No Need For Introductions

My eyes fluttered open, and I flung my arm out from under my covers to shut up the annoying ring of my alarm clock. I sat up, my hair obviously a tangled mess that sat atop my head. I grabbed a strand of hair and removed it from my face, putting it anywhere that it wouldn’t fall back into its original place, blocking my eyesight. I swung my legs over the side of my bed and stood up, padding over to the bathroom and flicking the light on. Honestly, I’d thought that what happened last night was a dream; until I saw my reflection in the mirror. I was wearing all the same clothes that I had worn last night, including the coat with the furry hood. I took a deep breath and reached into the shower, turning the faucet on and letting the water warm up. I glanced at the clock on my bedside table before I walked over and shut the bathroom door, fairly surprised that I had actually gotten up on time. It was very rare that I wasn’t in a rush, and today was going to be one of those days; it was only 6:30 AM.

I let my clothes fall to the floor before stepping into the shower and completely washing myself off. I scrubbed every inch of my body, making sure to wash my hair; you’d be surprised how many times I have had to get back in the shower because I forgot to wash my hair. It was a hassle, to say the least.

When I stepped out onto the floor mat, I grabbed a towel off of the shelf and dried myself off. I wrapped the towel securely around my body and walked over to the mirror, wiping the fog off with one of my still-damp hands. As soon as I could see myself clearly, I grabbed my blow dryer and began drying my hair while I combed through it with my fingers. I was appalled at the speed in which my hair dried, and I was able to straighten my hair. When I was completely finished with it, I turned and walked out of the bathroom and over to my closet. I pulled out the first things that I lay my hands on, satisfied that it actually matched. It was just a pair of jeans with holes in the knees, and a purple v-neck. I pulled a pair of underwear and a bra out of my dresser and slipped them on before I pulled on the clothes that were waiting for me on the bed. When I looked at the clock, it read 7 o’clock.

I grabbed a pair of socks and some plain black and white Converse out of my closet and put them on, taking my time lacing up the shoes.

I glanced at myself in the bathroom mirror, shrugging as I decided against wearing makeup. I didn’t feel like getting everything out and putting it on, and honestly, I didn’t look all that bad without it. I could live with it.

I almost caught myself thinking: “What if Oli thinks you look like a freak?!”

Scoffing quietly to myself, I went back into my room and lay down on my bed. I guess I could just lay there until 7:30. So what if Oli thought I looked like a freak; it would make my situation a hell of a lot easier, if you ask me. If he didn’t like me, things would be the same as normal; Sidney wouldn’t be paranoid all the time, and I wouldn’t have to keep this from her. It was easier back when I had no idea that he liked me, and when he had no idea that I liked him.

After only a few minutes, I felt myself dozing off; I stood up, grabbing my cell phone and trotting quietly down the stairs. My dad was probably sleeping in—I believe he had a day off. I found my mom in the kitchen, pouring some coffee into a portable mug and snapping the lid onto it.

“Good morning.” She said happily, smiling over at me.

I didn’t smile back when I replied, telling her the same. I was actually kind of dreading going to school today. I didn’t want Oli to do something stupid and tell Sidney, or accidentally let it slip. I was guessing, to myself, that it was a one-time thing. That’s just how Oli was. I figured we would go on and act as if nothing ever happened, and he would go back to copying my work in US History again. I hoped with all of my heart that Sidney wouldn’t find out, but it pained me to keep something from her. Maybe it would be okay since it wasn’t going to happen anymore.

When I snapped out of my daze, my mother was no longer in the kitchen. I stood up and walked into the living room, where she was standing in the middle of the floor watching the news before work. She normally did this, but for reasons unknown she was standing up this time.

“I’m just going to go wait for Sidney at her house.” I mumbled, grabbing a plain black coat out of the closet and putting it on quickly. I reached down, grabbing my bag and slinging it over my shoulder.

“Is something wrong?” She asked, a worried expression on her face. “You look upset.”

I shook my head, turning and grabbing the door handle. “No, I’m fine. I’m just—thinking about some stuff. My head’s in a cloud today.”

She nodded, looking at me skeptically before turning back to the news. “Alright. Love you, hon.”

“Love you too.” I replied, walking through the door and closing it loudly behind me. I didn’t bother walking down the sidewalk and around, I just cut through the grass and quickly hopped over the small picket fence that surrounded their house. I stepped up to their front door and knocked quietly, hoping that someone heard me. Within seconds, the door swung open and I was being tackled by Tom.

“Bailey!” He shouted, stepping back and pulling me into the house with him. “Yeh never come over in the mornin’!”

I shrugged, laughing slightly at his excitement. “I got bored at home.”

His face suddenly went cool and he put one of his arms around my shoulders. “Yeh know, if yeh ever get bored; yeh can always scale up the ‘ouse and meet meh in me room.” He winked, smiling confidently.

“Yeah,” I said sarcastically. “I’ll keep that in mind. Where’s Sidney?”

He faked a hurt look, pointing up the stairs. “In ‘er room.”

“Thanks.” I smiled, making a b-line for the stairs.

Someone was rounding the corner, coming off of the stairs, and I bumped right into them. Whoever it was held on to my shoulders with both hands. I looked up into the smiling face of Oliver, who looked up and noticed that Tom was in the room.

“Might wanna’ watch out, there.” He said casually, patting my shoulder with one of his hands and pushing past me.

I frowned slightly, for no specific reason, as I drug myself up the stairs and up to Sidney’s door. I knocked lightly, and I could hear a faint ‘come in’ being shouted from somewhere in the room.

I turned the knob and entered her room slowly, and she looked up from the backpack that she was currently searching through.

“Bailey!” She said, obviously surprised to see me there. “Sorreh ‘m late.”

I shook my head. “You’re not late; I just got bored and decided to come over.”

“Oh.” She shrugged, zipping her backpack and slinging it over her shoulder. “Well, ‘m ready now.”

I nodded and followed her out the door and back down the stairs where Oli and Tom both sat on the living room couch staring at the TV.

“Yeh know,” Oli spoke up, just as we reached the door. “If yeh rode with us to school, yeh wouldn’ ‘ave to leave so early. Yeh could be sittin’ ‘ere watchin’ TV if yeh wanted to.”

“Once again, no thanks Oliver.” Sidney smiled, turning once more to leave.

“What abou’ yeh, Bailey?” He asked, causing both of us to turn around somewhat slowly.

I shook my head, shooting him a warning glare. “No thanks.”

We both walked out the door quickly, and I shut it behind me.

“He is seriously pissin’ meh off with the whole “ridin’ with ‘im” thing. ‘E needs to just get the ‘ell over it!” Sid grumbled, more to herself than me. “I don’ care to ‘ear ‘is mouth the whole way to school and back. I ‘ear it enough at ‘ome…”

“So I don’t know if I want to sit with Oli at lunch today.” I said out of the blue, interrupting her thoughts. I really did want to, but at the same time I didn’t. If I acted like I didn’t like him anymore, maybe he’d forget about it. I could just avoid him; yeah, that’s a good idea. Not.

She looked up at me, rolling her eyes and smiling a little. “Yeh know yeh wan’ to.”

I shook my head, focusing on the part of me that didn’t want to. “No, I really don’t.”

“What?” She asked, a confused look coming over her face. “What’s wrong?”

I swallowed hard, taking a deep breath. I was about to admit something to her that I really didn’t want to admit; and there was a huge possibility that she would be livid when I told her. “Oli kissed me, Sid.”

“What?!” She yelled, anger apparent on her face and in her voice. “I’m gonna’ fuckin’ kill ‘im!”

She started to turn around and head back to her house, but I grabbed her arm and spun her back around to keep walking. “It wasn’t just his fault.”

I heard her scoff, but when I looked up at her she didn’t look mad. “I told yeh, Bailey. I warned yeh. ‘M not just shootin’ shit when I say things like that. I really am worried about what ‘e’ll do to yeh.”

“But he said,” I started, holding a finger up at her. “He said that you knew that he liked me back. Why would you not tell me that?”

“Because I knew that yeh’d go for ‘im if yeh knew that.” She said quickly, not even having to think about it.

“So!” I said, a little hurt. “You didn’t think that I would still go for him even if I didn’t know that?”

She shook her head, laughing slightly. “Well, yeh didn’t. Yeh didn’t know that ‘e liked yeh, and yeh didn’t go for ‘im.”

I shook my head, not appreciating her laughter. “This isn’t very funny, Sidney.”

“I know.” She said, nodding her head as her smile faded. “I just don’ understand why yeh didn’t listen to meh.”

“Well,” I sighed, starting to jump into the whole story. “I couldn’t really help it; The first time it happened—“

“Wait,” She said harshly, stopping and turning to face me. “The first time? It happened more than once?!”

“Just listen!” I pleaded, turning and starting to walk again. As soon as she nodded, I continued. “The first time it happened, it was when we were doing homework. He didn’t want to work anymore, we started talking. He started telling me all of this stuff about him liking me and he wondered why I wouldn’t admit that I liked him. Before I knew it, he was kissing me. I really didn’t mean to.”

“So when I came upstairs I were right?” She asked, raising an eyebrow. I nodded, and she scoffed. “I knew it. I knew I heard something going on up there…” She mumbled to herself, shaking her head.

The school was in view now, so I decided to hurry up and finish the rest of the story. Only a minute and a half later and we would be standing in the lawn and the bell would ring at any time. “Yeah. You were right. Anyway,” I continued, shaking my head. “After I went home, he started texting me and he asked me to meet him so we could go for a walk. I thought about it really hard; believe me, Sid. I almost didn’t even go. I really didn’t want you mad at me.”

She rolled her eyes as we approached the school and leaned against the brick walls of the building, facing the parking lot. “Continue the story.” She grumbled, pulling out her phone to check the time. “It’s 8:05, and we only ‘ave five minutes until the bell rings.”

I nodded, clearing my throat. “So I met him at the corner and we walked to the park. While we were there again, he kissed me another time. And then we walked back to the corner and went home—well, he kissed me goodnight. And then we went home.”

“So, yeh’re tellin’ meh that yeh snogged meh cousin…” She paused, thinking. “Three times last night.”

I nodded, but then shook my head. “Acutally, he snogged me.”

It sounded terribly unnatural when I said the word ‘snogged’, which made both Sidney and I burst into laughter uncontrollably. This was why we never fought. It was nearly impossible for us to have a serious conversation without something making us laugh.

Just before the bell rang, I noticed Oli’s car pulling into the parking lot and stop in one of the parking spaces. Oli and Tom both hopped out and began walking toward the building, which automatically made me turn around and walk into the building. I wanted to avoid Oli today.

“I’ll see you in Algebra II.” I called to Sidney as I disappeared into the crowd of people that were now crowding through the front doors of the school.

I heard a faint “See yeh!” being called after me as I squeezed through the over-stuffed hallway towards my locker. I pulled out my English book and cradled it close to my chest as I continued to fight my way through the sea of people until I finally reached my English class. I took my usual seat at the back of the classroom and instantly pulled out my notebook to begin doodling. Mr. Johnson never really had a problem with me not paying attention in class; I made perfect scores on all of my papers, and nearly that on all of my tests. I was excellent in English class, and I had luckily accomplished that without even managing to pay attention.

As soon as the bell rang, Mr. Johnson started rambling on about active and passive verbs; something I’d learned in 9th grade. I caught little tidbits of what he was saying, and everything that I caught I already knew. What was really preoccupying my mind at the moment was Sidney’s reaction to what I had told her. At first she seemed so pissed off, and then by the time I was finished explaining it to her she laughed it off. It surprised me, to say the least. Part of me knew that she was going to bring it up later, but the other part of me thought that maybe she wasn’t so mad after all. Maybe she really didn’t think it was such a bad thing. But even though she wasn’t as angry as I’d anticipated, something told me that I should still avoid Oli; I should still go on as if Sidney was extremely pissed off with me.

Before I knew it, the bell had rung and everyone was filing out of the classroom and flooding into the hallway. I quickly shoved my notebook into my bag and grabbed my English book, hurrying to my locker as fast as I could. In my mind, I could imagine Sidney waiting there for me; if she was, she would be there to bring it up again. I’d rather not talk about it, honestly.

When I reached my locker, I was relieved that she wasn’t there. I shoved my English book in and slammed the door, screaming when I turned around and someone was staring down at me.

“Don’t shit yehself, Bailey.” Oli laughed, smiling his brilliant, perfect smile at me.

I almost spoke to him, but remembered my plan; avoid Oli, and try to act like nothing happened. Like Sidney said: I don’t know what he’s capable of, and he will wind up hurting me.

I took a deep breath and walked around him, towards the gym for P.E.

“What, ‘re yeh not talkin’ to meh anymore?” He asked, popping up beside me out of nowhere and still smiling, but not as wide.

I glanced at him from the corner of my eye and rolled my eyes slightly; it would be a lot easier to avoid him if he wasn’t so damn cute and slightly annoying.

Instead of responding, I turned and stopped right in front of the door that led to the gym. I glanced up at him once before disappearing through the door.

“Bailey?” He asked, his voice completely confused-sounding.

I looked back at him, and his face showed complete confusion. I suppose I would’ve been confused too, if I were him. He had no idea why I wasn’t talking to him. Maybe he thought I was mad about last night. I instantly felt bad when I thought about that; I didn’t want him to think that I was mad about anything that he did last night. Everything was, sort of, perfect.

I walked over to the bleachers and sat down in my normal place; this was all we ever did in our gym class. Sit around and talk, do nothing, and some kids even snuck underneath the bleachers and smoked a little bit of pot when they felt like it.

“So, I ‘eard yeh snogged Olleh last night…”

I glanced up behind me to see Matt and Curtis, two of Oli’s friends, sitting on the bleachers behind me.

I shook my head and looked back to the other side of the room; it was only second hour and all of his friends knew about it. Typical Oli, I guess.

“What are you talking about?” I asked, not looking back at them. Maybe if I acted like nothing happened, they’d think that Oli was just making it up.

“What do yeh mean, what are we talkin’ about?” Curtis spoke up, scooting down to the bleacher that I was sitting on and sitting right next to me.

A few moments later, Matt was doing the same and sitting on my other side. “Are yeh sayin’ that yeh didn’t really kiss ‘im?”

“I kissed no one.” I said, stressing the first and last words. It was true, though; I didn’t kiss him. He kissed me.

Curtis laughed and nudged me with his elbow. “C’mon, Bailey. Yeh know yeh were all over ‘im!”

“No, I really wasn’t.” I said angrily, getting up and scooting further down the bleachers. It was no use; they both got up and followed me.

“So yeh’re sayin’ ‘e made that up, too?” Matt asked, smiling knowingly at me.

He really shouldn’t have said that.

“He said that I was all over him?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

“ ‘e said yeh made ‘im come meet yeh at the park last night and yeh kept kissin’ ‘im.” Curtis said, nudging me with his elbow again. “So did yeh ‘ave fun?”

I scoffed, everything that he said processing through my brain. Oli said that I made him meet me at the park; he said that I kept kissing him.

I have a few choice words for Oliver Scott Sykes, and he was going to hear them.

I stood up and moved, once again, muttering a few words under my breath that told the guys that they probably shouldn’t follow me this time. I almost didn’t remember what I even said, but when I sat down across the gym the words popped into my head again.

“He’s fucking dead.”