Submerged in Water

"No!" I screamed. "Just stay out of my life!"

"Just don't let it happen again, alright?" My Father pleaded. "You can do what you want in your free time as long as you're safe but missing school is not an option."

It's an option when you're manipulative Mother is out looking for you. "Yeah, whatever."

"No, not whatever, you are going to school, if I hear you're even late to class then I'm grounding you." He crossed his arms. "Understand?"

"Fine." I said, then I slammed the door in his face just so that I could still have the upper hand.

I leaned my back against the door and slid down until my butt was planted on the floor. I put my hands in my head and tried to remain calm but it was like my body would begin shaking at any second.

"Wow, brutal."

I jumped to see where the voice was from. Aubrey was laying on the bed with her iPod still in her ears. She had one ear out though while she peered down at me from the end of the bed. I didn't know whether to be annoyed or just pissed off.

"Is my room like the new hip place to be or something?" I asked sarcastically.

"What's with you, Emele? You usually aren't so grouchy. I hope that doesn't come with the new look."

"New look?" I asked but then remembered what Layla said in the hall. "Oh... I'm sorry Aubrey, it's just... wow theres so much to say. God, I don't even know where to start."

"Well then, just say whatever you want and I'll try to follow along."

A sincere smile. I had a feeling she would regret that. An hour later, I explained the whole story, even my trip to the confessional. She laughed at the reaction the priest would've had and she marveled at my revelation just as I had. She came over to sit beside me against the door and put her hand on my shoulder.

"So when can I meet him?"

"Who? Rune?" I was surprised.

"Yeah. He seems like a cool guy. I want to get to know him."

"Well..."

She noticed the hesitation. "What is it?"

I didn't really know how to explain it to her nicely. The reason I didn't want her to meet Rune was because I was afraid he would like her more than me. It seemed that all the boys I've ever been into, liked Aubrey better than me. It sounded so selfish though that I just couldn't tell her that.

"I already kind of blew off Scott today."

"Yeah he told me that." Aubrey confided. "That was actually the reason I was in here waiting for you. I wanted to know your side of the story."

"My side of the story?"

"Well Scott explained it in a way that made you sound like kind of a bitch." She gave me an hopeless smile.

"Oh." I remembered back to the conversation I had with him. "Tell him I'm sorry. I was just really wired after the whole biological Mom thing."

"It's okay, Emele." She rubbed my shoulder some more. "So are you meeting Rune again tomorrow morning?"

"Yeah."

"I would ask to come along but I'm probably going to be up late with Scott. He's coming over because we're going to be studying for our mid term."

"Sure. Studying." I made hand quotes at the last word.

"Shut up! He told me he was already embarrassed about that."

I shrugged. "Really? Well tell him there's nothing to be embarrassed about, it was a sight that carried me into womanhood." I kidded.

"Emele!" She squealed. "I'm not telling my boyfriend that!"

"Oh come on, it'd be so fun to see his reaction."

She was about to object but then she stopped. "Actually, it would be." She giggled along with me.
I noticed for the first time that the room was dark and looked out the window. I checked the clock and hissed. "Crap, I'm late."

"You're meeting him tonight? I thought it was in the morning?" She asked.

"No, I was supposed to be on skype to talk to Layla."

"Oh, well I'll leave you to it." She made her way to the door. "Talk to you later."

"Kay." I turned back to watch her exit. "Thanks for listening, Aubrey, you have no idea how nice it is to talk to someone."

"No problem, Emele, anytime."

When she left, I was already on the computer, signing on. Layla immediately messaged me to tell me I pushing it on time. I sighed and started the skype call.

"Sorry I'm late." I started.

"It's okay, you aren't that late. Why weren't you at school? Well, the classes, you weren't even there for lunch."

I sighed. "I know. I was just really stressed and needed a day to sort myself out." I told her. I wanted to tell her about the confessional but the last thing I needed was for her to hunt down the priest that I confessed to.

"I see." She paused. "Guess who I saw today while I was out shopping with my parents?"

"Who?"

"Jonathan Hendrix."

I almost face-palmed. "Oh great." The words were laced with sarcasm.

"More like 'Hell yeah,' If you thought Scott was hot then you're in for a doozie with Jonathan. He looks like he just walked out of a fucking magazine, Emele. It's ridiculous." She shook her head over webcam.

"Yeah, Scott was talking to him about me today. He was trying to hook me up with him."

"You sound annoyed by this." Layla was sceptical. "If you don't want Jonathan, I'll take him!"

I had to laugh at that. "You? I thought you weren't interested in guys."

"This isn't just a guy, Emele. This is a man. A holy-mother-of-all-that-is-holy man. I can't even begin to describe to you how this man is even human because I think he might be some sort of alien or angel."

"Wow."

"He's a year younger than us, but I can live with that." She went on. "Anyway, why was Scott trying to hook you up with him? I don't think he'll have any problems getting a girl."

"Hmmm... I don't really know why. He just said that Jonathan was a weird kid and that he wanted his brother to fit in."

"I knew there had to be something wrong with him." Layla seemed glad about this.

We continued to talk until I made some lame excuse about dinner being ready and wanting to get some sleep afterwards, which was true but just sounded lame to my ears. Before I went to bed, I packed a bag full of a few things I thought I might need for my meeting with Rune and then headed off to sleep.