Piece of Work

"I hate to say it," I started the following Monday, not sounding sorry at all, "but I told you so."

Dan rolled his eyes. "How much can you tell from one night?"

"We talked a lot," I replied in defense. We walked into the classroom, and I stood over Dan's desk instead of going to my seat.

"Sure you did. What else is there to do? But that doesn't mean that you know the guy. People have secrets, Faye."

I let out a breath as that sank in a little. Then, the bell rang and I had to go to my seat. As I sat there, I wondered about what Dan had said. How bad could he really be?

"Okay, okay, be quiet," my teacher ordered as she stepped into the room and shut the door behind her. It slammed.

"Whoops... Didn't mean to do that," she smiled slightly. "Okay, take out your notebooks. Notes today."

Everyone followed her directions mechanically. And the day was just beginning...

***

"Hey," Ben greeted at lunch later that day, sitting down next to me. He shot a fast look at Olivia before turning back to me.

"That's Olivia," I introduced, feeling the need. "Olivia, Ben."

"Hi," he said shortly, nodding at her.

"Hi." Olivia wasn't too great around people, and she usually just stared down at the floor or table and kept her mouth shut. I felt kind of badly that she was so uncomfortable when she was around people she didn't know, but I guess it was something that she had to get over sometime in her life.

"So what's up?" I questioned, letting Olivia sit in the corner with her head down as she took small bites of her sandwich.

"Nothing really. I just walked into the cafeteria and saw you sitting here and thought I'd join you. Better than sitting with my loser friends."

He looked over his shoulder, so I followed his gaze and saw a small group of guys nodding in our direction, talking and laughing. It kind of made me wonder what they were talking about, but then I realized that I really didn't care enough.

"So where are you going next?" Ben asked, taking one of the grapes out of the bag in front of me, which I had stolen from Olivia to eat a few.

"English," I answered with a shrug.

"Does that mean you like it or you don't?"

"That means that it's okay. We're reading The Great Gatsby, which is an alright book, but my teacher speaks in this monotone voice, absolutely no emotion whatsoever, and half the class is asleep in the first five minutes. And I'm in honors English too."

"That's pretty bad," Ben expressed. "I have the best teacher ever for English. He's really funny, and he makes it so that even though you go off topic all the time, you still learn the material. You know what I'm talking about?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I've had teachers like that. I wish I didn't have Miss Murray." I got up and threw the empty bag with the grape stems in the trash. When I came back, Olivia was even more introverted, closer to the wall. Oops. Probably shouldn't have left her alone with the strange person...

Ben gave me a look like, 'Oh, God,' when I sat back down. I cocked an eyebrow at him, but before he could answer, Olivia muttered, "I should get a pass for the library for study. I'll talk to you later."

With that, she got up and scampered down the hallway. Okay then.

"I tried talking to her and she almost curled up into a ball and started to cry," Ben expressed, his face showing how strange he thought that was.

"Yeah...she's not really a people person. She was when she was younger, but as she grew up, she just retreated more and more into a shell. Like a turtle that knows it's about to be stepped on." I thought about my analogy for a second before adding, "Okay, maybe that wasn't the best example."

"Probably not," he agreed, laughing lightly. The bell echoed through the large room, and we got up.

"So I'll see you later," he said, smiling as he sped up to get to his next class.

"Yeah, see you too," I mumbled to myself. The kids who were walking next to me gave me a confused look before catching each others' gazes and bursting into laughter. Ha-ha...That's so funny...Not.

"OH!" Ben came running back to me, a slight smile on his face. "Would you want to hang out after school? Just go grab a Coke at Cumby's or something?"

"Sounds good," I grinned. "So we'll meet at my car?"

"Alright." His eyes were twinkling as he turned and walked away. I was so excited. There was just something that twinged in my stomach when I thought about him. He was definitely special.

After school, I walked (okay...so maybe it was more like running...) to my car and got into the driver's seat. Not too long after, Ben was pulling on the handle of the passenger's door, trying to get inside but couldn't because it was locked.

"Sorry about that," I apologized as he stepped inside, careful not to hit his head on the roof of the car.

"Oh, it's no problem," he shook off, leaning back in the chair.

"Don't you want to put on your seatbelt?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow at him.

He scoffed. "No way. That's so stupid. It's just a myth that it's safer. If you're in a bad wreck, you're gonna die anyway, so why not have the opportunity to jump out of the car before the collision?"

That was going against everything I'd ever been taught, but I nodded despite all that. "I guess."

"Just drive," he ordered, flashing his white teeth in a smile.

I agreed before pulling out my parking spot and starting to drive down the long driveway leading away from our small high school. I never got why there was such a long driveway. Why give people false hope that they were going to get to school on time just because they were in the driveway while it was backed up with traffic? Personally, I'd prefer not to be on school grounds so I didn't get that false hope.

The Cumberland Farms convenience store was a few streets over from the school, so we got there in about five minutes. When we parked, Ben ran inside and got a couple of the fountain Cokes. I liked the cans and bottles better, since there was more carbonation and I hated flat soda, but fountain drinks were okay.

"Thanks," I smiled, taking the cup from him. The parking lot was pretty much empty, just the occasional person walking into the store, and even then, no one went by our car.

"So how was school?" Ben asked, taking a sip from his straw.

"Eh. You?"

"It was pretty good. After school seems to be going much better though."

The sound of 'Jump' by Van Halen started playing from my pocket. Still grinning from Ben's last comment, I pressed the 'Accept' button.

"Hi!" I greeted Dan.

"Hola. Okay, so for history..."

We talked a couple of minutes longer about the homework that had been assigned for that night, which pages and questions they were, and then the project that was due next week. I still hadn't done that...maybe I wouldn't do it at all...too lazy.

"See you tomorrow!" I concluded, hanging up the phone.

Ben's eyes were stormy as I looked back at him. "That was rude," he commented.

"Sorry. He just had homework questions."

It was shocking, the look on his face. It was just like what I'd seen that day when he bumped into me in the hallway that day.

Then, Ben opened the door and stepped out. "See you at school tomorrow," he said curtly before slamming my door and storming off down the street.

After a few minutes, I shook my head in confusion and drove back down the street. Eventually, I wrote it off that he was probably just in a weird mood and there was nothing else to it.

Everyone gets in bad moods sometimes.