Roxie and I got in school ten minutes late. I was expecting a detention but when we both stumbled into Mr. David’s class, he merely raised his eyebrows at us then went back to teaching. Nobody yelled at us or made fun of us. Walking toward my seat I could feel the tension of every student in the class. It felt like each one of them were a mere bundle of nerves instead of hyperactive high school kids.

“Okay, students put away everything on your desk except a pencil,” said Mr. David with a load of papers in the crook of his arm. “It’s the time for my most fun activity…to watch the majority of my class fail because they don’t study or listen to their wonderful teacher.”

Oh Shit! A test.

“Did you just swear?” asked the boy next to me.

My eyes widened, I said that out loud. “Of course not.” I denied. I didn’t study last night. I didn’t even look at my math textbook. I’m going to fail this. I’m going to fail then no college will accept me. I’ll end up working at McDonald for minimum wage and living with a dozen cats in a shack in middle of the Ghetto.

“I trust you’ll make me proud once more,” he said to me once he put a test on my desk.

I forced a smile at him but I knew I was going to fail this one. I didn’t know what to do. I was freaking out.

“Calm down, you’ll do fine” Roxie tried to comfort me but it didn’t work. My mind was on overdrive and I couldn’t stop it.

“You can start now,” voiced Mr. David and the entire class went silent. I could feel sweat forming on my forehead. My hands were shaking tremendously but I needed to do this. I can do this I repeatedly told myself.

I was the first out of class. I had a bad feeling about this. The test was not supposed to be so easy. I patiently waited outside the classroom for Roxie to finish. She was the last one out of there. She walked to me with a desolation all over her face.

“That was the hardest test I’ve ever taken.” She admitted.

“Sure was,” I lied.

“I think I failed.” She told me. “How did you do?”

“Ok, I guess,” I answered lamely. I adverted her piercing blue eyes.

“Hi, Tom,” whispered someone in my ear. His hot breath tickled me but he quickly moved away. I whirled my head to see Ken walking in the opposite direction. He shifted slightly to wink at me. I made a disgusted face at him. It didn’t seem to bother him. He simply laughed it off.

“What just happened?” Roxie gave me a curious stare.

“Nothing!” I answered quickly, way too quickly because now she had a smirk splashed on her face. “Bye,” I said running away from her questions.

“Run away all you want. I know where you live,” she shouted at me earning herself some odd stare.

The rest of the day passed in a blur. No matter how many funny jokes Ms. George cracked about the periodic table, I couldn’t get myself to be interested. My mind kept replaying my conversation with my father this morning. I truly didn’t know what to do. Staying in Washington was never in my plan. I wanted to go to a different state to continue my life. I wanted to leave all this baggage that kept pulling me back but I couldn’t leave my dad alone. If he was healthy he would have been able to manage without me but with the Leukemia we don’t know what can come out. Life’s a bitch. I can’t believe this was happening to me.

“Is Ken McCall going to sit with us now?” Roxie asked me as soon as we entered the cafeteria.

 I rolled my eyes at her. Trust my best friend to deduct all that from a simple greeting.

“He’s looking at you,” she pressed as we got in line.

Of course he was looking in my direction, I was next to food. What guy doesn’t have a weak spot for food?

“I think you should go talk to him,” she wasn’t going to let it go.

“I think you should shut up,” I mumbled under my breath.

“What did you say?” Her eyes were glued on Ken.

“I said I’m going to get a cheeseburger today,” I answered but she didn’t believe me. I saw her glare from the corner of my eyes but decided to ignore it.

I paid for my food then went to sit at our table. Roxie joined me and continue to ramble on about the perfection of Ken McCall. Instead of embracing the torture I decided to daydream about Bruce Willis. Yes, I’m obsessed with him. Yes, he’s too old for me. Don’t judge.

Something was bothering my sub conscience the entire day but I didn’t know what it was until Roxie drove by the police station. The memories of last night came back to me. I know I should hate that guy for stalking me and attempted to do God knows what with me in a dark alley but I felt guilty. Jail was not a fun place and I wanted an explanation.

“Can you drop me at the clinic?” I asked Roxie.

“Why? You don’t look sick.” She searched my face.

“I have a headache,” I blurted out.

“Then take an aspirin,” she advised. I really needed to learn how to lie better.  

“I did this morning but it’s not working. My head is really hurting,” I said holding my head with both hands while trying to bring a look of excruciating pain to my face.

“Alright, fine, but I’m coming with you,” She stated calmly.

“No!” I shouted. “I mean you don’t have to come. I’ll be okay by myself.” I explained when she turned to me as if I’ve grown a third eye.

“You’re hiding something.” She parked the car on the side of the road before turning her entire body toward me. “What is it?” She furrowed her brows at me.

“Nothing, I just think you should be going home to your little brothers instead of being stuck in a clinic with me. I know you hate hospitals.”

“That’s because people die in them,” she remarked.

“People are born in them too so it’s half win, half lose,” I responded.

“Okay, fine. It’s not like you can keep a secret from me for long anyway. Have fun with it for now.” She said. She did have a point, I will cave in to her sooner or later.

She dropped me off in front of the community clinic. I went inside the beige intimidating building because I knew she was not going to move until I do. I was not a big fan of hospitals either but I needed to get out of the car without Roxie suspecting where I was really going. As soon as her car was gone I started walking to the police station.

 It wasn’t hard to differentiate between all the other buildings. It was obviously the one with the big “Spokane Police Station” sign demanding attention right next to the two waving flags. I recognized the green flag of the state and the almighty flag of the USA. The authoritarian building stood fierce with its peach colored bricks and opaque double doors. As I stepped closer, I became more and more nervous. I’ve never been this close to a police station before. Actually I have but it was twelve years ago and I would rather not remember that night.

It took a while for me to see the right person and sign the right papers to drop the charges. Afterwards, I had to wait for about an hour until he was released. To make the time fly faster, I sat on a bench in front of the station watching people pass by. I was becoming so bored that I started to imagine each person as a movie character. I was in the middle of a heated argument with the bride from Kill Bill, played by the blonde dressed in a black pantsuit pushing a yellow stroller, when someone cleared their throat behind me. I slowly turned around to come face to face with a pair of hazel eyes.

“So I’m guessing your name isn’t Nikkie anymore,” he asked.

“It’s Nicole.” I retorted.

“Because if it was, you would have answered me and I wouldn’t have to keep repeating it for the past five minutes.” He continued, ignoring my statement.

“You’ve been calling me for five minutes,” I said disbelief clear in my voice. I was sitting across the door, I would have seen him get out.

“Yeah, you looked like you were either thinking about something really important or constipated.” He smirked, “I would put my money on the latter. You don’t look like someone who ever eat much less go to the bathroom.”

“You’re disgusting,” I wrinkled my nose at him. He shrugged and started to walk pass me.

“Where do you think you’re going?” I ran to catch up to him.

“Home. Where else?” He kept on walking as if I was not jogging next to him trying to keep up with his long feet. I thought I was tall with my 5’7” but apparently not. What was this guy? A giant.

“I want to talk to you,” I told him. I was not about to let this go. I wanted to know why he has been following me for the last few days.

“I don’t really do the all talking thing especially to spoil little brats who don’t know when someone is trying to help them,” he spat out.

“You were trying to help me,” I stood in front of him halting his course, “By doing what? By trying to rape me in a dark alley.” I shouted at him. People were staring but I couldn’t care less. I wanted an explanation and I wanted it now.

He snickered, “don’t get ahead of yourself, I have a girlfriend. Even if I didn’t, skinny porcelain is not my type.” He shoved me out of the way and kept walking. He paused a few steps later, “Oh, I almost forgot. Catch.” He threw an object at me. I caught it effortlessly. I was pretty good at catching stuff because my dad forced me to play on his baseball team at work. There’s nothing more fun than spending your Sunday morning with a bunch of old man. Sometimes, I convinced Roxie to come with me but she usually end up cheering instead of playing.

Nevertheless, right now I was grateful for those baseball practices because what stalker boy just threw at me was no other than my own phone. How did he get it? I remember vaguely dropping it last night before I began to run away from him. When I lifted my head back up, he was nowhere to be seen. Weird.