Shy Girls Eat Words

Identify the underlined word…Sara remains calm…Well, underlined word is calm, so predicate adjective…which is A

I sat in English. It was the last period of the day. Schedules at my school were weird. The periods moved around so much it gave me a little whiplash.

We were working on a test. I couldn’t help, but peek across the aisle at Arizona. He was in deep concentration. His eyebrows were furrowed and he bit his lip. I giggled internally. He was very adorable when he concentrated.

The test flew by quickly. It was very easy. After class I walked through the halls slowly. People bustled around me, but since I was walking about a yard down the hall to get to my locker, I didn’t have to move too quickly. My brain was off daydreaming in another dimension.

I felt a pair of arms around me. They spun me in a circle. I turned around to find Arizona standing there with a huge, adorable smile on his face.

“Thank you! Thank you so much!” he exclaimed.

I noticed people staring. My face reddened and I ran off down the hallways. I sprinted to the courtyard.

I pulled out my comeback journal as I dropped into a far corner. My pen drove across the paper quickly as I released my thoughts into the sea of paper. They flowed from my head onto the paper seamlessly. It was like the pen just stole my thoughts and set them out carefully across the lines.

The way people stared at me was uncomfortable. I couldn’t help it if I had run. It was an impulse. The fight or flight concept. For me, it was almost always flight. I had no nerves or guts thus I had never fought. Never.

I focused on my writing. It was some drabble about how people needed to mind their own business. I don’t think it even made any sense; but you know how things sound right at a certain time, and then when you go back to them, you’re just like what was I thinking? It was one of those moments. I guess.

“What are you doing?”

“Mother!” I jumped and put a hand to my heart. I looked over to find Arizona. He glanced over my shoulder. “Excuse me?”

“What?” he asked clueless.

“What if you were writing something down and I just looked over your shoulder?” I asked.

He put his hands up defensively and scooted back. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” I muttered.

“Why did you run off?”

Can we go back to the first question? “It’s not important.”

“Look. You have to pick one of those two questions to answer or I’m not going away,” he stated firmly.

I sighed and handed him my metallic purple journal reluctantly. “It’s my comeback book.” I closed my eyes and bit my lip. “It’s all the things I think to say when people insult me. So, in simple terms, it’s a book I write my comebacks in.”

I heard him chuckle lightly. “These are really good. You should have said them.”

“Yeah, well, in case you haven’t noticed, I don’t have a lot of nerve. So, I don’t say much.” I stared at my restless hands in my lap.

He continued to flip through the notebook, smiling and laughing occasionally. I saw him scrunch his eyebrows, so I peeked at what page he was on. It was a page with some comebacks to him.

I squirmed a little. Would he hate me? Some of the comebacks were really awful. I really never expected anyone to read it. It was just a way to keep me from just exploding. I bottled up all my emotions already. It wouldn’t have surprised me if I just fell to pieces one day. Wait, that had already happened in the bathroom.

“These,” he pointed at the paper, “would have shut me up.”

I just stared at him blankly. He glanced up at me. His face was one of reluctance.

“I’ve been a jerk to you.”

I shrugged. What was I supposed to say? Yeah, you have? That would have been mean. Even though it was true, I wasn’t one to say anything. I’m sure I had my fair share of mean moments.

“I was wondering if we could do the tutoring at your house tonight. My house is going to be…occupied.” He looked hopeful that I wouldn’t question him further.

I just nodded.

He smiled. “I already know where it is…um…by the way, sorry about that.”

I looked at him confused. “What do you mean?”

“The Halloween incident…I didn’t know that it was your house. It was really Davis’ idea. He comes up with stupid ideas like that a lot and I just…go along with them.”

“Why?”

“If I don’t, he’ll tell everyone I’m a pussy or something.” He looked at me like it was obvious.

“So?” I still wasn’t getting why it mattered. Just let them call you names. It didn’t matter. That was the way high school was.

He sighed. “You just don’t get it.”

I grabbed my comeback book and began scribbling my response. Arizona snatched it from me. He looked at me seriously. I was slightly frightened.

“From now on I want you to tell me what you’re thinking, no matter how mean it is. I want to know what you’re thinking,” he demanded.

I grabbed back my book. “I was thinking…That I obviously don’t get it.”

He chuckled. “You’re really strange.”

I bit my lip while standing up and looked at him.

“Say it...” he prompted.

“You better get used to it, buddy. You’re just scratching the surface,” I muttered.

“You really should say your thoughts more often,” he laughed.

I looked at the ground. “I have to go get my books. I’ll meet you at my house.”

“Okay.”

I quickly went off to my locker to grab my books. My head was spun around with confusion. Could it really be true that Arizona might care? No, no, no, no.

Arizona was always in it for himself. He was just afraid that I would stop wanting to tutor him. It was simple, yes? Arizona was afraid. I was a little calmer as I got in my car and drove to my house.

Arizona sat in the driveway and smiled as I got out. When I bent to get my book bag, I rolled my eyes. I wished he could just cut the act. I was not a blind person. It wasn’t going to affect me anyway.

We went into the house and up to my room.

“Wow, nice,” Arizona commented.

I sighed deeply and we got started on the tutoring.

After we were done, I began to put away my writing utensils.

“Hey, Ocean,” Arizona started.

“Hm?” I responded.

“Where are your parents? It’s like seven and they aren’t even here.”

“Well, they’re in Japan. They’re on a year long business trip.”

He looked at me sympathetically. “So, you’re alone?”

“Well, my aunt lives nearby if I need her, but technically speaking, I am alone in this house.”

“That’s sad.”

I sighed. “Not really. I’m fine with being alone. My parents are always gone on business. It doesn’t really matter.”

Arizona looked disbelieving. “Well, we’ll do the tutoring at my house tomorrow. I’ll see you.”

“Alright, bye.”

He got up and left, leaving me, ironically enough, alone.