Forget About It

I decided not to go to school the next day. I wasn’t too sure I could handle it after several of the conversations that I had the day prior. Instead of taking the right turn towards the school that day, I turned left and found myself at the mall.

I wandered around aimlessly through the quiet building for a bit. The mall was always such a different place at nine in the morning. As the morning took its toll on me, I found my way to the Starbucks and ordered myself a Venti black coffee.

“The size names here have always confused me.” I heard a familiar voice say behind me.

“Zack?” I questioned as I turned around to look at him, “What are you doing out of school?”

“It’s Senior Skip Day over at Towson.” He shrugged before a huge grin formed on his face, “The real question is what are you doing here, Cory.”

“Isn’t it a little early for Senior Skip Day?” I questioned and he merely shrugged again, “And it’s a Cory Skip Day over at Dulaney.”

“You’ve really changed.” Zack laughed as he threw his arm over my shoulder, “I remember freshman year when you would freak out if anyone tried to get you to do such a thing. Now you’re smoking, drinking and ditching. I like this change.”

I sighed and sipped my coffee, “Sometimes I wish I didn’t, but the old me was such a drag.”

“Oh you we’re not.” Zack rolled his eyes playfully and bumped our hips together, “You’ve always been one of my favorite people ever since Alex introduced us.”

“If Alex was ever good at one thing, it was introducing me to amazing people.” I chuckled.

“I agree.” Zack nodded, “Hey, do you mind if we stop at Zumiez really fast? I am in need of a new belt.”

“Lead on.” I chuckled as we walked past plenty of stores I had the urge to go into as we made our way to the skate shop.

“Welcome to Zumiez.” The bored cashier yawned as we walked in. I stood in the front of the store while Zack walked to the back to look at their collection of skate decks.

“I didn’t realize that Towson had such beautiful girls.” The guy behind the counter said as he blatantly checked me out.

“Excuse me?” I shot him a glare.

“You’re gorgeous, what’s your name?” He smirked, “I’m Donnie.”

“I’m Cory.” I muttered, “Nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, so what are you doing later?” He asked. This guy sure was forward, if he wasn’t so cute I’d be pretty pissed off.

“Um, I uh… well…” I stuttered, trying to think of a legitimate reason to turn this cute guy down. So far, I was coming up with nothing.

“She’s hanging out with me.” Zack said as he threw his arm over my shoulders casually, yet slightly protectively.

“And who are you?” Donnie squinted his eyes at Zack in confusion.

“I’m her boyfriend.” Zack said as if it were the most obvious thing ever, “C’mon babe, let’s get out of here.” He pressed his lips to mine quickly and then grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the store.

“Thanks for that, Zack.” I smiled faintly, “I almost actually accepted a date from that guy.”

“Please, I’d never let you do that. Donnie Fredericks is bad news, Cory. You need to stay away from him.” Zack looked into my eyes, “Please?”

I nodded my head and sighed, dropping the matter altogether. There was so much I wanted to ask, but I could tell that Zack didn’t want to talk about it. “So what do we do now?” I asked, “We’ve pretty much walked the entire length of the mall to get to Zumiez, and I’ve got little cash to spend here today.”

“Well, I sort of have to get to Alex’s house for band practice. The rest of the guys are skipping out early to come over and play. Will you come with me?” He squeezed my hand and smiled.

“I don’t know, Zack. I mean, Alex and I don’t necessarily get along at all.” I shook my head and looked down at my shoes warily.

“You won’t even have to talk to Gaskarth, I promise. You can just talk to me, Jack and Rian. It’ll be fun. Come on Cory.” He begged, “You’ve never even seen us play before.”

“Yes I have!” I protested, “I’ve seen you a couple of times freshman year.”

Zack rolled his eyes and chuckled, “You being at one of our shows and making out with Daniel the entire time does not count as watching us play. And besides, we’ve improved so much since then. We’re actually going out on tour this summer and everything.”

“Fine,” I sighed. I had nothing better to do today other than to go to the mall, and I’d already finished doing that. What harm could going over to Alex’s old house do? “But if Alex and I start fighting, it’s your fault, Merrick.”

“Great.” He said as he walked out the mall doors and started off towards his car, “You remember where their house is, right?”

“How could I forget?” I muttered to myself as I nodded my head and walked over to my own car.

Twenty minutes later I pulled up in front of the suburban brick home that I used to spend all of my time at. I could physically feel myself shaking from nerves as I looked at all the cars already in the driveway. Everyone was already here from what I could tell. I closed my eyes and began to talk deep breaths to calm myself.

”Come on, Corinna let’s go!” Alex laughed as he grabbed my hand and pulled me towards his house. I was in seventh grade and Alex and I had been hanging out together every day for weeks now and suddenly he wanted me to come and hangout at his house with him. Needless to say, I was sort of nervous.

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” I laughed as butterflies filled my stomach. Alex had always had that effect on me since the time we got partnered up to do an assignment in fifth grade. We became friends shortly after that, but now we were closer than ever. My friends were even telling me that he may “like me” like me, and that made my heart race even more.

“Hi mom, bye mom! We’re going up to my room okay?” Alex shouted as he led me upstairs.

“Hold on young man.” A British woman protested, “Who is ‘we’ and why aren’t you introducing us?”

“MOM!” Alex groaned, “Fine. Mom, this is Corinna my friend from school. Corinna, this is my mother the one who created me.”

“Pleasure to meet you dear, would you like to stay for dinner?” She smiled warmly at me. I could tell already that I liked this woman.

“It’s nice to meet you too Mrs. Gaskarth. And I would love to stay for dinner, I’ll just have to ask my mother first.”

“Very well dear, just let me know. You two have fun now.” She smiled and patted Alex on the head which made me giggle, “No funny business Alex, do you understand me?”

“Yes mom.” He groaned, “I understand. Come on Corinna, let’s get out of here before she breaks out the baby photos.” Before I could say anything else, he whisked me away upstairs to his room and shut the door quickly.

“I like your room, Alex.” I smirked as I looked around at the dark blue walls. My eyes stopped when I saw a guitar sitting in the corner of the room, “Do you play?”

Alex shrugged and took a seat next to me on the bed, “A little, I’m still practicing a lot. I’m in a band right now actually.”

“That’s cool.” I smiled as he got closer to me.

“Yeah,” He grinned as he got even closer to me and put a piece of hair behind my ear, “Listen, Corinna I-“

“Alex, I need to borrow your- oh, I didn’t know you had a girl in here.” A tall boy walked in. A tall, cute boy walked in, “A very pretty girl.”

“What do you want, Daniel?” Alex rolled his eyes.

“Well, I was heading up to Denny’s with some friends; do you two want to come?” He looked at me and smirked which made me blush.

“That sounds like fun!” I exclaimed, “Denny’s has really good milkshakes. Do you want to go, Alex?” I bit my lip and looked at him. He had a weird expression on his face that I had never seen before that sort of confused me.

“No, no. I have to practice guitar, why don’t you go along with him. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He forced a smile and then got off the bed.

“Oh, um, okay.” I nodded my head and stood up, “I’ll see you tomorrow then Alex.”

“So what’s your name?” Daniel asked as he shut Alex’s bedroom door, “Alex was so impolite in there and didn’t even introduce us.”

“Corinna.” I giggled nervously as he held open the front door to his house for me.

“Corinna.” He muttered, “Corinna.”

“Corinna!” Zack said as he leaned in my open car window, “Corinna, I’ve been saying your name for five minutes now, where the fuck are you?”

“S-s-sorry.” I chuckled, “I was just lost in my thoughts.”

“Well are you coming?” Zack asked curiously as he opened my car door for me.

“Yeah.” I swallowed hard and stared up at the house that held so many memories for me as I got out of the car. This wasn’t going to be easy.