Chasing the Future

Friday I think is the best day out of the entire week. There are so many possibilities on Friday that aren’t there on any other day, and that’s why none other can compare. It seems like with the weekend to come I can do anything I want, I can achieve anything I feel like- the potential is endless. I have all the time in the world, there is nothing I need to worry about because worrying is left for Sunday, which is far away from Friday, the best day of the week.

And it was a Friday on the day that I met Jace.

“So you’re the bitch that took my place. Ana, right?”

I blinked, taken aback when the incredibly tall Spanish boy swooped in from no where, brown eyes narrowed in my direction and his voice terribly accusing. I found myself in a crossroads of what to do, finding all the words dissipating on my tongue and my lack of confrontation whispering in my ear to escape down the hall. I didn’t though. Instead, I stood there, confused and worried for my general safety.

I blinked again. He laughed.

The tension broke, I found him a lot less threatening with that almost mischievous grin twisted on his lips, but it still left me incredibly confused, even more so when he swung an arm around my shoulders and guided me down the hall, as if we’d been friends since the seventh grade and much more than perfect strangers. I didn’t even know his name at the time. I didn’t know how he knew mine. I really didn’t know why I was a bitch and how I took his place. I didn’t know a lot, that day. I still don’t know enough, though.

“What are you, what are you doing?” I finally managed from my mouth, eyes darting around my surroundings with my thoughts still whirling about my head and leaving me in a haze. He grinned at me cheekily but didn’t answer. I let myself be led down the hallway, remaining stunned. What a weird boy, I thought to myself.

I was hardly in any position to judge character, though.

“Well, at least you’re not ugly,” he mused, eyeing me with curiosity and sizing me up in a way that I’d rather not be.

“Um, thanks?” I said hesitantly.

“You seem a little awkward though, and scared, like a little mouse or something,” he kept on, somehow avoiding all the people in the hallway, as if he had a clear sight ahead of him even though his eyes were focused on me.

I didn’t know how to respond to that. He didn’t seem to mind. He had really long eyelashes.

“I’m not surprised Nora’s taken you in though.”

I felt almost like a stray puppy, the way that both Nora and the boy talked about me, as if I was a starving stray on the streets that was in desperate need of guidance and a place to live, and they were like saints tending to me. I could see them being friends, they were both loud and boisterous and did incredibly confusing things.

But I didn’t say anything; I just wanted them to like me.

“Who are you?” I blurted out, eyebrows furrowing.

He abruptly made a stop, pushing my body on a right turn as we began down a new hallway. I saw Austin down this corridor, ambling beside Melissa who was talking animatedly about something I’ll never know. Our eyes met and for a moment I didn’t know what to do, if we were friendly enough to acknowledge the other in the hallway.

It’s the sort of crucial thing I needed to know in case it would produce a more than awkward and unnecessary situation where I waved and he didn’t and I felt like the loser I was trying to convince myself I wasn’t. I was trying to avoid anything like that.

Instead, I went for the smile, it seemed easy and noncommittal enough. He grinned back. I sighed in relief.

“Has Nora not even mentioned me at all?” the boy asked from beside me, sounding hurt. Again, I felt myself tense and uncomfortable. I really didn’t know why I was talking at all.

“I mean, uh, yeah, but… no, I don’t know, who are you?” I stumbled over my words, my embarrassment surfaced as a burning blush on my cheeks, my stomach churning and feeling a little at loss for breath.

I just wanted to escape to my next class, where I could lie my head on the cool wood and listen to the the teacher's soothing drone of a voice.

I wondered why Nora hadn’t ever brought up this mystery boy, if he apparently was as big of a deal as he made himself out to me. At that point, I sort of figured she’d told me about every single person and their histories. It was almost strange to walk down the halls and know who had hooked up with who and embarrassing past secrets they were probably desperately trying to forget, when they had no idea who I was.

All the same, though. It was the same back home. Or, back at my old home.

The boy chuckled, apparently finding it a lot more amusing than I did, but it let me calm myself down a little. I looked up at him, his arm still weighing down my shoulders, to see him open his mouth. I waited for a name and an explanation. I’d like to know his name. But he was cut off before I could find out from him.

Nora helped out us.

“Jace! Oh my god! You little cocksucker get over here!” her voice rang through the hallway, immediately screeching through my ears and apparently Jace’s too, as he instantly let go of his death grip.

They had a reunion of sorts, and I stood awkwardly to the side until I was invited in by Nora, who properly introduced us. Apparently he had spent the majority of the time of the summer spent with his family somewhere down south, which was why I was just meeting him. I was quiet most of the time, listening to his extravagant stories until I had to go to class, saying a goodbye before slipping off.

Then I began to I wonder to myself what Noah’s nationality was, when I thought about Jace’s, and I couldn’t put my finger on what he could be. He had tanned skin and a big nose and hair that I couldn’t slap a definite colour on, but nothing that screamed any ethnicity. He seemed somewhat European though, I wasn’t’ sure why.

But I couldn’t ask him or give him back his ten,or even hold the smallest of conversations as I didn’t see him at all. I wished a little to myself that I had a class with him, but I didn’t mind either way. My mind was busy enough to not give him more than a couple of minutes getting to my next class. Austin too, was a wonderful distraction and Melissa actually didn’t seem as bad as Nora made her out to be.

During that time, I wondered what sort of past had gone between them, but was too scared to ask either of them.

When I got home I was glad that it was a Friday, with all the possibilities of the weekend at my fingertips. I doubted I’d do anything of biblical proportions, or whether or not I’d even leave the confinements of my house, but I felt happy. I sat in my room, the sunlight streaming in through the blinds spilling across the baby pink walls my grandpa hadn’t changed since it was used as a room my grandma loved reading in. Pink was her favourite colour.

I liked it, anyways.

“And then that kid that wears the cape ran into me today, too,” I mumbled while absently scratching behind Thunder’s ears as he lay across my lap, panting heavily and slobbering delightedly on my pants.

I checked the time and saw it was around six, which meant that he was probably going to get restless if I didn’t take him for a walk. Heaving a sigh, I pushed him off and clambered to my feet, faintly hearing my grandpa’s television through my open door. He was watching Discovery channel like he always did.

The sky on that day was a forget-me-not-blue, translucent clouds spreading across and a perfect slight breeze sailing by. Thunder was trotting cheerfully beside me, pausing ever couple of moments to inspect a tuft of grass or any lanky trees planted on people’s lawns. I had to yank him away when someone stepped outside and he was readying to relieve himself on their lawn. Thankfully, we got away before any further embarrassment.

I’d already had a pre-determined path worked out that I followed every day. And luckily, as we turned a block quickly he was able to take a pee without anyone watching him and I stayed out on the neighbour's good graces for another day.

Chemistry homework was waiting dutifully on my desk at home, I knew, but I decided to keep my pace slow. It gave me time to think, which was something that I found myself having too much time to do. In the back of mind, I felt like I could hear what my brother would be telling me about how I was handling everything. I could hear him telling me to stay away, from Noah especially and how Nora was one of those girls that got on his nerves, but most everyone got on his nerves anyways.

I liked Nora. I liked Austin. I liked Noah. I even liked Jace. Maybe I was just making sure not to deny any slight chances of friendship though, being the only thing I was desperately dreaming of and took anything I could get. My brother didn’t have much trouble ever making friends, it was as if people gravitated towards him.

For quite some time I wished I had that ability.

I wondered if he ever gave me a thought, or even a second out of his day. I’d been gone for over a month; I almost figured that he’d forgotten mostly about my entire existence, only a faint reminder whenever he passed my room or maybe found one of my belongings. I still had his sweater in my closet that I refused to wash and I had stolen from his closet.

I wasn’t given that much time to think about it, though, as Noah appeared on the sidewalk. He was leaning against the bus stop pole, a sucker between his lips and eyes focused on the cell phone he was typing into.

Momentarily, I froze, wondering if he was actually there. It was quite the coincidence, and I never had a lot of those.

At that exact moment, or maybe I had been standing for longer than it felt like, his gaze lifted and met mine a few feet away. The edges of his lips turned up into a smile. I thought I forgot how to smile.

Instead, I stared. Thunder, though, apparently had much more advanced social skills than I as he bounded up towards the boy, pulling me forcefully along with him. Noah immediately dropped down to his knees, slipping his phone in his back pocket and greeted the dog with a friendly rub behind the ears.

“This your dog?” he asked while I stood beside the pair, eyes finding more than enough interest in the surrounding houses. He bit down on his sucker and chewed away the last bits. It was red. The red ones were always my favourite.

“I stole him,” I told him.

He stopped for a moment, shocked eyes coming to meet mine. He appeared taken back. I coughed, gaze finding the cracks in the cement.

“That was a joke," I quickly added, lamely.

The look was immediately wiped off his face as chuckle broke through his lips. “I knew that,” he tried to play it off, I could tell, and returned back to affectionately feeding the attention-hungry dog, who was never fully satisfied.

“Where are you going?” I asked curiously and trying to make some sort of small talk.

“A party.”

“Off to go throw up on another girl?” I teased with a broad grin stretched across my face. I felt my shoulders relax and the tension seeping through my muscles, escaping with the sigh that fell from my lips.

“As a matter of fact, that was only a one time thing,” he replied, his tone made into a false sort of intelligence, “and you were lucky enough to be present, however never again will it happen.” He met my eyes and laughed, looking back to Thunder after who was pushing his snout into Noah’s hands.

“Lucky me,” I drawled with a sarcastic edge, watching with interest as he pet the dog.

“You are.”

Then we fell into a silence that should’ve been awkward, but wasn’t. It was more comfortable than I thought a silence could ever be, with nothing but the pants of Thunder and the shouts of a bossy little girl across the street filling the air. I watched him with interest. Noah was an interesting person, I found.

“What’s your background?” the question almost asked itself, but I couldn’t keep the curiosity down my throat. I gauged his reaction which was something along the lines of surprise. It did almost come out of no where, I supposed.

“That’s pretty random,” he chuckled before taking a moment to register my words, “but Romanian, actually.” He looked up at me with questioning eyes. There was a scar running through his left eyebrow, right at the end I noticed, and another on his right cheekbone. I wondered how he got them. “Why?”

“Noah doesn’t sound Romanian.”

He laughed. I watched the way his eyes squinted ever so slightly from his cheeks when he smiled. “My mom named me after the main character in an American soap opera she was watching when she was preggo with me.”

I didn’t know why my mom called me Anastasia. I think it would be an interesting story. Maybe she just liked the name.

He regained his composure, Thunder being less than happy when he did, and tilted his head to the side. “No one’s ever asked me that, I’ve always known but you’re the first one to ever ask,” he said, eyeing me with curiosity. I wondered what he thought of me right then.

“I ask a lot of questions. My mom says I’m like a four year old.”

A few blocks away, I noticed the bus turn the corner and heading in our direction.

“Hey, you gotta phone?”

I nodded my head, stuffing my fingers in my back jean pocket and producing the battered phone that had gone through more than enough of water and being dropped at heights too high. He plucked it from my grip without a word and punched in his number, handing it back to me just as the bus rolled up.

The doors opened, welcoming him inside, and he gave me one last nod of the head with a smile. “Well, bye Anastasia.”

“Bye Noah.”

And then he was gone, the bus falling farther out of my view with every second that passed. Thunder was again tugging back in the direction of the house. The bossy girl across the street was now content drawing her name with blue chalk all over the driveway, the other much quieter girl beside her creating pink hearts.

Noah was a boy that was probably at the party drinking himself into oblivion, from what I’ve caught word of his reputation at school. Noah was a boy that wore sneakers that were bright orange with purple and red, all in neon fashion. Noah was a boy that was named after the main character of an American soap opera when his mom was pregnant with him.

And I liked him. I didn’t how much or how little or in what context at all, but he called me by my full name and I liked him.