I Never Dreamt Because I'm Just Too Busy

A whole fucking hour.

Sixty minutes.

Three thousand six hundred fucking seconds of listening to incessant complaints about Chantel sticking around her boyfriend rather than talking to us.

I listened to my group of friends whine and complain about her absence at our table.

I get it.

I really do.

They’re hurt about the fact that she hasn’t sat with us one day this entire week. It annoyed me the tiniest bit, but it’s whatever you know? It’s not like she’s ignoring us. We still spoke before school and after, as well as between classes. Sure, it’s a bit irritating that she’s spending all of lunch wrapped up in his arms, but what else can you expect? I can say that if it were Luna or any of them they’d be doing the same thing without a second thought.

But none of them took the time to realize that.

They just sat there and complained that everything was so bland without her and that it wasn’t the same.

They could have laughed like they always did, cracked some immature jokes, those ones that we all laughed at, and no one outside of our group ever really understood.

But they focused on the negative instead, complaining every once in a while, and a hell of a lot more than I’d have liked.

Sighing I excused myself from the table and walked over to the trash can to throw my lunch away. I stood there prolonging the return to the ledge all my friends were rooted to.

The trash just happened to be a mere five feet away from Stephen and his group of friends, so when I huffed loudly and ran a hand over my exasperated face, it somehow caught his attention.

He waved at me, and I smiled meekly waving in return. In a matter of moments he was walking over to the spot I was planted to.

“You look rather annoyed.” He bumped my hip with his own.

“Is it that obvious?” I laughed.

“Pretty much.” He chuckled. “Care to share?”

I waved an arm in his direction, dismissing the thought. “It’s really petty and stupid.”

“Are you sure? It helps to vent sometimes.”

I laughed. “My friends are overreacting for nothing, and their complaints are getting to me. In all honesty, it is pretty stupid. Nothing to worry about.”

“Ah.” He paused for a second, “But it’s not just that is it?”

“Er, well, for the most part. It’s just I’ve tried to shut them up about it, but they’re all so…stubborn? They never really listen to my reasoning.”

He laughed, “As much as that sucks, you need to try to make yourself be heard. I’ve seen the way you talk. You try to put your thoughts out there, but once you think nobody’s going to listen you, you quietly keep to yourself. You can’t always expect them to listen, you need to make yourself be heard.” Stephen smiled at me, “From what I can tell you’re pretty rational, something the majority of girls at this school lack. You need to let go and put yourself out there more.”

I smiled to myself and looked down. “That’s easier said than done.”

“And why might that be?”

“That my friend, is another story for another day.”

He smiled, “Well alright. I hope you know I’m not going to forget though, and you are going to tell me that story sometime.”

“I know.” I glanced at the table he sat at, noting that his friend who I believed to be named Justin, was waving him down to come back. “Looks like your friends want you back.”

“You think they’d get tired of seeing my ugly face day after day,” Stephen joked, “But alright. See you in seventh, Anabelle?”

I nodded and he pulled me into a hug. For a couple seconds I was frozen, partly because it caught me off guard, and partly because I wasn’t used to giving hugs, seeing as no one ever wanted them from me.

My arms squeezed him gently and got a whiff of his scent, seeing as I was a measly five-seven compared to his whopping six feet, and could barely see over his shoulder.

I don’t know what he smelled like, but I all I know is that he smelled amazing.

All too soon he pulled away and we went back to our respective groups.

I was bombarded with questions from Echo and all once I sat, asking who he was an why I was talking to him.

“Who is he?”

“What’s his name?”

“How’d you meet him?”

All of the questions blurred into another and I laughed to myself.

Oh, so now they want to hear from me.



Seventh rolled around and I was greatful. Today was sucking majorly. I had a test in AP European history and that did not go over well. The other people that sat at the same table as me finished long before I, making me feel like the complete idiot I was. I hated tests with a burning passion, and it turns out they hated me as well.

I’m almost positive I failed it. And this was not going to fly with my perfectionist parents.

I groaned and let my forehead hit the desk with more force than necessary.

“Whoa there. Someone have a rough day?” Stephen asked as he plopped into the seat next to me.

“Somewhat.”

“That sucks. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” I said, “How was your day though?”

“Pretty good, all things considered.”

We didn’t have time to talk about much else, as the teacher took it upon herself to start class. She was a bit stern to those who interrupted her, so it was better we just shut up.

“Alright, well. I’m assigning you your first project of the semester. I want you to partner up with someone else, no groups of three or four. I said, 'partner' which implies two people only. Now, this isn’t due for three weeks, but I want you to create something that represents your partner. It doesn’t matter the medium. And I want you to write a small paragraph about how exactly this relates to them.” She passed out the papers as she talked about the additional details of the project. She said it couldn’t just involve what you see in the surface. You had to know something about the person.

Somewhere in the time she left us alone, Stephen had asked me to be his partner, and I was greatful. If he hadn’t done that, I don’t know who I would have worked with, being the awkward person I was.

“So, I know this isn’t due for a few weeks, but I was thinking we could get a start on this this weekend, seeing as next I’m going to be out of town with my band playing a couple shows. Does that sound alright?” Stephen asked grinning a little.

Does that sound alright? It sounded better than alright. “Sure.”

We ended up exchanging numbers as the bell rang.

“I’ll call you later, okay?” Stephen pulled me into a hug like he had at lunch.

I nodded, smiling.

My shitty day had done a complete turn around just like that.