Torn Page 3

  He walked me through what I was having trouble with and met with me a couple times a week until I passed the course. It was hard not to become friends after spending that much time with someone. He didn't judge me or make me feel stupid, which helped my ego and as he'd stated before, I never made him feel like a nerd no one wanted to be around. I guessed he'd experienced it in high school. But that made me like him that much more. He seemed to embrace his nerdiness in college the way he was afraid to in high school. I admired him for that. Not that I was trying to be something I wasn’t, but still, it took guts. He'd changed his appearance a little since then, deciding to update his closet. He still looked nerdy, which was hard for me to admit because we actually had the same style of clothes, we just wore them completely differently.

  Chad was driving while I rode shotgun. Hannah and Erica were in the backseat, giggling like a couple of school girls. I was choosing to ignore them. Besides, I had a pretty good idea of what they were discussing. Hannah had been trying to set up Chad and Erica with each other. I thought Erica was actually kind of interested, but Chad's heart belonged to someone else, even if that girl didn't know he existed. He was determined to get her and I wasn’t sure even an interested Erica would sway him.

  “Are we there yet?” Hannah asked for the millionth time, thinking she was hilarious. I snorted as Chad glared at her in the rearview mirror. “Well, are we?”

  “Yes! God, yes we are!” Chad hit the unlock button for the doors even though we were going sixty mph down the highway. “Have fun.” We all got a kick out of it, but Hannah was pretending to be less than amused. Chad never really got mad, especially at the girls. In fact, in the six years I'd known him, I couldn’t remember him ever being truly angry. It was pretty amazing, actually. I turned around to raise an eyebrow at Hannah.

  “Come on, Han. Give Chad here a break. I think he's PMSing.” The girls laughed and Chad punched me in the shoulder as I laughed right along with them. I didn't think it was that funny, but everyone else's reactions made it more amusing.

  “Shut the hell up, man. You're supposed to be on my side here!”

  “Hey, I am on your side. But even you have to admit those girls are scarier than you are.” He didn't find that too funny either.

  “I hate you all.” Chad glowered as he continued to drive, groaning when the theme park was in sight. “There, Hannah. We're here. Don't get your panties in a twist.” She reached up and flicked his ear. He shook his head and took the exit for the amusement park. Oddly enough, the rest of the ride was silent. That was, until Chad pulled into a parking spot and barely got the car in park before the girls were out of the car.

  “Come on, guys!” Erica called as she and Hannah locked arms and started for the entrance. Chad and I weren't even out of the car yet.

  “Long day?” Chad asked me and I chuckled as I answered.

  “Long day.” I got out of the car as Chad did and he locked up before we started walking to catch up with them. “They're just excited. It's kind of cute.” Chad snorted so I looked over at him.

  “Kind of cute? I think you mean, since it's Hannah being annoying and excited about coming to an amusement park she's been to a million and one times, it's cute. Otherwise, it would just be annoying, right?” He smirked at me and I shook my head.

  “It's not like that.” But it was. Yes, I got annoyed with Hannah sometimes. When you’d been friends for as long as we had, it was easy to get mad at each other sometimes. But I truly thought of times like this as cute. It was Hannah being Hannah and I loved her no matter how she came.

  “Bullshit. You can't lie to me, man.” He was right, of course. Chad knew about my feelings for Hannah. He always said he was shocked she didn't know because I was so obvious. I begged to differ.

  “Well, we're gaining on them so shut up, why don't you?” He laughed and I pushed his shoulder.

  “I don't know why you don't just tell her.” I rolled my eyes and didn't even bother to answer. We'd had this conversation more times than I could count. I didn't want to have it again. Luckily, the girls came to hurry us along, so I didn't have to.

  Erica grabbed Chad's hand, while holding Hannah's in her other, and Hannah grabbed mine with her free hand. So here we were, the four of us, walking hand in hand into the park. Weren't we just greeting card material? I shook my head, laughing to myself.

  Hannah whipped out the tickets for all four of us when we got to the booth, not wanting to wait longer than we had to. Once we gained entrance, they were off again, leaving Chad and me to trail behind. Chad let out a long breath, indicating he was annoyed, when really he enjoyed this as much as I did, just for a different reason.

  I watched Hannah ahead of me, laughing with Erica as they walked arm in arm. Everything about her was so bubbly today. A nice change. There were many shades of Hannah. I hadn't seen a shade I disliked. Not much anyways. We all had our tendencies to turn people off. But still, I liked everything about Hannah. Even the things I disliked.

  She wore her hair up today, though I preferred it down. It was such a deep red, you'd think it was dyed, but it was all natural. It was beautiful. She, of course, hated it. She said it made her look like a freak, when I thought the opposite. It made her unique. Her hair made her big green eyes pop. She had fair skin, but what person with natural red hair didn't? She was perfect.

  Today she was wearing a green tank top over her white bikini, which brought out her eyes even more, and jean shorts. She had a great little figure, petite, though she hated that word. She said it made her sound too small. Erica was wearing the exact same thing, but in blue. It was incredible how much time those two spent together, which meant it was incredible how much time I spent with both of them. I loved Erica, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss my alone time with Hannah. It was probably for the best we didn't get a lot of it nowadays anyway. No need for more time pining over someone who wasn’t mine and would never be mine.

  The sound of Hannah yelling for us pulled me from my thoughts, thankfully. Chad groaned as if he was being summoned for torture. I just clapped his shoulder with my hand and guided him to where the girls were waiting in line for a roller coaster.

  “You two are such slow pokes,” Erica whined, Hannah jumping in right after her with a smirk.

  “Yeah, the slowest!” I rolled my eyes and leaned against the railing, folding my arms over my chest. Hannah joined me and gently nudged my arm with her elbow as she mimicked my position. “Hey, you okay?”

  “What? Yeah, I'm good.” I smiled down at her in reassurance. She answered with a smile of her own. “I'm just a little tired, seeing as someone wouldn't let me sleep in today.” She smiled innocently. Yeah, right. Like I’d really believe she was.

  “Well, why would you want to waste a second of the day you get to spend with me, huh?” I laughed and wrapped my arm around her shoulder, pulling her to my side.

  “Too true. I'd hate to be deprived of missing even a single second.” She elbowed my side for making fun of her, which of course made me laugh.

  “Jerk. Now we're sitting up front on this roller coaster.” She knew I wasn't a huge fan of heights, even though I loved roller coasters. I just chose to sit closer to the back where I could still enjoy the rush without being the first to see our potential doom.

  “Nope. It's the back for this guy, or no ride at all. Feel free to drag Erica up there, though.” Erica and Chad hated the front too. I almost always caved when Hannah begged me to sit up front with her. Just like I was sure I would this time too, just to make her happy.

  “Aw, come on, Marcus.” I shook my head and she jutted out her bottom lip. It was still early, so the lines weren't too long yet. We'd be at the front of the line in a matter of minutes.

  “Nope.” Folding her arms over her chest, she continued to pout. I just watched her, trying my best not to break my serious expression. Once I broke, she knew she had me.

  “Please.” She looked forward at the front of the line when the people in front of us we
re let on. “For me?” Looking at me with those big green eyes and that expression always did me in and she knew it. I sighed, acting like it was the worst thing in the world.

  “Fine,” I sighed out. She squealed and jumped up and down a couple of times. See? Why would I say no when saying yes made her this happy?

  “I'll even hold your hand so you won't be so scared.” She grinned and winked as she took my hand and dragged me to the front cart, which was surprisingly still open. As we passed by Chad and Erica, he was smirking and mouthed ‘sucker’ to me. I casually flipped him the bird in passing and let Hannah pull me into the cart.

  We both buckled the seatbelts and pulled the bars down over our shoulders until they were as close as they could get. As promised, she kept ahold of my hand. She assumed I was humoring her for wanting to help me, but I actually just wanted to hold her hand. It was easy to imagine we could be more when her hand was in mine. Even if it was just a fantasy.

  The voice came over the loudspeaker, giving us the rules and safety speech. I squeezed Hannah's hand for good measure and she returned my squeeze. I looked over at her and she gave me a reassuring smile just as the coaster slowly took off. It took about ten seconds for it to pick up speed to go up the first small hill. I spent the rest of the ride with my eyes closed, listening to Hannah scream next to me while squeezing my hand like she was the one scared.

  I was relieved when the ride was over and I could breathe properly. That was before Hannah tugged on my hand with an evil look in her eye.

  “Let's go again!” she practically screamed.

  This was how my day continued.

  i woke up slowly, groaning when I went to roll over and hit something hard. I squinted my eyes to see what or who it was. The footboard of Marcus' bed? I groaned again and sat up, rubbing my eyes as I looked to see Erica lying the way you should be lying in the bed with her feet pressed against my side. I'd either fallen asleep lying at the foot of the bed or moved there in my sleep. It was honestly hard to tell.

  We'd gotten in late from our trip yesterday, so we all crashed with Marcus. He was, after all, the only one of the four of us with an actual house. The rest of us lived in apartments. Not that it was a bad way to live or anything, but it was smaller and less comfortable for our get-togethers.

  I pushed Erica's feet away from my body and got up, going to use the restroom before making my way through the house to see if the guys were awake. I could hear them in the living room before I even got there. I glanced at the clock on the wall. It was just after noon. No wonder they were already awake. Sometimes I felt like they were robots because they ran on so little sleep. If I didn't get my sleep, I became a monster. Which is probably why they always made sure I got to sleep in.

  “Morning.” I yawned as I plopped down on the couch beside Marcus. He grinned, patting me on the head.

  “Morning, sunshine.” I grumbled in response and laid my head on the arm of the couch next to me. “Sleep well?”

  “Peachy. Erica had me pinned to the footboard all night.” It took me a minute to realize how that sounded and I opened my mouth to explain what I meant but Chad's laughing cut me off.

  “And we missed it? Damn.” Chad whined and I threw the pillow I'd been leaning against at him. It was called a throw pillow for a reason, right? Marcus just laughed right along with him.

  “I didn't realize I should have set up video cameras in my bedroom for when you two stay over.” I slapped Marcus' shoulder and put my head back down on the arm of the couch.

  “Pervs.”

  The conversation they were having before I came into the room resumed and I just laid there on the couch, barely listening. Today was Sunday. My lazy day. Who the hell was I kidding? I had plenty of lazy days. But tomorrow I had to be a grown-up again and work even harder to get everything I needed done before my next seminar class. There was a lot to do. I found out I'd be teaching at the elementary school here in Batavia in January, but that was only if I got through this semester first. Fifth grade math. My stomach was in knots just thinking about it.

  I must have dozed back off because the sound of movement jolted me awake again. I looked up to see Erica and Chad sitting on the floor by the coffee table and Marcus sitting on the other end of the couch with my feet in his lap. I must have been more out than I thought. I sat up and yawned again.

  “What time is it?” Marcus looked at his watch and held up his index finger. “I feel like I've slept forever.” I couldn't believe it was just one o'clock. I couldn't have been asleep for more than a half an hour, but I slept hard. I stood up and stretched. “I'm gonna make some food. Who wants what?”

  “I'm getting ready to head out. I have some things to finish up before class tomorrow.” Chad stood up and grabbed his glass, taking it to the kitchen. Good boy. It took a lot to train these guys to pick up after themselves.

  “Yeah, me too,” Erica said as she stood up as well. “Chad, can you take me home?”

  “Sure.” Chad grabbed his things and clapped Marcus on the shoulder before waving at me. “See you guys later. E, I'll be in the car.” Erica came over and hugged Marcus before telling us goodbye and following Chad out the door.

  “So…about that lunch?” I rolled my eyes and went to the kitchen, looking around the cabinets for something to make, preferably something I liked.

  “Marcus, you need groceries.” I laughed as I heard him groan from the living room. That man absolutely hated the grocery store. There were times I hated it for him too. Like when all the women in the store stared at him like he was the most edible thing in the place.

  “Will you go for me?” he all but whined. I took out a pan and added water before getting out a box of elbow macaroni, dumping about half the box in the pan.

  “No, but I'll go with you.” He groaned again. I got out the spaghetti sauce from the refrigerator and poured it in a bowl I'd gotten from the dishwasher. I placed a paper towel over the bowl and set it in the microwave. I didn't start it yet; I wanted to wait for the pasta to be done.

  “Quick spaghetti?” I jumped at the sound of Marcus' voice right behind me. I could almost imagine him wrapping his arms around my waist from behind as I cooked. But that wasn’t reality.

  “Geez. You scared me. Yes, I was craving some pasta.” He took a seat at the bar to wait, watching me move around the kitchen. I kept glancing at him and he'd grin, like he wasn't doing anything wrong. He wasn't, of course, but it was times like this where my hopes soared.

  “Hurry it up. I'm starving. We have places to go and groceries to buy.”

  after we ate and then spent an hour and a half at the grocery store, we were back at Marcus' and putting away groceries. I was putting them away, would be more accurate. Marcus would just throw things around if it weren't for me. He said that way he'd know where they were.

  I'd just gotten the last items put away, the items I got for myself, when he came out of his bedroom in his swimming trunks. I raised a brow and turned to face him.

  “So you're gonna go swimming while I’m working in here?”

  “Yeah, pretty much.” He smirked and walked out the back sliding glass door of his house. It was late September, but his pool was heated, so it wouldn't be too cold, thank goodness. I walked down the hall and into the spare bedroom where I tended to keep some of my things so I’d always be prepared. I pulled the bikini I’d worn to the amusement park out of the bag and quickly changed into it before grabbing a towel out of the bathroom and meeting Marcus out back.

  The air was a little cooler than I was expecting, but I could tell the pool was nice and warm from the steam coming off it. Marcus lounged half on a pool raft and half in the water. He looked up when he heard me come out the back door.

  “Hurry up, it’s getting a little chillier out there.” I grinned and took that as my cue to jump in. I dropped my towel and ran the rest of the way to the pool, squealing as I jumped right next to Marcus, sure to splash him with water. I came back up for air and barely got my breath when I fe
lt myself being pushed back under. He didn’t hold me down for long, but I was still gasping for air when I came back up.

  “You jerk!” I laughed as I splashed him again. He just laughed and went back to his raft, shaking water off his glasses.

  “Shouldn’t have splashed me, then.” I rolled my eyes at him before swimming to the other side of the pool to grab a float of my own.

  “Do you think it’s very smart to be swimming in September?” I kicked my legs so I would float closer to Marcus. He shrugged.

  “Nah. It’s heated and we probably won’t be out here long anyways. I figured we could get one more use out of it before I winterized it.”

  We spent about an hour in the pool, occasionally rough housing, but mostly just relaxing. I talked to him about my schooling and he talked about work. The usual for us. We were just so comfortable with each other; we could talk about anything. But neither of our lives were too exciting at the moment, so work and school were the topics of conversation.

  After we got out of the pool and dried off, I plopped down on the couch and started looking for a movie for us to watch while Marcus made us some food.

  “What are you making?” I called into the kitchen, keeping my eyes on the T.V.

  “You’ll see.” I made a face. I was starving, so it better be something I actually like to eat. Knowing Marcus, though, it was hard to tell.

  It wasn’t more than a few minutes later when he scared me by placing a plate on my lap. I looked down at my plate and had to laugh. It was what looked like two ham and cheese sandwiches, shaped like dinosaurs.

  “What in the world?” He laughed from behind me and dropped two water bottles on the couch. He hopped over the back of the couch beside me with his plate in his hands.

  “What? You like ham and cheese.” He said innocently and I laughed a little harder and held up one of my dinosaurs.

  “Dinosaurs!” I said, making him laugh. He snatched my dinosaur out of my hand and bit its head off before handing it back with a mischievous look in his eyes. I gasped. “I can’t believe you just did that! What are we, twelve?” I laughed and went to grab one of his off his plate, he had double the amount of mine, but he deflected me.