Who Knew?

The next morning, all four of us trudged down the stairs and met up in the front hall. Mom and I had stayed at Cheryl’s house to ensure that we left on time, and due to lack of space, I had been forced to sleep on the floor of Grace’s room, while my mom had the couch in the living room. Her and Cheryl also said that it was good practice for when Grace and I would have to share a bed during the trip, which both Grace and I thought was bullshit.

They just wanted me to feel better about sleeping on the cold, hardwood floor.

Anyway, when I say all of us trudged, that’s not really the case. Grace and I trudged. Mom and Cheryl bounced, as if they had springs on their feet. They immensely excited, whereas Grace and I were about five seconds away from falling asleep standing up, or knocking the other out. Both our eyes were droopy, since neither of us had slept well, and then we had been woken up to get ready to go at 5:30. It was now 6:02, and Cheryl and mom were freaking out about the fact that if we didn’t hurry up and leave soon, we would get off track.

Grace and I just looked at each other, rolled our eyes and looked away.

Even now, I was still a little overwhelmed by how pretty she was. Her eyes were almost so dark brown that they looked black, and her hair was silky, smooth, always in place. Not to mention her award winning smile, that was wide, and heart-warming. Even with her braces, I loved her smile.

Not that I would ever admit that to her.

“Okay, okay! Come on guys, let’s go!” Cheryl sputtered, waving us along impatiently. Grace and I grumbled as we shuffled out to the car, squinting as the sun glinted off the clean snow and reflected in our eyes.

“This is so stupid” Grace whispered from slightly in front of me, partially beside me. She always seemed to refuse to walk right beside me, or talk right to me.

“You’re telling me…” I grumbled, making her turn her head and glare.

“Shut up Bieber, you’re even stupider then this stupid trip.” She said, making my eyes widen. Why was she always attacking me? She sighed, making my brown eyes refocus on her, while her eyes flickered between my face and her mom. “Just leave me alone, and this trip will be fine” she muttered, then sped up and got into the car. I rolled my eyes and let my shoulders slack a little, while I dragged my own feet towards the metal death box. This trip would suck, undoubtedly.

---

I had turned my music up really loud to drown out the other sounds in the car. The shitty country music that my mom and Cheryl were wailing along to, Grace’s obnoxious sighs every once and a while, and the buzz of the car’s heater. All those sounds mixed together was like mind-rape, and all I wanted was to be somewhere else. So I put my huge headphones over my ears, and turned the music up all the way in hopes that the squishy rims of the headphones would block the noise from leaving.

Unfortunately, about halfway through ‘Like a G6’, Grace punched my arm so hard that I swear my other arm was going to get a bruise.

“What the fu—“ I started, but then my mom’s head snapped around so fast that I swear to god it could have gone all the way around if her angry glare hadn’t hit me when it did. I yanked my headphones off and allowed my gaze to flicker between Grace and my mom, before it finally settled on my mom.

“She punched me!” I whined. Both mom and Grace rolled their eyes.

“ You need a good punch every now and again.” She muttered, then turned around, and turned the volume up on the radio. She knew that the argument between me and Grace was only seconds away, and she didn’t want to have to hear it.

But instead of shouting at her, I turned to her and punched her right back, swiftly in the arm.

“Ow! You Jerk, don’t you know not to hit a girl?!” She shrieked. I just smirked and leaned back in my seat.

“I didn’t know girls had mustaches” I said almost so quietly that she didn’t hear. But she had heard. And no, she didn’t have a mustache. But man, you should have seen her face!

“You asshole!” She shrieked again, before she unbuckled her seatbelt and launched herself at me, her finger nails digger into my shoulders as my head slammed against the glass.

“Ow!” I shouted as I reached back to rub my head, but Grace wasn’t giving me the chance. She was hitting at me, not in a way that hurt, but in a way that was… a little obnoxious. Her hands were everywhere, making it so that I couldn’t move, or even dodge her. “Grace, get off me!” I shouted again, but she wasn’t listening.

So instead, I did what I did best. I fought back. Normally, it wasn’t physical fighting. It was more like, continuing to get more and more famous while haters kept trying to break me down. In this case, I planned on fighting back physically. I reached up to punch her arm again, but since she was everywhere, it was hard to aim. Resulting in the heel of my hand nailing into her chest, rather than her upper arm. She paused mid-whatevershewasdoing and widened her eyes. We sat like that for about… Oh, I don’t know… thirty seconds? Our eyes were both wide, and our mouths were slightly open… However, it took me a little longer to recover than her, so before I could even react, she was hitting me again, with more force.

“It was an accident!”

“You’re a jerk, you’re a jerk, you’re a jerk” she shrieked while she continued clawing at me. And then something happened that neither of us were expecting.

Cheryl slammed on the breaks, causing both of us to topple off the seat, and onto the car floor. We both moaned small ow’s repeatedly as we tried to get back up, but we were all tangled up, which I insist on being Grace’s fault.

Eventually, Grace gave up and just let her head lie limply on my shoulder.

“I just wanted you to turn down your music…” She whispered. I looked down at her, and felt my facial expression to soften.

“I just wanted you to stop hitting me…” I said, equally as quiet. Grace looked at me, smiled faintly, and then sighed, before resting her head on my shoulder again. I sighed as well, then carefully untangled myself from her, and sat up before pulling her up as well.

“Thanks” She said quietly as she settled back into her seat.

“No problem” I muttered, before slipping my headphones back on, resting my head against the window and closing my eyes. All I wanted to do was sleep in my own bed again.