Let My Heart Rest In Pieces

Let My Heart Rest In Pieces 034

Physical Interactions

It was the early morning of Tuesday, and I found myself in first period English, as per usual. Mrs. Colt sat on a stool in front of the class, reading the start of The Poisonwood Bible to us in an almost monotone voice. Usually she was happy and put emotion behind her voice, but as she continued to read from the text, energy seemed to leave her. I think the woman found this book just as boring as we did.

The ‘we’ being the class, more than half of who were sleeping. Some of the teenagers were snoring lightly, laying on the desks with drool coming out of their mouths. Yuck. Others were inconspicuous about their slumber, sitting up and leaning on their hands, hair or what not covering their closed eyes.

Then you have the very few students like me, who were still awake and paying attention. Okay, saying that I was paying attention to what was going on would have been an overstatement, but I heard a few things that Mrs. Colt was saying. I was pretty much zoning in and out.

I sighed quietly, running a hand through my hair then laying my head against the wall. Right now, I was glad that Jeremy had picked the desks in the back. The wall wasn’t the best pillow, but it was better than nothing.

Speaking of said boy, I glanced over at the male sitting next to me. He was leaning against the wall like I was, his eyes closed. But it was obvious that he was not asleep. His breathing was regular, normal. Jeremy’s arms were, once again, crossed protectively over his chest, his body language still tense and unwelcoming.

I, as well as the rest of the sleeping class, was brought to attention when our teacher snapped the book closed, making a loud enough noise to scare people. She gave us all sympathetic smiles as she started to hand out sheets of paper to everyone.

“I know this is quite a bore, and I wish we didn’t have to do this, but it is on the list of criteria. I will no longer be reading this to you; I’m giving you all books so that you can read them at home, then finish the questions for each chapter. If you have any questions, please come up and ask.”

When I received my paper, I looked down at the small print; many questions lay there, waiting to be answered. I groaned, wanting to desperately just rip up the paper and say no. That was not an option.

“Your partner is going to be your greatest tool during this course. The two of you can read together, analyze the questions to make sure that you think it is right, and of course, start talking about what you are going to do to make your project interactive and interesting. What I suggest is to go to each others houses or something once or twice a week, get as much work done as possible, then turn it all in when you’re done.”

I looked over at Jeremy again and saw reluctance on his face. Apparently, he didn’t agree to what Mrs. Colt was saying. I pouted, turning away from him and staring at the board. I wasn’t that bad, was I?

“When can we meet up and do all this?” the male asked, turning his attention to me.

“We can do it today and tomorrow if you would like,” I said, “I’m not free Thursday through Sunday because I work.”

“Sure, whatever, doesn’t matter to me.”

“…Great.”

~~~~~

“That was one of the best Physics classes ever!” Mikey exclaimed as we left the class room, a grin plastered on his face.

“And why is that?”

“Um, duh, because Ms. Den wasn’t there?”

“Oh,” I said, looking away.

“What is with you lately? Before you loved it whenever the lady left you alone, she was your nemesis. Now you’re bummed whenever she’s something close to nice. It’s kind of freaking me out.”

“It’s nothing, I guess I’m just getting used to the meanness and missing it. It’s like being a super hero without having a villain.”

“Nice analogy,” the boy said with a laugh. I gave him a quick smile before we parted, quickly entering my Economics class so I could talk to Drake.

Strangely, when I came in, the boy wasn’t in his desk. I frowned at that fact, but pushed it away, thinking that maybe he was running a little late. I sat in my desk, waiting for him to emerge, apologizing for being late. The final bell rang and Mr. Singer started to take attendance. Still, my boyfriend was no where in sight.

Even the teacher was surprised when he found that he was missing. He shook it off and began to start with class, going on as if everything was normal.

Maybe he had gotten sick and stayed home? It could happen, but that didn’t seem right. Where the hell was Drake?

~~~~~

“What are you guys getting me for my birthday?” Frank asked when he finally made it to the table at lunch. He noticed the empty seat next to me and took it, giving me a smile. I returned it and he turned his attention to everyone else.

“Nothing,” Taylor said, continuing to eat her food as if he hadn’t asked anything.

“Aw, you made me sad! I’m gonna cry now!”

“Tell it to someone who cares,” the girl teased with a smirk.

Frank’s face seemed heartbroken, then he turned to me, sadness in his eyes. Before I could say anything to ‘console’ him, he buried his head in my chest and pretended to cry. Everyone at the table laughed at his act, no one really seemed to notice that my face had almost gone as red as a tomato.

Once I wasn’t as embarrassed, I patted Frankie’s soft hair, letting the silky locks run through my fingers. “There there,” I said in a soft voice.

“You are such a lucky ass!” Bert yelled, throwing his bread roll at the boy. It missed him, and Frank turned to him, spitting his tongue out, then turned to look at me. “You, ma’am, make a nice pillow.”

I pushed him away, giving him a glare. “You just ruined it. No more sympathy from me.”

“Aw, dang it! But seriously, what are you all getting me?”

“Greedy little midget, aren’t ya?” Roxy said.

“You got that right babe.”

“We almost have a complete month to figure out what to get you, so chill. And you know we never tell you.”

“Sh!” the dark haired teen hissed, “Don’t tell Envy that! She’s new.”

“Who said I was getting you anything?”

~~~~~

“Watch what you’re doing Rox!” Jepha yelled, barely dodging the fast moving volleyball that said girl had just thrown over.

“This is a vicious world Jepha, you have to learn to live in it!”

“Wow, I’m glad I’m on this side of the net,” Frankie whispered to me, looking at the determined look on Roxy’s face. Usually, we didn’t really care who won or lost the game seeing as we had to play to get a grade. But some days, like today, we decided to have a real game to see which team was better.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t want to go up against Roxy either. She can get really physical.”

“You hit me in the face one time.”

“That was an accident,” I dismissed, catching the ball as it was thrown to me. My turn to be server.

Everyone got back into their places, waiting and watching me. I threw the ball up into the air, hitting it with both my fists and watched as it sailed over the net. Bert hit it at the edge of the line, then Dan sent it back over here.

Taylor was the one closest to it, so she hit it back over to Mikey, who lightly gave it back to us. He wasn’t really the kind of person who did physical activities.

The game continued like this for a couple minutes, which was the longest time in this whole game. Bert went to end it when he hit it as hard as he could, but making sure to keep it inside the boundaries.

“I got it!” Frankie shouted after I was already after the white ball. I couldn’t halt in time to stop us hitting each other. We both fell to the floor, rolling around a few times until we came to a stop, me on top of him.

I groaned, knowing that I had hit my head, probably on his, and felt my hair start to fall out of the loose bun I had it in. I opened my eyes after my head didn’t throb as much and looked down to see Frank’s hazel eyes staring at my face.

We locked gazes for a moment, none of us moving, just staring at each other like a couple weirdoes. Snapping myself back to attention, I slowly rolled off of Frank to lay beside him, holding my head.

“You know,” I started, “you have a habit of getting me hurt.”

“Are you guys alright?” Quinn asked us, having gotten up from his place in the bleachers. The two of us looked at him, nodding slowly. We both got into a sitting position, looking at each other.

“Frankie… you’re bleeding.”

He reached a hand up to his head, where a small trickle of blood had started to fall from his forehead. He winced when he touched it, bringing his hand back to look at the small amount of blood on his fingers.

“Damn, I am.”

“I got this,” I voiced, quickly stripping off my gym shirt. I was still clothed because I had my under shirt under that. I pressed the cloth lightly to his wound with him hissing in pain, but did no other complaining.

“They’re okay!” Quinn shouted, walking back over to everyone else, leaving us alone.

I kept the shirt pressed against the boy's head until the bleeding stopped, hiding him from my sight. Once I was pretty sure the flow had started to clot, I took the shirt away.

“Thank you,” Frankie whispered, looking up at me with a kind smile that made his eyes sparkle.

Quickly remembering how to breathe, I nodded my head, nervous smile coming to my face. “Y-you’re welcome.”

I stood up, offering him a hand. I pulled him up and we walked back over to the group. Damn, we had rolled pretty far away. I looked up when I felt someone staring at me and met Roxy’s knowing eyes.

I blushed and looked away from her. “So, are we gonna keep on playing or what?”