How can I still love him now that I know I have to?

I bolted upright in my bed. Sweat was rolling down my face and I felt claustrophobic. I got up and headed to the bathroom. On my way there, I checked the time. It was 5:30 in the morning. It was an hour earlier than I usually wake up. I decided to take a shower, blow dry my hair, and take forever on my make-up. I did each thing in a trance like state. My mind was too busy thinking about that dream. Let me just tell you about myself. I have long brown hair and blue eyes. I am currently 18 years old. I have the best friends in the world. And most people call my friends and me punk or goth. I don’t like stereotypes. They are so overrated. After I was completely ready for school, I picked up my phone to check the time. I had two missed calls from Zoe, one of my best friends. I also had a new voicemail. Dialing the number, I listened closely. “Sky! Answer your phone! I need to talk to you really bad. Call me back as soon as you get this.” I deleted the message with a sigh. She always needed to talk to me. I dialed her number and it rang a few times. She picked up with a, “Hey!”

“Hey! What’s up?”

“Nothing. You’ll never guess what I heard!” she exclaimed.

“What?” I questioned her, almost afraid of her answer.

“There is a new guy coming to school today. Everybody is talking about it..” You could hear the excitement in her voice.

“Okay…” I muttered. It was still to early for me to be excited about a new guy.

“Oh come on! You sound like a zombie,” she complained.

“I feel like a zombie,” I replied.

“What? Bad hang over?”

“Ha ha. Very funny,” I shot back. “No. I had a nightmare. I’ll tell you about it at school.”

“Okay. I’ll see you on the bus.” She declared. We hung up and I headed down stairs for breakfast.. All morning I couldn’t shake the picture of that dude biting me. Normally it doesn’t take long for me to eat breakfast, but I was distracted. I checked the time on my phone, then hastily shoved the rest of the poptart in my mouth. I ran up stairs, tripping all the way up, threw my phone on my bed, put on my jacket, grabbed my back pack, and headed for the bus. Waiting for Zoe to get on, I stared out the window daydreaming. I didn’t even notice her sit down next to me in our little seat at the back of the bus.

“Hello? Earth to Sky!!” she screamed then smiled at this little joke. I turned to look at her and so did everyone else. “What are you looking at? Turn around!” she yelled. As if they were under her command, they all did as ordered. She just had that effect on people.

“What? Sorry,” I confessed.

“Are you okay?” she asked me sounding concerned.

”I’m fine,” I lied. I knew by the look on her face that she didn’t believe me.

“Tell me about your dream,” she demanded with eagerness.

“Okay. So I was in this white room,” I went on. I told her the whole story not skipping a detail. Her face was so animated. I loved that. She always made facial expressions at the right time.

“Wow. Creepy,” Zoe replied, still wide-eyed. I nodded my head in agreement. “It’s okay. It was just a dream,” she told me as she hugged me. I had a nasty feeling that it wasn’t. Our bus pulled up to our school and I sighed,

“Yay! Another day of learning!” our friend Collin cheered with no enthusiasm. All three of us laughed as we made our way to the front of the bus. On our way to our usual spot, Zoe scanned through the crowd for the new guy. He was no where to be found, at first. She quickly spotted him sitting on a table by himself.

“Look, there he is!” she whispered in my ear. A grin spread across her face. I stared at him, studying him with my eyes. Apparently everyone else was checking him out too.

“Eh,” I mumbled as we approached our friends. Collin had gone off to see his other friends. Zoe glared at me as if I was crazy.

“Eh?!” she questioned me rhetorically. I didn’t pay much attention to that morning’s conversation. All I heard was something about Family Guy. I didn’t want know. My head was some where else. The bell rang to go inside and I stood there totally unaware. Zoe hand grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me to class. In first hour we were doing an experiment in groups of two and we didn’t get to choose. Zoe and I crossed our fingers. Mrs. White divided almost the whole class and the only people left were Loser Leroy, as we like to call him, Zoe, and me.

“Zoe,” Mrs. White announced, “You’re with Leroy.” Zoe huffed and I sighed. “Sky, you can…” Mrs. White didn’t get to finish because the new guy walked in.

“Is this Mrs. White’s class?” he asked. Immediately I put my head down. I knew we would have to be together.

“Welcome,” Mrs. White greeted him, “We are doing partner experiments today. Please, if you would, go join your partner.” Mrs. White pointed to me, singling me out, which I hate. I could fell myself blushing. He came and sat down next to me. I could not bring myself to meet his crystal blue eyes. His black hair hung perfectly across his face. We sat there in silence as Mrs. White explained what to do. I shot a glance at Zoe, who looked at me with jealously in her eyes. I gave her the I’m-sorry-I-didn’t-know-look. My partner obviously figured out that I wasn’t going to be the first one to break the ice.

“Hey. I’m Maxwell Tomlin,” he mumbled.

“I-I’m S-Sky,” I stuttered like an idiot. When I said my name he looked up with curiosity as if it meant something to him. After that, he studied me very carefully. That was pretty much all the conversation that went on throughout class. Once the bell rang, I gathered my things and ran over to Zoe.

“Oh my gosh! How come you like barely talked to him? He is gorgeous!” she screamed at me.

“Why didn’t you talk to him if you are so in love with him?” I shot back. She looked offended at first, but I knew she didn’t take it seriously at first, I knew she didn’t take it seriously.

“Are you kidding me? You’re the hot one!” she replied.

“Whatever,” I mumbled under my breath as we walked out of the door. I wasn’t feeling very social, so I walked to my next class. I threw my books on the floor and slumped down in my desk next to Silver, my other best friend.

“What’s your deal?” she asked with curiosity. I explained what happened in first hour and she prodded me for the details. After I finished, I sat in silence and wondered why I made such a big deal about what happened. Silver didn’t try to talk to me until the end of class, and I was grateful for that. As we were walking out the door she joked, “If you don’t go for him, I will.” The rest of the day was a blur. I only remember a few things. Maxwell was staring at me during lunch. Zoe and Silver harassed me some more. Loser Leroy asked me to go get a burger with him Saturday night. Which I, without a doubt, declined. That sums up my day. Wonderful, don’t you think? Thursdays don’t get any better, do they? Once I got home, I sat on my bed and started my homework. I don’t remember falling asleep, but I did. I returned to the white room I feared I’d never see again. I was lying on the floor with a small, uncomfortable pillow under my head. I sat up and looked around. There was no sign of the dude that bit me. That was defiantly was a good thing. I turned my head to the right side of the room and let out a yelp. The dude was crouched down with his face four inches away from mine. He just stared at me for a few minutes while I sat there, helpless.

“I’m really sorry I had to do this,” he purred in his velvet soft voice. “I just couldn’t let him turn you. That would be chaos for everyone,” he continued. “But don’t worry about that right now. Rest,” he whispered as he touched my forehead. I fell back against the nasty pillow and woke up in my bed, screaming.

My throat was dry and I could feel the dried tears on my face. I hadn’t been asleep for long. It was only about 6:40 in the afternoon. My parents weren’t even home yet. I got up and headed for the kitchen, looking for something to eat. But before I could even make it out my room, my phone rang. I walked over to m bed and checked the caller ID. It was Zoe.

“Hey,” I answered, slightly aggravated because she interrupted my bee-line for the kitchen.

“Do you think you could come over to help me with my project?” she asked, ignoring the aggravation in my voice.

“Umm…” I checked the clock again. “Yeah. Sure. I’ll be over in a few mins.”

“Okay! Bye,” she replied cheerfully and we hung up. I quickly checked to see what I was wearing and grabbed a jacket. Down in the kitchen, I wrote a note for my parents. With my stuff in hand, I ran for the door. I started walking down the unusually empty street. Zoe lived in my neighborhood, but it was still a good walk. The sky was filled with darkness except a little hunk of pink and orange. I was grateful that I remembered to bring my jacket because it was getting cold. As I pulled my arms through the jacket, a shiver ran down my spine. I was about half way to Zoe’s house when I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. Turning my head, I scanned the area. There was no sign of anyone or anything. I quickened my pace and the air went still. Someone or something slammed against me. All the air left my lungs and I fell to the ground. I screamed as I threw my arms in front of my face for defense. Something as sharp as claws slashed at me. I could not see my attacker and I didn’t want to. I could feel a stinging pain on my arms and part of my face. As suddenly as the attacking started, it stopped. I propped myself up with my elbows and did a self check-up. Nothing fatal. That was good. My arms were severely scratched and there were a few cuts on my face. I tried to hold them back, but the tears found their way down my face. I sat on the side of the road and cried for a few minutes. Cautiously, I got up and continued my trip to Zoe’s. I knocked on her door and I saw her face pop up in the window. She let me in and I could see her dad sitting at the kitchen table.

“What did you do?” he asked about my cuts.

“Um... I-uh-I fell on my way here,” I lied. Zoe looked at me with doubt. I gave her the I’ll-tell-you-later-look. We walked into her room and sat down on her black bed spread. It was a while before either of us spoke.

“What happened?” she whispered. I looked up at her and told her everything that happened. This time, she had no words to comfort me. She got up and walked to the bathroom. A few minutes later she returned with a wet rag for my arms. I grabbed it and started wiping off the dried blood. With every wipe, I winced in pain. We finished her project after a while and then did nothing else really. I put on a pair of her Pj’s and we sat down on her bed to watch TV. After a while, she fell asleep. I didn’t want to go to sleep. I knew I would have a nightmare. Sometime late at night, I guess I fell asleep.

“I dare you to go sit with him,” Zoe teased. We were standing outside of our school.

“Are you kidding? No thanks.” Zoe shot me an aggravated glance.

“I double-dog-dare you to go sit with him!” she cried in triumph. She knew that I couldn’t resist a double-dog-dare. I stomped my foot for dramatic effect. I’m retarded, right? Then I grabbed my bag and heaved it over my shoulder. As I started walking towards him, my heart skipped a beat. Why is my heart doing flips? I don’t even know him! I sat down beside him and plopped my back pack on the ground

“Um…Hey,” I said, barely trusting my voice. He was, without a doubt, the hottest guy at school.

“Hey,” he said. After a while he asked, “Do many girls here have the name Sky?” What a weird question.

“Uhh. No I think I’m the only one,” I told him as I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. He opened his mouth to say something but the bell rang. He looked relieved and stood up. I sat there stunned. What was this guy’s problem? Zoe walked over and pulled me beside her.

“What happened? Tell me everything!” she cried out. As we walked to first hour, I told her what went down. She looked at me doubtfully as if I made it all up. And if she thought that, then she didn’t say anything. “Wow,” she finally said. I shook my head in agreement. We walked the rest of the way in silence. The halls weren’t too crowded because mostly everyone was already in class. As we walked in, I caught my breath. Maxwell was staring directly at me with his crystal blue eyes. I kept my head down as I made my way to my desk.

“Everyone take a seat!” Mrs. White yelled. He had to sit right next to me, didn’t he? “Today we are going to get into groups. Come up here and get a worksheet. Then find a partner.” Yes! She isn’t picking for us. I sighed with relief. A person was standing next to my desk. I looked up to see who it was, and to my surprise, it was Maxwell standing next to me with a heart- breaking smile.

“Got a partner?” he asked me. I glanced at Zoe who gave me a wink and partnered with Silver. The both sat there, watching Maxwell and me. How could she do this to me? How awkward!

“No,” I almost whispered, trying to keep my voice steady. I smiled at him as we turned our desks to face each other. I walked up to the front and got a worksheet.