All They Know Is Misery

I pulled up to the school and got out, not paying attention to my surroundings. It had been a week since school started, and the purple that covered most of my body was almost completely gone. I had neglected to give Johnny a ride to school since the second day of school—my mind had been on many other things.

Chemistry had suddenly gotten much better for me, aside from Jimmy’s little shit fits when Damon wasn’t around. Oh, Damon. We’d been talking a lot more and hanging around a lot more lately. And even though it’d only been six days since I met the boy, he was making my heart melt.

“Charlotte. Charlotte! Charlotte?!”

I snapped out of my trance and looked up into blue eyes. “Ugh, what do you want?” I scoffed at Jimmy.

“I want you to get your mind out of the gutter, and walk to Chemistry with me,” he said.

“And why would I walk you to class?” I asked rudely, rolling my eyes.

“Because I was trying to be nice and offer to walk you to class. What the hell crawled up your ass?” he asked sarcastically.

“Will you just leave me alone?” I asked, then tried to walk away.

Jimmy only followed me, making me more miserable. I caught sight of Damon and smiled at him. Jimmy gasped. “You have a crush on Damon, don’t you?” he asked, a devilish grin on his face.

“No, we’re just friends, now mind your own business and leave me alone,” I snapped, then left and went to my locker.

Once I got to my locker, Johnny stood there, a sad look on his face.

“Look, I’m sorry shorty, but I’ve had a lot on my mind lately,” I apologized.

“Screw getting a ride, I’m upset cause Pheobe’s been . . . weird lately,” he sighed.

“When isn’t she?” I asked, putting my Trigonometry book in my locker.

“That’s not nice, Charlie, you know what she’s going through,” he said sternly.

I grabbed my Chemistry book and looked at him. “Johnny, it’s been, what, three months? She needs to get over it.”

I looked in the mirror at myself and sighed at my purple-tinged face.

“Are you kidding me?!” Johnny shouted, his sudden outburst, causing me to jump and stare at him. “You have no idea what she’s going through, how she feels!”

“Johnny, calm down—”

“No, don’t tell me what to do!” He stormed off and I shut my locker, leaning my head against it. I sighed and closed my eyes, taking a deep breath.

“Fight with a friend?” a smooth, velvety voice asked from beside me. I looked over to see Damon standing there. I pulled away from my locker and shook my head.

“Yeah. It’s a long story.”

“That’s fine. I won’t prod,” he smiled.

“Thank god you’re not one of those people,” I laughed.

“Yeah, I hate people like that too, they annoy the hell out of me.”

I giggled, earning myself a mental slap. The bell rang and he walked me to Chemistry class where Jimmy sat, texting behind the table. We sat down and of course, I had to sit in the middle of the two. Jimmy smirked and I rolled my eyes, taking out my notebook.

“Okay, class, today I have assigned you a take-home project,” Mr. Hanson begun.

Dammit.

“It is due in two weeks. We will be making a . . .”

I took notes like a madman while Jimmy sat there texting and Damon told me some side notes that I should add since I wasn’t fully paying attention to everything Mr. Hanson said.

By the end of class, I had one whole page, front to back, no skipping lines, full of notes for this one project.

“Hey guys, do you wanna come over to my place so we can start on this?” Jimmy asked.

I looked up at him as if he were crazy and shook my head anyways. “Sure.”

By the time lunch came, Johnny nor Pheobe were nowhere to be seen, and no one was sitting at my table. Damn, was I that much hated?

I took a bite of my sandwich when someone came up to the table. “Hey, mind if I sit here?” Damon asked.

“No, of course not,” I smiled.

He sat down and we started talking about Chemistry until we got into more deeper things than school. Like our personal lives, relationships, our pasts and other things.

“So, what’s your family like?” he asked.

Oh great. “I . . . um . . . my family’s totally awesome. We’re tight and all. Like, my dad is a wonderful dad, he’s there for me no matter what. My little sister, Riley, is the best sister in the world, and we get along really well for sisters,” I told him.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” I smiled.

“What about your mom?” he asked.

“Oh, my mom? Yeah, she’s great too. She’s a stay-at-home-mom and she’s there for me and Riley as well. She treats us like royalty. And the best part is, my family is very close and we’re all friends, and my parents are still madly in love with each other.”

“Sounds like you have a pretty nice family,” he smiled.

“Yeah, it does.” I wish. “What about your family?”

“My dad is okay, I guess. He’s a retired NFL player, and that’s why I am a football player. Not that I don’t enjoy it, it’s just that I feel like it’s being forced on me. My mom is pretty cool. She’s just like an average mom. My older brother is hard on me about things, but I’m sure he’d be there for me whenever I needed him. He’s in college right now, so my parents are just praising the lord that they don’t have to deal with two children anymore.”

I laughed, “You sound like you have a pretty normal family. I like that.”

“Yeah, sometimes I wish for a family like yours, but you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit. I just know I couldn’t ask for a better life right now,” he smiled.

“That’s wonderful.”

“Yeah. I have a question for you.”

I looked wide-eyed at him. “Um . . . yeah?” I asked.

“Would you like to go on a date with me this weekend?”

I’m pretty sure I blushed. “Of course! I mean . . . yeah, sure. I would love to.”

“That’s great,” he smirked.

We continued talking until lunch was over.

I got out of my car and walked into Jimmy’s house, looking around. Damon placed his arm around my waist and I giggled. Jimmy whirled around and scoffed. “If we’re gonna work on this project at my house, you two are not gonna play footsie and Flirty McFlirt Face, okay?” he asked sarcastically.

“Don’t worry, dude, we’re not gonna do that.”

Damon and I sat on the couch just as his phone rang. “Damn, let me take this,” he said, then walked into the kitchen.

Jimmy sat down next to me and I looked at him, raising an eyebrow. “Yes?”

“Are you two dating now?” he asked.

“No, not exactly,” I smiled.

“What does that mean?”

“We’re not boyfriend and girlfriend, but we are going on a date,” I told him.

He scoffed once more. “Why are you with him?”

“Um, because I really like him. And we’re not together. It’s none of your business so get over it,” I snapped.

“Okay, calm down. I just think you should go for someone better. I don’t have a good feeling about him,” Jimmy warned.

“Well that’s your opinion and I really don’t care. And who would I go for? You? Hell no,” I spat, then turned to look the other way.

Damon walked back inside the room and smiled. “Okay, let’s get this project started.”