said. “What’s up?”
“Nothing really,” he said. “I guess I’m just getting excited for tonight.”
I smiled. “Tell me about it.”
“Yes. I can’t wait. I’m going to go home now, though, I’m feeling sick and stuff. I can probably convince my dad to let you go home, too. I mean, because I’m usually you’re ride, right? So if I go you have to go. Um, do you want to go home?”
I blinked for a second, trying to process everything he said. One I thought about it, I realized I was actually a bit tired of work for the day. “Um, I guess. Sure. All right. Should we talk to David first?”
“If you really want to,” he said.
We left the break room and went to go meet David.
“Sick, Damien?” he asked. “Well, are you going to be all right?”
“Yeah, of course, dad,” I said. “I have to be okay, I’m meeting Jessica at the dance today.”
“Dance?” David repeated. “Is Paige going as well?”
“Yes, I am,” I said, nodding.
David smiled. It was the type of smile that could make you feel awkward no matter how you felt previously.
“Do you mind if I take Paige home, dad?”
David’s smile turned into a frown. “Sure. As you know, we’re a little short on employees, but I think Charlie can do some extra stuff.”
Damien smiled. “All right. Thank you, dad.”
I smiled, too. “Yes, thank you very much.”
So the two of us went back into the parking lot, and went into his car. As I was getting in, I saw Charlie through the window. He was working at the registers, busy with a customer. He turned and saw me. I waved, and he gave me a slightly sad smile.
“Ready?” Damien said, making me look away from Charlie.
“Oh. Um. Right. Yeah, I’m ready.”
So we drove.
“I’ll see you soon, all right?” Damien said, dropping me off at my Aunt Clara’s house. He smiled.
“Definitely. I’m super excited. It will be epic.” I smiled back.
Damien laughed. “All right. Charlie and I will see you tonight. I might send you a text message.”
“Sounds good to me. See you later.”
He drove away.
So I went up to my room, and decided that I probably needed to wear a dress for the dance. I didn’t really wear dresses, but for some reason I had one. I shuffled through my suitcase, which was still full of things that I didn’t bother to unpack. Like that dress. It was a long one, but it was starting to get a bit small for me, so it only reached my ankles. It was black, so the only thing I didn’t like about it was that it made my skin look more pale. Well, that, and the fact that it was still a dress.
I tried to force my hair to stay down, but it didn’t cooperate with me, so I just decided to tie it up. I didn’t want to do anything else, but when I thought about it being a dance, and I thought, why not do a little extra?
So out of my bag, I pulled out my eyeliner, and put it on. In the dress that I wore, and with my bangs covering half of my face, it made me look like some emo child. But I didn’t care. It was the way I dressed up.
Only then did I realize I didn’t have shoes, so I just wore my muddy sneakers, and hoped they would suffice.
I sat quietly in my room until Damien and Charlie were supposed to come pick me up.
My phone started vibrating. I picked it up. A text message from Damien.
“Charlie is over. We’re almost done getting ready. Tell me when you’re good, and we’ll come pick you up. Is that okay?”
I typed back. “Yes, that’s fine. I’m already all ready. Lol. Okay, you can come whenever. Give me a text, and I’ll come down.”
I hit send, and waited.
After about a minute, the phone vibrated again. I checked my messages. “Okay. We’re just leaving. We’ll be there in a minute.”
“Okay,” I texted back.

Chapter Thirteen

So I snuck out of Aunt Clara’s house wearing my “ninja” suit again, and waited by the dumpster behind Wal-mart.
Damien arrived a few minutes later, and pulled up his car beside me.
“Hey,” he said as I got into the passenger seat.
“Hi. Do you have the stuff?”
“I got the scissors right here, and the huge containers with gallons of coffee are in the trunk.”
“Awesome,” I said. “Did we decide who is doing what already?”
He laughed. “Do you have short term memory loss or something? Yes, we already did.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I’m doing the coffee bit, and you’re doing the hair bit.”
“All right. I’ll write the not now. Got a piece of paper?”
“I have a sticky note.”
He handed it to me, and I found a pen in his car.
“Good enough.”
I wrote on the paper. “I got most of the green out of your hair. And you don’t need to straighten it. You are very welcome.”
“All right. So I put this where again?”
“I think it’s best if you put it on her mirror. I think she looks at that the most.”
I laughed. “Right. And you’re going down to the plumbing right?”
“Yeah. It’ll take me a while. We’re going to be in there longer today.”
“How come?”
“I’ve got to go down to their basement, and I’m scared if the stairs creek or something.”
I laughed. “I guess it’s going to take me a while, too.”
“Yeah it will.”
We pulled up in front of Chrissy’s huge mansion-like house again.
“Do you think the house will be locked this time?” I whispered to Damien as we started to approach the house.
“No, I don’t think so,” he said. He turned the doorknob, and it opened just as it did the previous night. “She doesn’t expect a part two, remember?”
I smiled, and the two of us crept inside.
I made my way up the grand stairs, and Damien stealthily went behind the stairs, and started tiptoeing down into the basement.
Carefully, I opened Chrissy’s bedroom door again. I cringed as I heard the slight squeaking the hinges made as I slowly pushed it. Thankfully, this did not wake Chrissy. And thankfully, she was sleeping on her side just as I had hoped.
I knelt down next to her bed, on the side where the back of her head was facing me. I raised the scissors up. It took a lot of urge for me not to stab her in the neck. But instead, I lifted up her hair, strand by strand, and snipped it. I cut each strand of hair a different size, and randomly cut off everything. It was a lot more fun than I expected it to be. I left the fallen hair on her pillow and bed sheets. I smiled to myself, and proceeded to her bathroom, where I stuck the sticky note to the mirror. I looked back at Chrissy, and laughed at how ridiculous her cut up, puke green hair looked. I couldn’t wait to see her anger tomorrow.
So I quickly made my way back down the stairs, and waited for Damien to finish up his part of part two of the Prank for Just Once. I sat down on the bottom step, and attempted to both entertain myself and keep quiet and hope that nothing wrong was going to happen at that moment.
And then I thought about what I just did. I had just cut up and totally destroyed Chrissy White’s hair. And enjoyed it. I smiled to myself, and heard Damien come back up.
“You finished fast,” I whispered to him.
“Not really,” he whispered back. “I think you were just having so much fun, the time flew past you.”
I smiled, trying not to laugh out loud. “I guess it was fun.”
Damien smiled back. “Let’s get the hell out of here before we get caught.”
So we scurried back out the door, and then sprinted to Damien’s car before anything looked suspicious.
I took a deep breath, and let it out, and started talking in an overly loud voice again. “That was more intense than yesterday.”
Damien laughed. “Yes, it was. And the results are going to be more drastic.”
“I’m excited for tomorrow.”
“Yeah. So do you want to go to your Aunt’s house now, or what?”
“I don’t want to go to my Aunt’s house ever. I’m so miserable there. She doesn’t even know I exist.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah. Whatever. I feel like doing something right now, anyway.”
“Like what? Don’t you want sleep? Remember what happened today?”
I shrugged. “I’ll try not to be tired tomorrow. And I really feel like living in the present right now.”
Damien smiled at me. “Fine. What do you want?”
“I have no idea. I don’t know Chicago as well as you do. Where do you want to go?”
“Lincoln Park?” he suggested.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Lincoln Park. It’s the biggest park in Chicago.”
“Oh. Isn’t that also like a band or something?”
Damien laughed. “Yeah, they got the name from the park.”
“Not the other way around?”
He laughed again. “Nope.”
“I did not know that. So what, you want to go there?”
He nodded. “It’s a beautiful park, but in my opinion, everything is more beautiful at night.”
“I see.”
“Yep. You want to go?”
“I do.”
“Let’s go, then.”
So we drove. And drove. And I didn’t even pay attention to where we were going, or how long we were going.
“Paige, it’s late,” Damien said. “I’ll drive, you can go to the back and sleep.”
“No, it’s all right.”
“It’s past midnight, Paige,” he said. “I don’t want you to fall asleep for part three tomorrow. And I don’t know if I can let you off work again. And… yeah, just go to sleep, okay?”
“Not now, I’m gazing.” I did this a lot on long road trips a lot. Especially when I was driving from one new guardian to another. I’d just gaze out the window, seeing and taking in all the sights I could, and I’d try to come up with a story in my head. About anything that fit the scenery I was gazing at. It was something I’d do unconsciously.
Damien shook his head.
“I’m not even tired,” I said. “I got enough sleep at work. But you barely slept at all last night, and you didn’t get a break. Why don’t you go back and sleep, and I’ll drive for a while.”
“Paige, I told you not to worry about me. For the millionth time—”
“That is so not fair! You can worry about me, but I can’t worry about you?”
“I’m the guy, Paige,” he said, smiling. “I’m supposed to worry about you.”
“That is so sexist!” I exclaimed. “I can take care of myself, and other people, thank you very much.”
“Just relax, Paige, because there’s nothing for you to worry about.”
“Oh, my best friend—” he smiled “—isn’t getting any sleep for two days straight, and I have nothing to worry about?”
“I’m fine, really,” Damien said. “Just don’t worry about it.”
I shot him a look. “Fine, be that way.”
“I will.”
We drove some more, and I didn’t know how long it was, but I was falling half asleep while gazing out the window. The story I came up with was about a girl whom nobody liked, and then one day this amazing guy who stole her away, but they couldn’t be together so he kidnapped her and drove her across Chicago until the two of them could happily be together.
I yawned.
“Don’t sleep yet,” Damien said. “We’re all most there.”
And I couldn’t even remember clearly, but before I knew it, we were on a large field of grass. We weren’t particularly doing anything. We just lied down there, starring up at the sky. Almost black and just a few stars glittered in the sky like some kind of poster made by a three-year-old with an excessive amount of glitter glue.
“You’re right, Damien,” I said.
“I know,” he said. “Wait, what exactly am I right about?”
I laughed. “About everything being more beautiful in the night.”
He turned his head and smiled at me. “Yeah. It really is.”
I continued to space out looking at the twinkling of the stars, but I felt Damien’s eyes on me. It felt a little weird, but I decided to ignore it. It was like one of those awkward silences, only it felt very different.
I turned my head to the side, and looked at Damien, who was still looking at me. He smiled. “How much longer do you want to stay here?”
“If I’m not at my aunt’s house, I want to stay here forever.”
Damien’s grin grew. “I wish that was true, but we’ve got to go to school tomorrow, unfortunately.”
“I hate school.”
“But your boyfriend is there.”
“Your girlfriend is there.”
“Yes, but I didn’t say I hated school.”
“You don’t hate school?”
“Well… yes. Yes, I do hate school.”
I laughed.
“But only because people like Alexander and Chrissy are at school,” Damien explained.
“The Great isn’t that bad,” I told him. “I mean, of course Chrissy is, but what’s wrong with Alexander?”
Damien put his hands under his head, looked back up at the sky, and shrugged. “Maybe he’s perfect. Maybe I’m jealous of him.”
“Damien, you’re great, too,” I said. “The Great is no better than you are.”
He shrugged again. “I guess.”
“Trust me. You are a very awesome person, Damien. Do you think you would ever date someone like Chrissy?”
“Never.”
“There. You’re already one point ahead of the Great. Do you think the Great would ever come all night with your friend to play a hilariously awesomely epic prank on someone he really hated?”
“I do not think so.”
“Two points ahead. Do you think the Great would stay up all night just to stay up all night with me?”
“Not so sure.”
“He wouldn’t. That’s three points for you. Do you think the Great would let me fall asleep in his lap?”
“Maybe.”
“I do not think so, my friend. That’s four points for you. See? You’re already so much better than him.”
Damien chuckled, and then looked back at me. “Thanks, Paige. It really means a lot.”
I smiled back at him. “Anytime, Damien.”
I yawned. Damien sat up. He took off his jacket, and scrunched it up into a ball.
“What are you doing?” I said, yawning again.
“You’re tired.” He lifted my head up, and put the balled-up jacket under my head.
“Aren’t you going to freeze to death?” I asked.
He shrugged his shoulders. I was afraid that if he did it again, his shoulders would come out of their sockets.
I turned around so that my face was more in his jacket. It smelled nice. Just like Damien. Like pages of an old book, and some sort of cocoanut conditioner. I inhaled deeply, and took in the scent. It went straight to my head, which made me a bit dizzy. I closed my eyes. I was afraid that maybe I was sleeping too much.
Damien’s hand pushed the hair out of my face, and behind my ear. My cheek was suddenly cold. “I’m glad you’re sleeping,” he said.
“You go to sleep,” I mumbled.
“I will, Paige. I promise.”
“You can’t break a promise,” I said into his jacket. “Don’t break your promise.”
He laughed lightly. “I promise, Paige. Don’t worry about me.”
“Stop saying that.” I sounded like a little child waking up at some early time in the morning. All whiny and tired.
“But you don’t have to worry about me. I’ll get sleep tonight, okay?”
“Don’t break your promise,” I repeated.
“I won’t. Sleep.”
So I slept.
I didn’t know how long it was that I was asleep, but after some immeasurable amount of time, I felt the grass disappear from under me. I barely opened my eye, and saw that Damien was carrying me. Back to his car. I didn’t want to move or anything in case he dropped me, because he sounded like he was kind of having a hard time lifting me. So I just acted like I was still asleep, and closed my eyes again.
The next thing I felt was the seat of Damien’s car. I didn’t think about what he had done for me again, and fell back asleep.
After another immeasurable amount of time, I woke up. I looked around. We were still in Damien’s car. Still driving. “Damien, were are we?”
“Morning, sleepy head,” he said cheerfully.
“What time is it?” I asked.
“It’s late,” was all he said. “I’m taking you home.”
“Aunt Clara’s house is not my home,” I said.
“I know. I’m taking you to my house for the night,” he said.
“Whaa—?”
“My house,” he repeated. “I’ll explain to my parents something. They’ll be okay with it.”
“You sure?”
“Of course. We’ve got an extra room and stuff. My parents will be fine with it.”
“Okay,” I said, my voice sleepy. “Better than Aunt Clara’s house.”
“Yes, much better than your aunt’s house.”
I smiled to myself, and we arrived at Damien’s house.
The two of us walked into his house. Both of his parents were in the living room, sitting. Waiting.
“Damien, dear, where have you been?” his mother asked, worry in her voice.
“Don’t worry, guys, I was with Paige,” Damien explained, pointing at me.
“Oh,” David said, as if some realization had come to him. “You were with Paige. What happened to Jessica?”
“Dad!” Damien exclaimed. “I’m still with Jessica. Paige is my friend.”
“Of course, dear,” his mother said. “It’s all right. Hello, Paige.”
“Hello, Mrs. Caster,” I said back.
“Mom, is it all right if Paige stays here for the night?” Damien asked. “We lost track of time when we were out, and she doesn’t really want to go home.”
“Sure. Paige, you can have the guest room. It’s right next to Damien’s room, he’ll show you the way, is that all right?”
“Thank you, Mrs. Caster.”
“Don’t think me, darling, just go on back and rest. You look mighty tired.”
“I am. Thanks again.”
“Oh, don’t mention it.” She smiled, and I smiled back.
So Damien led me into his house, and into the guest room. It was nicer than the room Aunt Clara left me. I went into the bed, and Damien shut off the lights.
“Good night, Paige. Sweet dreams.”