Let Them Speak

The next morning, I woke to Lacey stumbling around the room, trying to put on a pair of jeans without falling on her face. I propped myself up on my elbow and took her in. Dark hair past her shoulders, a slender and beautiful body, dark eyes and a horrible personality. She was everything Chris wasn’t.

Chris had been taller, blonde, and understood everything about me, she had accepted me completely. We had met in middle school and she was actually the first person I had had any real feelings for. Her boyfriend thought her and I were messing around behind his back(well we were, but not in the way he thought) and he drugged her and burned the house down. She had been trapped inside, but she hadn’t felt any pain due to the drugs still in her system. Her boyfriend was charged with man-slaughter and he’s still in jail.

Lacey turned and smiled at me, then walked back to the bed and slid under the covers next to me.

“Hey,” she murmured and kissed my cheek.

“Hey, getting ready for the day?” I asked, my voice hoarse from sleep.

“Yeah. You should probably do the same,” she said and I rolled out of bed. I got dressed in the clothes I had brought with me and stretched, then flopped back onto the bed. Lacey placed my head on her lap and looked as if she was thinking.

“Whats up?” I asked and placed my hand on hers, which was on my chest.

“Nothing,” she murmured then gave me a smile and slid from the bed, leaving me alone. I sat up and watched as she finished getting ready. Well it was fine to say that we weren’t shy in front of each other at all.

Once it was 7am, we both went downstairs, ate some breakfast together, then we got into her car and she drove us to school.

“Darryn, why are you with me?” She asked suddenly, once the car was parked and turned off. I thought about telling her the truth, that this was just an act, because if I didn’t date her, then I’d be disgraced and shunned by so many people. Instead, I went with lying.

“Well why not? You’re beautiful, smart and you accept me,” I said and smiled a small smile. She seemed happy with that answer.

“Oh thats good.” She murmured and then kissed my cheek and got out to go gossip with some of her friends. I sighed and got out of the car, locked my door and plastered on a smile. I greeted a few “friends” then went to class, Advanced Literature of the Mind. Addison was already there and I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to face him and any questions he might have. I wasn’t sure what I’d tell him. I guess instead of having sex with Lacey last night I could’ve come up with some lie to tell him, incase he did ask something.

I sat next to him and stretched out.

“Hey little Sophomore, feeling better today?” I asked him, my eyebrow raised. He ignored me, and kept on writing whatever he had been writing when I sat down. I knew he hated that nickname, but it was going to stick whether he liked it or not. And the reason I knew he hated it was because every time I called him by it, there was a quick and sudden spike of irritation in his peaceful mood.

It was nice to be by him when he was like this, such a change of how teens acted, there was no added excitement, no anger, pain, sadness, or anything of the like, he was just mellow.

I didn’t remove his sunglasses to tease or irritate him today, after what had happened yesterday, I wasn’t quite sure if I ever wanted to again. There was something in the way he acted, as if he was afraid of something none of us could see.

I stayed silent, even after the bell rang and others began to work on their projects, Addison and I stayed silent and still. And thats when I noticed it. I leaned forward and poked the spot on Addison’s neck.

“Is that a hickey?” I asked him with a smirk. Addison looked up at me briefly, his face flushing a bright red. I began to chuckle.

“It is!” I reeled backwards from my quiet laughter.

“You have a few of your own,” he snapped but that only made me laugh harder.

“But people know how I get mine, Lacey can be quite demanding in bed,” I told him and I felt a wave of....something like disgust and something else waft from him, it tasted bitter on my tongue.

“Please Darryn, hold your tongue about your sex life,” Addison snapped and I stopped laughing all together. I frowned and knotted my hands in my own hair.

I stared at the ceiling for a moment, then closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

“Geez Addison, take a chill pill,” I whispered when I felt a spike in his irritation level, and when the words left my mouth, he seemed to calm down and then suspicion filled the cracks in his emotional state that the irritation had once taken up.

“How do you do that?” He asked and I peeked a look at him, he was still writing.

“Do what?” I asked, feigning innocence.

“Know exactly what I’m feeling, then make me calm down?” He asked and when he said this, our eyes met and I nearly fell back from the intensity in his gaze. He had his pink contacts in again.

“I don’t know what your feeling, I can just read people really easily,” I said and shrugged. He let it drop and didn’t talk again.

Maybe he’d open up during Drama class?