Capsized Erring On The Edge Of Safe

With a click the light flipped on a face was inches from my own. “Please just don’t scream or anything” he whispered directly in my ear and gently released my mouth.

“Da-!” I screamed but he covered my mouth again before I could make enough noise for anyone to hear me.

“Okay, just let me explain. I’m not here to hurt anyone; I was just trying to crash the party here tonight. I came in this widow because it was the only room on the first floor without lights on,” he said released my mouth once again.

I backed away till I was touching the wall but I didn’t scream again. Looking at this guy he couldn’t have been more than a year older than me. His dark brown hair was messy and came down to his shoulders. He looked like he had tried to dress for the occasion, but he still would have stuck out like a sore thumb in his red and gold blazer and tight black pants. He wasn’t even wearing dress shoes, just ratty old converse. Not to mention his green eyes were lined in days old eye liner.

“Umm not to be rude, actually I should be rude because you’re in my bedroom. Who are you?” I said awkwardly.

“Right. I’m Demi Frakes, well actually my name’s Atticus because my parents were smoking pot or something when I was born but I go by my middle name. I’m in this band and I was gonna try to give James French one of our demos tonight. But then I bumped into you…” he trailed off.

“Look Demi, I really think the best thing you could do right now is leave and I won’t tell my dad to call the cops” I said expecting him to hustle out of my house as fast as he could.

Instead of leaving he stood staring at me with a look of wonderment on his face. “I’ve heard about you. You’ve been kicked out of every private school in the state,” he said sounding impressed.

It was true that I’d been kicked out of a lot of school, but every school and in the state was a bit of an exaggeration. Besides I graduated a year ago. “Okay why are you still here,” I demanded.

“Yeah here just you can have this demo instead. Call me,” he said writing his number on the paper sleeve and handing it to me.

With that he climbed out the window winking at me over his shoulder at me. I picked up my sidekick of the bed side table and began furiously texting to Deanne.
***
“Goodness could you please keep it down,” asked our housekeeper Jenny.

“Yeah sorry Jen,” I replied turning it down with the remote to my stereo.

“You know I just made that bed please don’t jump on it dear,” she said crossly raising her eyebrows.

“Sorry...” I apologized sheepishly.

“It’s alright, you’re a good girl,” she said with a grin.

I waited till she left the room then resumed jumping on my enormous bed. I could fix it later and no one would know the difference. I look to my stereo thinking about an idea I had just had. The paper sleeve with Demi’s number on it was sitting on my television across the room so I hopped down and went to retrieve it. On the third ring he answered sounding confused.

“Hi this is Anberlin... Anberlin French. You broke into my room last Friday,” I said trying to think of ways to let him know who I was.

I wasn’t really sure why I called except for that fact that he had been on mind since Friday. We talked for about twenty minutes about the demo he had given me and his band (China Doll). There was an awkward silence at the very end of the call.

“Will you go out with me?” Demi blurted out.

“Oh wow... um sure that’d be great. When?” I replied, glad that he couldn’t see me blushing.

“Is tomorrow too soon?” he asked eagerly.

I smiled and told him that tomorrow sounded great. After we hung up I laid there on my bed thinking about the date we had planned. Actually there hadn’t been much planning at all; we didn’t even decide where we wanted to go. I got to my feet and skipped out my bedroom door off to my dad’s office.

“Daddy guess what?” I sang out at the top of my lungs.

“What honey?” he sighed looking up at me over his deskfull of papers.

“I have a date tomorrow,” I told him grinning with excitement.

He stiffened at my words and rubbed the side of his face with his palm. He narrowed his eyes at me for a second as if taking me all in.

“Where did you meet this boy?” he asked in a weary tone you only hear in fathers.

“Oh, I cut his hair at school last week,” I lied not wanting to tell him were we had really met.

My dad was paying for me to go to cosmetology school even though he thought it was a waste of my intelligence.

“Hmph,” he grunted at the mention of my school “well what’s his name. When is he going to come pick you up?”

“His name’s Demi and he’s picking me up at six o’clock” I lied again because we had never decided on a time.

I stood staring at my dad for a minute waiting for him to say something, waiting for him to show more interest than the logistics an d business side of everything. Finally he nodded and turned back to the paper work in front of him. I slowly left the room a little crest fallen at my dad’s lack of interest, but it was nothing new. I knew Dede would care when I told her.