Living on Perfectly Remembered Memories

Franchesa

I sat in my chair, crossing my legs over one another every few seconds. My right hand tapped against the surface of the table on its own accord. Mr. Jefferson was lecturing about the Salem Witch trials. My poster waited to the left of me.

I looked over at Matt. He was bored to death. I poked his flex arm. "Matty, I can't do this!" I squeaked.

He smiled. "It's okay Fran. You'll do f-"

"Franchesa! Time for your presentation!" chirped Mr. Jefferson.

I cursed under my breath as I stepped out of my seat. I grabbed my poster and began walking to the front of the class. "...your stupid white hair. You look like a damn penguin," I muttered mutinously under my breath.

I stood in front of everyone, shakily holding my poster board in front of my body. The people in my class never listened to Jefferson's lectures, but chose now to pay attention to me? Wonderful!

I sighed softly and swallowed in case I had extra saliva in my mouth. "Well, okay. The topic I chose is the Salem Witch trials." Pause. "It all began m-many years in the, um, in the..."

Oh my god! I couldn't blank now! I needed a good grade on this project!

Matt's hand shot up into the air. Mr. Jefferson acknowledged him. "May I go up there and hold her poster for her? She looks like she needs help?"

Mr. Jefferson tilted his head thoughtfully and smiled genuinely, letting Matt stand in front of the room with me. In my head, I pictured myself jumping around like a hyper child.

Matt walked up to me and gave me a smirk and wink. I handed him my poster, whispering a thank you.

!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!

"I don't know why you decided to do that project. No one else did it," Matt grumbled, holding my Biology and US history textbooks along with his own.

"I needed extra points," I replied softly.

He scoffed. "No the hell you don't. Your average is like a 94 in his class."

I didn't say anything else. We spent the next few minutes quietly walking home from school. Thankfully, Mr. Jefferson's class was my last period. If I had to endure any more classes, I'd be too preoccupied with my horrible presentation.

Matt touched my shoulder when we had to stop at a crosswalk. "Fran, stop worrying. You did good."

I looked at his face, noticing his dimples were visible. I nodded my head and crossed the street along side with him. We stopped again at an intersection. I looked at him balancing four textbooks with one arm while shaking exertion out of the other.

I frowned. "Matty, do you need help?"

"No. I'm good."

"Give me my books. I feel bad."

"You're carrying my book bag. That's heavy enough."

I rolled my eyes. "Your bag has two notebooks and pencils in here!"

"Oh hey the light is green," he pointed out.

He already began crossing the street. I grumbled, jogging after him. I already knew I lost the argument, but I wasn't going to let him win although he already did. Instead, I kept looking at his face and scoffed every few seconds to annoy him. When I found out he was ignoring me, I stomped my foot and I whined a wimpy scream.

Matt laughed at my temper tantrum. He opened the door to my house and left my textbooks on the table to the left in the hallway.

He took his book bag and stared down at me. I glared back, having to look up at him. That already made it pathetic.

"Are we gonna stand here and glare at each other?" he chuckled.

God, I hated it when he did that. All he had to do was let our stupid hissy fits go and I'd stop being angry.

I closed my eyes and smiled. "No, we're not."

He chuckled again and lightly flicked my forehead. "Best friends again?"

I shook my head. "Yeah, yeah," I muttered, turning to walk into the house.

I guess I didn't turn my head fast enough, or I guess Matt's reflexes were much too quick for me. All I felt was his lips on my left cheek. Normal right? WRONG.

He smiled at me again before dashing across the street to enter his house. We've lived across the street from each other since we were eight, and I was sure it would continue.

I laughed nervously to myself. I shut the door behind me, grabbed my books, and ran up to my room. From one of the drawers, I took out my old ratty composition notebook and read the sentence I told myself I was going to remember forever.

That's exactly why I will never ever fall for my best friend. And in return, he will never fall for me.

I read my chick scratch, trying to absorb those two sentences into my brain. It worked at first, it really did until I thought back on how close Matt was from kissing my lips. What would've happened if he did kiss me?

"Izzy!"

I jumped and threw my notebook underneath my bed, thinking someone was trying to steal it.

The scurrying of feet on carpet was loud to my ears. I knew they belonged to Kenny, my kid brother. He surely saw me, screamed my name again, jumped up and down, and jumped into my lap.

I laughed, he was also very energetic. No one could blame him though, he was diagnosed with ADHD.

"How was school Kenny?" I asked, ruffling his hair.

He scrunched his face in disgust and covered his ears with his hands. "Don't call me that! It's Kenneth!"

"Oh I'm sorry Kenneth," I said, taking his hands away from his ears.

"It's okay! I still love you!" he grinned, winding his small around my neck, trying to crush me.

"Why thanks! So tell me about your day."

He blew a long raspberry. That was his way of saying school sucked and he didn't like it. I didn't blame him. Other kids knew about his condition so they'd bother him until he started screaming. Every time he came home and told me the other kids bothered him, I wanted to go to school with him the next day and punch those kids in the face until they couldn't fucking breathe.

I took in a breath and calmed down. I paid attention to Kenny and noticed that he asked me about my day. I never understood why my days were so important to him. He'd listen to me talk about my average days as if they were his favorite fairy tales. I wonder what would happen if I told him what Matt did.