Fly Me Away

School was tense on Monday.

I endured a whole day of them talking about each other to me and telling me to pass messages between them. The worst part was when they both decided they didn’t want to sit together at lunch time. Kelly sat with a few girls from her Soft Tec class, Pip disappeared completely and I was left at our usual table completely by myself. I caught several sympathetic glances from acquaintances, but received no offers to join any of them.

When I got back home after school, I rushed straight up to room and shut the door. I leaned my back against it and locked it blindly with my hand.

What happened at school really hurt—the realisation that I had no other real friends had hit me like a brick at lunch time. I felt panicky and sad – what if they never made up? They had never both abandoned me at the same time before. What would I do...

-----

Going through Tuesday was like repeating Monday. Kelly and Pip were still mad, and I was still alone. On Wednesday, I didn’t eat lunch; I sat outside near the car park hoping no one could see me. I tried desperately to get out of school on Thursday, but Mom was convinced I wasn’t sick. I wished so badly that things had gone differently.

Kelly and Pip weren’t talking to me at all, even in the classes we had together. Kelly seemed to have a permanent new place in with her Soft Tec friends, and I discovered where Pip was: she had joined the choir, a band, and the school symphony, one of which trained during lunch.

The car park was plagued with car fanatics that day so, to my utter despair, I spent a whole hour and a half in the girls’ bathroom.

At home, Mom asked me how I was feeling and I screamed at her, before locking myself in my room again. I felt so guilty, she didn’t deserve that at all, but couldn’t bring myself to apologise. I needed to calm down first.

For some strange reason, my room always felt like a safe haven. I was reassured that everything would get better when I was in my room. I had made a habit of pushing my balcony doors wide open and getting that weird sense of freedom.

I went downstairs for dinner and apologised to Mom. She was surprisingly understanding.

“It’s alright dear. I can see you’re going though something bad. Remember that you can talk to me about anything you know,” she said to me, casually salting her potatoes.

“Thanks Mom.” My voice cracked and prompted me to down a mouthful of water.

“And take tomorrow off. You look like you could use a sleep in.”

I wasn’t usually that fragile, but the past few days had left my nerves a bit shot.

I got up and hugged her.

-----

Back in my room, my heart started when a large bird flapped straight past my open balcony doors. My social studies homework flew out of my hand and scattered across the floor.

Great.

But this was followed by another rare occurrence – my phone ringing.

I didn’t ponder who it would be; I was one of those people who panicked when their phone rang and rushed to pick it up before it stopped ringing.

“Hi?” I said. My voice sounded awful and I automatically cleared my throat.

“Hello.”

My heart rate multiplied by ten. Oh my god, I had forgotten about him completely.

“Is this...Jackson?” I asked, my voice wavering.

“It is. How are you Maggie?”

My palms got sweaty and my head started racing for intelligent things to say. I was so unprepared for a call from him. I hadn’t thought about it since that stupid drive home from town that ruined everything...

“Maggie?”

“Oh, right. I’m fine thanks”

“That’s good to hear. I was wondering if I could steal you for an evening? I have a project due and I need my muse.”

This was certainly turning out to be a spark in my week. Did he just call me his muse? Only he could turn such a boring bunch of words into a whimsical poem.

“Sure.”

How could I say no?

“Perfect. What are you doing tomorrow after school?”

Tomorrow? Wow that was so soon.

“Umm...” I decided right then that I would go to school. I didn’t want him to think I was sick, “Nothing I think.”

“And Which school do you go too?”

“East ridge High school.... Why?”

“I’ll meet you at 3.15 in the parking lot. Will you be finished by then?”

“Oh, umm, yeah I think so,” I breathed. The shock was threatening to take my power of speech.

“Thank you again for doing this. I won’t abuse favours after this one I promise.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“....Are you alright? You don’t sound very well.”

“No no, I’m fine.”

“...till tomorrow then.”

“Yeah tomorrow.”

“I look forward to it.”

“Me too. Umm...Bye.”

I spent at least two minutes staring at my phone after the phone call had ended. With one miniscule exchange of worlds, my world had been flipped. I was excited for school.

A swarm of butterflies had flocked to my stomach – he was going to meet me.

Tomorrow