I woke up with a massive headache. The last thing I wanted to do was go to school. I went into the living room to see Aunt Clara still on the couch, TV on, chips bag on the floor. I started to question how she was alive if she didn’t move at all.
Again, I skipped breakfast due to the lack of edible food in the house, and walked outside of the house, trying to force the cats in so they wouldn’t follow me all day.
A car honked at me. I looked. It was Damien with Jessica.
“Need a ride?” he called.
What was the point, though? I mean, in the car ride I would just be ignored as Jessica and Damien fell all over each other. But I looked at my cell phone, and decided to take the ride anyway to keep from getting late.
I was ignored in the car again, but I didn’t mind too much. They were a couple; they were supposed to act completely in love 24/7. I got out of the car as soon as possible, and briskly walked to my Calc class.
I got all the problems in my homework correct. I wasn’t surprised, but since it was so easy, I felt calculus to be a waste of my time completely.
Thankfully, I was out of there quickly. I headed over to Lit/Writ. We basically had the whole time in class to start and work on our essay. I decided to flip through the book to choose a topic, and decided I’d do my essay on one of the main themes of the book: Loneliness.
I was only able to find a couple quotes in the book I could use for concrete detail by the time the period ended. Damien didn’t talk to me too much, but I was happy he talked to me at all. He was extremely kind to me, but I didn’t yet consider him a friend.
Maybe I should’ve, but since no one had ever really treated me this way, I didn’t know when to consider someone a friend or not. I had only known him for a day, but he had already done so much for me. He gave me a chance to have a conversation, he gave me lunch, and a ride back to Aunt Clara’s.
The one thing I didn’t understand, though, was why he was with me at brunch and lunch instead of Jessica.
“Oh, she has clubs and stuff,” Damien answered. “She’s like a super honor student, right? She wants her college applications to be the best Goddamned college applications anyone would see. So she’s always really busy with after school stuff and clubs and all. She’s really talented.”
“I see,” I said. I felt a bit bad for him. He had such a great girlfriend, but she was always so busy.
We went to the library, which made me happy for two reasons. 1) Books, and 2) Alexander. The place where Damien sat was perfect for taking glances over at the Great. I would be hiding behind a book, and every so often I’d peek above it just to watch him. Nothing else. Just watch him reading.
“You know, if you keep staring at him, he’s never going to know you exist.” Damien noticed what I was glancing at.
“What do you want me to do, then?” I asked.
“Try talking to him?”
“I can’t do that!”
“Why not?”
“I wouldn’t know what to say.”
“Well, just find a topic of conversation. For example: you both like books. What’s your favorite genre? What authors do you like? What good books have you read lately?”
I glared at Damien.
“Or,” he continued, “just start any random topic. Music. Movies. Et cetera, et cetera.”
“I can’t do that,” I repeated.
“Why not?” Damien said, a bit harder this time.
“Because I’m not good at that sort of stuff. You are.” Then I had an idea. “Why don’t you go introduce me to him?”
“I can’t do that,” he quoted me.
“Why not?” I quoted him back.
“Paige, he is the alpha dog, and I am a nobody. He doesn’t know me, so if I try to introduce him to someone else, you can guess how weird that can be.”
“Well, if you don’t know him and you can’t talk to him, what makes you think I can talk to him if I don’t know him, either?” I told him off.
He sighed. “You’re the new kid. You’re supposed to not know everyone.”
I glared at him again. “I’m still not going to talk to him.”
“Fine. Do whatever.” And he went back into his book.
I was only able to finish one chapter of Harry Potter by the time the bell rang due to the fact that Alexander was the most gorgeous boy I have ever seen in my life.
I parted ways with Damien and headed towards History.
History was in a dead tie with Calculus for most boring class. But it was significantly better. In Calculus, I’d just fall asleep during the whole class. But in History, I was able to gaze at Alexander. But every time I caught a quick glimpse of him, that Chrissy girl would always give me a weird look. I ignored it, and wished I knew more about Alexander and wished he knew more about me.
I didn’t pay attention in Chemistry, either. I was whispering with Damien. I guess I sort of considered him as a friend, now. Maybe because I didn’t have a friend before. But did he?
“Damien, what’s with that Chrissy girl?”
“You mean Chrissy White? She’s alpha female in the school.”
“What does that mean?”
“Like the alpha dog, only a girl.”
“So what, she’s the most popular girl?”
“Yep. It’s almost cliché, how she is. Head cheerleader, not very bright, stuff like that. She’s always getting asked out and stuff, but I don’t see why. She’s kind of a bitch.”
I already kind of noticed. When we bumped into each other yesterday, she did seem to have a rather large ego.
“Oh,” I said. He didn’t mention too much about her on the people-tour he gave me yesterday. He just pointed out a group she was in and said, “Those over there are the popular people.”
“Yeah,” Damien continued. “I hate to burst your bubble, but she’s trying to get the Great.”
“What?” I said, slightly too loudly that the teacher almost heard me.
“Mhm. The Great kind of notices her more, ya know? They’re both like the most popular. They’re probably going to end up together.”
I frowned. Damien knew why. He had already guessed that I liked Alexander. I also frowned because I was slightly ashamed of myself. I didn’t like Chrissy White at all. Not because she was a bitch or because she was popular, or the normal reasons that people would hate people like Chrissy White, but I hated her because she had a higher chance of Alexander than I did.
“You know, if you just talked to him he’d know who you are, and maybe you’d have a shot with him.”
“I suck at talking with people, though.”
“Well, you’re talking to me, and I don’t see any problems.”
“First of all, I don’t have a crush on you. Second, you’re always the one who keeps the conversation going.”
He smiled. “True.”
“If he talked to me, then I don’t think I’d have a problem.”
“Listen to me, the Great is not going to start a conversation with you. No offense to you or anything, you’re cool and all, but the Great is going to want to stay with his clique, or people he can talk to maintain his status as ‘the Great.’ He likes to have it all, if you know what I mean.”
“And I want to have all of him,” I muttered to myself. Thankfully Damien didn’t hear other wise that would have been kind of embarrassing. But it was true--Alexander seemed so amazing.
Damien bought lunch for me again because I still didn’t have any money.
“Is you’re aunt trying to starve you?” he asked, shocked when I told him I didn’t have dinner or breakfast.
“No, she just doesn’t have, like, actual food in her house,” I laughed.
“But still, she’s your guardian. She needs to have food for you.”
“I think that soup she gave me two days ago was the only real food she had. And it wasn’t even soup. It was cold water and a carrot.”
Damien did a sort of Mona Lisa smile, which was a mix of a smile and a frown. Like a sad smile or a happy frown.
“Maybe you should get a job or something. You know, buy your own food.”
“You do know that for all the jobs I could possibly get, one of the requirements is to have good people skills?”
“So? You’ll get better.”
“That doesn’t matter since no one will hire me in the first place.”
“What if I hire you?”
I stared at him. “And what is that supposed to mean?”
“Well, my dad is the manager of the Wal-Mart nearby,” Damien explained. “I work there, too, but I’m paid less since my dad has authority over me. I’m sure I can give him a recommendation.”
“How will that be working for you, though?”
“I’ve been there for a couple years now, and my dad just recently promoted me to one of the assistant managers, so I’m going to be your boss.” He smiled.
“If you can get me the job, I’ll do what you say, sir,” I told him.
“If I can get you the job,” he said, “don’t call me ‘sir.’”
Before we knew it, it was the end of lunch, and Drama was impending. It was probably my favorite class out of them all. Since I had entered it during the second semester, I got to skip all the learning and the boring projects and got right into acting. I was probably one of the most participating students in that class, and the teacher already liked me.
All the good things go away quickly, so Drama ended a bit too soon. I decided not to take a ride from Damien today because he had already done too much for me. But I crossed the parking lot anyway, and saw him by himself, leaning against his busted-up car.
“Where’s Jessica?” I asked.
“Speech and Debate.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
Silence.
I changed my mind. Since Jessica wasn’t with him, “D’you think I can get a ride?”
“Sure, no problem. Get in.”
I sat in the shotgun seat. It was different here. There was more room, and the old-car smell was more apparent.
He seemed to have memorized the way already. He drove until he promptly stopped in front of Aunt Clara’s house. I hesitated.
“Aren’t you going to get down?” Damien asked, half laughing.
I didn’t want to answer him because I didn’t want to get down. I didn’t want to go to Aunt Clara’s house and breathe the smell of cats and potato chips.
“You can get down now, Paige. I mean, I’ve got to go to work.”
“Can I go with you?” I asked suddenly.
“Like… right now?”
“Yeah,” I answered enthusiastically. “I don’t want to go to Aunt Clara’s, and you said you’d try to get me a job there.”
At first he seemed a bit unsure, but soon enough, “All right. Let’s go.”
So he drove. I memorized the roads and turns along the way so that if I ever needed to walk there, I wouldn’t get lost.
Finally, we arrived. The first person I noticed was an older looking man who had bright green eyes, and grey hair that looked as if it were originally red. The wrinkles on his face would’ve stood out more if it weren’t for the massive mustache above his upper lip.
“Good afternoon, son,” he said to Damien.
“Hey, dad.”
“Who’s that you’ve got there?”
I wanted to correct him and say that he should’ve said “whom” instead of “who,” but I just kept my mouth shut.
“Dad, this is Paige Aarroh. She’s new to the school, and she just started yesterday.”
“What happened to Jessica?” he asked.
I felt my cheeks grow hot.
“Um, dad,” Damien started, “Paige isn’t my girlfriend. Jessica and I are still together.”
“Yeah, but she always seems like she’s too busy for you. Like you’re not a priority or somethin’.”
“It’s not like that, dad, I still see her. Paige is just a friend.”
I don’t know why, but a huge wave of relief just flooded me. I didn’t have to wonder if Damien considered me a friend or not because now I’ve heard him say it.
“Whatever you say, son. So whatd’ya need?”
“I was just wondering if we could give Paige a job here,” Damien asked for me.
Mr. Caster looked at me, and then at Damien, and then back at me. “I don’t see why not. As long as she’s willing to work for minimum wage, we could always use the extra help.”
I smiled. “Thank you, sir.”
“Now, I don’t want any of this ‘sir’ business. You just call me David, all right?”
I nodded.
“And you call me Damien,” Damien mocked. “I don’t want to hear the word ‘sir’ out of your mouth.”
I laughed, and nodded again.
“She doesn’t talk much, does she?” David asked Damien.
Damien did his Mona Lisa smile again. “Not really.”
I felt like I should’ve spoken up there, but then I didn’t.
“Well, that’s all right. Hopefully you work better than you talk. You can start here tomorrow, and I’ll get all your stuff. Damien, you want to give her a ride home before you start your shift?”
“Oh, no, it’s all right, David,” I said, a bit uncomfortable calling him by his first name. “I can walk, I memorized the way.”
“Intelligent,” he said. “But I don’t want you walking all the way back. Damien’ll take you.”
Damien smiled at me, and I smiled back. “All right.”
The car ride back was mostly silent, but every now and then Damien would bring up something.
“You’re welcome,” he told me out of the blue.
At first I was confused, then a bit late, I understood. “Oh! Thanks a ton. It means a lot.”
Damien laughed lightly. “Don’t worry about it. I needed another person I could boss around.” He smirked at me.
I raised one eyebrow at him. “Gee, thanks,” I said sarcastically.
He laughed again. “I can be pretty harsh sometimes. I made a person cry once when he didn’t get a job done.”
I stared at him. “Are you freaking serious?”
He laughed again. “Do I seem like the type of person that would make a person cry?”
I blinked at him.
“Let me answer that for you. I’m not.”
Still hesitant, I said, “Oh.”
He smiled. “I can’t make a person cry if you were going to pay me a million bucks. I just can’t. It’s like you and talking to people. I can’t be mean for shit. Even if I’m in a crap kind of mood.”
“Good to know,” I said.
“I can tell you kinda don’t care,” he said.
“Well, you don’t care about Alexander,” I argued.
His smile faded. “I don’t. But you’re like my only friend, so I care.”
My stomach lurched. His only friend? Seriously?
“What about Jessica?”
“You see, Jessica is my girlfriend. I’ve loved her like a girlfriend for as long as I’ve known her. I’ve never really loved anyone like a friend.”
He loved me like a friend.
I could’ve asked any question that related to Damien’s statement. For example: How long have you known Jessica? How long have you been together? I could’ve said anything, but I asked, “You really think of me as a friend?”
He shrugged. “Sure. You’re cool enough for me.”
I rolled my eyes, but smiled. I had never had a friend before, and it was an amazing feeling to know someone cared.
“All right, we’re at your Aunt Clara’s house,” he said. I’m glad he said my Aunt Clara’s house instead of mine, because it wasn’t my house at all.
“Thanks, Damien. For everything.”
“Anytime,” he said, smiling.
I smiled back, and went in the house.
Aunt Clara was still on the couch. Big surprise.
One of the cats was outside of my bedroom door. I shooed it away, and went inside to my privacy.
I sat on my bed, laptop in hand, and started wasting my time.
Going on random websites was the perfect way to kill time. Especially if you literally had nothing better to do. Before I knew it, hours had already passed by. It’s amazing how fast time goes while watching YouTube videos and adding Facebook applications.
But suddenly, I noticed a new notification on Facebook. This was odd, because no one ever sent me anything or did anything related to me. I clicked on it. It read, “Damien Caster would like to add you as a friend.” I smiled to myself, and hit “accept.”
After about a minute, an IM window popped up.
I smiled to myself, and started to type back.
I half expected him to log off, but he didn’t.
I pulled out my things as well, and started to work.
Every so often Damien would say something and I’d hear the little “click!” of the chat, but we didn’t talk much since we were both doing our homework. And when we did message each other, it was usually about the homework. About an hour passed by when I finished my homework, and I heard Damien message me again.
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