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GENNA:
His arm touched mine like a feather falling on it, and he pulled me across to a small room we all used to call 'gift room', because all the teachers pretended to be very happy and mysterious at the same time about this room. We often thought it held some guarded secrets there. Or some secret gifts. But of course it was just some kindergarten joke. We were growing out of it. Or we already had.
As I tried speaking, he kept his finger in front of my lips and smiled. His eyes glinting, he brought something from behind his back and handed it to me. I looked at him in surprise, trying to figure out what probably it could be. I felt a small box on my palm and . But I could still make out his eyes twinkling against the pitch black backdrop.
Happy birthday, Genna," Jake said. He stared at me hopefully as I slowly tore off the wrapping paper and lifted the lid. He stared at me like a dog would stare at his master. I bowed my head and focused my attention on Jake's gift. Gleaming in the box was a silver locket. Engraved on it was my name in a beautiful, curvy script. GENNA
"Oh, Jake," I whispered, still staring at the necklace in awe. Jake's face broke into a satisfied grin.
"That's not all," he told me. Taking the locket out the box, he opened it and gently pressed it in my outstretched hand. Inside it was a picture of Jake and me from the prom night. Jake looked completely content with his arm wrapped around my waist. My smile was too bright to be genuine. My heart constricted at the memory of watching Eric and Ellen dance. A surge of guilt followed the painful memory. Jake deserved better than me. He deserved someone who loved him. Truly.
"Amy?" There was a hint of concern in Jake's voice. I forced my lips into what I hoped was a cheerful smile.
"I love it," I assured him, which was no lie. Jake's grin returned, and he slipped it over my neck. After he was done, he tucked the lock shut and rotated me so that I was facing him. Like a mother, he scanned my neck from left to right until he was sure it looked wonderful on me.
Then, he cupped my cheeks, and kissed me. I wished I was able to return the tenderness that he kissed me with. I closed my eyes, trying to convince myself that Jake was my true love. However when I thought of my true love, I saw Eric, his smile sending waves of warmth throughout my body. I almost believed it was him until I opened my eyes. Jake's lips pulled away from mine, and a wave of relief washed over me.
"I have one more surprise for you," he said. "A birthday party next Saturday." His bright blue eyes sparkled with excitement.
"What? I can't let you-" I tried to protest, but in vain.
"And I can't let you have your seventeenth birthday without a party," he let out a cold mint filled breath on my face and laughed cockily.
"Fine," I replied. I knew anything I said or did would never make him move his mind out of the thing.
"I've decided on the list."
"That's great!" I exclaimed with false cheerfulness. I knew I should have been grateful for all the trouble Jake went through for me, but that just made me feel even guiltier. He fished a piece of paper and handed it to me. We moved out of the room into the brightly lit corridors of the school.
"The list of people who are invited," Jake explained. I nodded, and skimmed the list. Everyone was invited-except Ellen and Eric.
"Ellen and Eric’s names aren't on the list," I said. Jake nodded uncomfortably.
"Why aren't they invited?” I asked. His face hardened at the thought and he looked away for a moment before facing me again.
Jake's face darkened. He didn’t answer the question, but retorted, “Would you really want them there, Amy?"
"Yes, I would," I replied. "Please, Jake?" I pleaded. "For me?" I smiled at him sweetly, and gave him my best puppy dog face. He always gave in. Just a matter of seconds. Three, two, one...
"Alright, Amy," he said wearily with a sigh. "For you." I smiled gratefully and kissed him on the cheek.
"What am I going to do with you?' he said, but he kissed me back affectionately.
The next day I passed on the invitations. A pink coloured card, with purple and light blue ink stains' designs and a photo of me, the invitation was really cool. Most of the people were psyched to be invited. Jake was kind of the guy a normal girl could easily fall for-kind, handsome, and yeah, rich. But neither of these things attracted me to him. It was just the feeling of being alone that drifted me to him, and his kind touch making me comfortable. It was nice being with him, and sometimes his love, his sense of humor made me forget that Eric even existed. But at other times, the pain was unbearable...
Returning the favour of being invited I got many, 'happy belated birthday's', 'thank you', 'really, am I invited?'. I almost chuckled a laugh when Rosey, a senior, gave me a tight hug and refused to release me till I slapped her. She couldn't believe her luck. Like, come on. It did seem to me like some melodramatic movie- a nerd getting a chance to join populars. Her excitement was getting better of me and I couldn't stop myself from blushing.
"Cool, Rosey! It's all fine. It'd be nice having you, " I smiled and pushed her hands gently away from my shoulders.
"Sorry about that. I just got hyper-"
"Alrighty. Got to go, Jake must be waiting."
"Oh, yeah." Her tongue popped out of her mouth like she was abashed.
"See you at the party." I winced and jogged off to the roaring engine Jake called car. He honked the horn and as I was nearing he started pressing the horn more forcefully. From behind the window, he gawked, and winked. I saw his hands set firmly on the steering and could make out his muscles from under his shirt.
"God swear, why you're so restless?" I joked and saw him gel back some of his hair.
"You make me restless," he shouted.
I opened the passenger's seat and hopped inside the SUV. He turned the radio on and we were greeted by some new gibbering rapper . No offense, but rapping is one thing I am not too big a fan of. The senseless words swish by in a second and they don't even give me any time to absorb what I had been listening to for the past minute. So I took the liberty to change the music myself and jumped on to a local singer's cracky voice solo. It was still better than the rapping freak.
"You gave the invitations to Eric and Ellen?" Jake asked, switching off the music. I was totally paranoid about raising the subject of E&E with Jake even now. I didn't have any idea how he'd take any thing I'll say about them or him. My doubts aside, I knew somewhere that at the end of the day, the only thing he wanted to be was with me...a happy Jenna, and he wouldn't risk arguing with me. Believe me or not, my sole purpose to invite them to my party was to let the anger, the pain stored inside of me for months to be let off in the sky. To wander on its own. If I were to keep it any longer, I could have gone mad. I might not go ahead and be friends with them, but neither was I going to act like an enemy. They could simply be nobodies for me and Jake.
"Actually, I couldn't. They were nowhere to be found. Maybe tomorrow." I pursed my lips tight, and looked at Jake. His face was blank-devoid of any pain or excitement.
"Fine." He looked at me and passed a gentle smile. "Are you sure you wanna call 'em?"
"Yes. We need to forget them so we need to call them." He rolled his eyes, obviously confused with what I had used now. All these philosophical talks are sometimes out of his reach. But I can't blame him. With parents as rich and busy as his. a person is bound to be surrounded by different forms of materialism, difference is opinion with people whose life is comparatively tougher than his. Didn't I just sound like some guru?
But he nodded, putting his undivided attention on driving and taking us safe to Setan's. Setan's was a boutique located in the suburbs of the town and Jake had insisted on taking me there so we could buy my birthday dress. I had strongly protested to his stupid idea- but he repeated his favourite dialog, " You need to mellow out and enjoy life."
I had already let him so far with throwing me a party. I couldn't accept any more favours. I wasn't dating him because he was rich, but because he was nice. But with the power of his one smile, he begged and managed me to say 'yes' to another of his gifts. He was such an enchanter. Grrr...
~~~~~
Hand in hand, we walked down the stairs leading to the corridor of the shop. The shop looked desolate in a funny way. The brightly illuminated lights reminded me of some late night horror show, and the eerie silence filled by no voice definitely looked like a reason enough to shudder. It was odd that not many people were around for a high kicking shop like this, and plus a couple of minutes drive from the town. It wasn't even evening or night.
"Are we in some zombie building, Jake?" He chortled, and silently denied by a simple no.
Bobs of silver and golden colour hung down from the giant pine tree, swiveling around it in a race to get first to the majestic angel sitting on the top. It felt like the sheen of the bobs was sending sparks of warmth within me and I felt a sudden urge to take off my denim jacket. But I held on.
The Setan's was hardly a place I'd go for shopping with only forty one dollars resting in my pocket. I felt a sudden streak of embarrassment as we-Jake and me-crossed the several mannequins posing at every inch of the boutique, dressed up in luxuries I could only imagine. I crossed my eyes towards Jake, who was rotating his head to take in the materials around him. This store was hardly unusual for him. Something his mom might have been taking him to ever since he first cooed.
"Jake, I don't think-"
"Sshh. It's the perfect place." He grinned, burrowing his hands deep in his hood's pockets and whistling slowly as we made our way towards the main entrance.
In normal situations, I would have argued a bit more, resisted through my gentle words, but here I didn't feel a need to. If I had stopped Jake from buying me a gift right now, he'd have been hurt a big time. Last year on my birthday, Eric had bought me a skateboard which I still used to go to school sometimes and I had by mistake revealed this to Jake. But Jake would have never understood the difference between a skateboard and literally buying a whole store. No, a boutique. So I silently trudged forward, gaping in awe at the rich textures, shades and material that hung on the malnutritioned dummies. I eyed one mannequin and suddenly stepped back as I realized that she was staring back with a broken eye. I chuckled to myself lowly. Jake looked at me, smirked, and took his hands in mine.
With a heavy heart, I set off my glance from a pretty purple scarf a mannequin stood wearing. The cashmere cloth draped around her neck as if it was made for her, but of course that was an illusion to lure people into buying it. Just before I had turned away my glance, Jake saw me looking at the scarf. He tilted his head and smiled.
"Kind of pretty, Gen, isn't it?" He said, running the cloth on his hand and touching the threads with the tip of his thumb. He looked at me with squinting eyes. I shook my head, I knew what he was up to.
With his disappointed face, he took on the lead and we started walking ahead again.
A shadow crept into our sight and I saw a lady walking towards us. She was not very tall, might have been of my height and she wore tight pants and a green satin shirt. I took in a deep breath-for not having reached an isolated place. Her face become clearer with every move she made, her face looking more like a map with some features than just a desert's map.
"How can I help you?" She sang.
The bright bulb hanging vertically from the ceiling shone right on her face and I could see her features more clearly. Her features were what we could call chiseled, her lips a perfect shape as if God had sat a whole night carving it out. The blonde hair she had were curling down like onshore waves behind her back.
"Hmm, I want a party dress." I replied, lost looking at the beautiful lady's face.
Without any further ado, the lady walked back after signalling us to follow her. We walked behind her into a smaller hall, which had at least two girls/ladies. From the looks of them, I guessed they were customers, not sales people. A girl of my age was shuffling through the new merchandise at the far corner, another girl probably older to me, watched her palms as a string of gold slipped through her hands. Her face broke into a smile.
My hands, now in more tight hold of Jake's, started perspiring and beads of sweat made their way down the floor. I looked at him and unlocked our grip. After he had noticed that my hands no longer licked his, he turned to me and smiled with a smirk. I blinked. He definitely understood that my hands were wet with sweat because his had been too.
Whom I had described beautiful minutes ago, now started freaking me out. I couldn't any longer see her lipstick as a vivid but soothing blueberry purple, but a venom that had stuck itself on her lips. She pushed forward the fragile cold coffee glass towards me as I leaned carelessly against her mahogany desk. With the new paper bag marking itself in my hands, I nervously picked up the glass. Did she really mean it? I looked all around me-the room looked like some chamber where dark and murky secrets used to be buried, only it wasn't. It was just a small room the lady had made at the backside of the shop, where she claimed to have predicted futures of many. The red fumes gushed on us from all the sides, and the naked tiny bulb did little to enhance the visibility. She had just said that I'd be hit by something. Was she serious?
"Scared already?" she snorted and pressed tightly a navy blue butterfly pin on her head. She glinted up at me and a crooked smile passed through her lips. My insides started melting before long turning into a feverish feeling.
"You-" I stopped. The words just couldn't come out of my mouth. "You really can predict future?" I asked, unsure if it was my voice I heard. The shaky, unstable voice which left its course from my mouth met its sad end.
She shouted, not with a grumpy face, but her voice was an octave higher and definitely more creepy. "Yes!". She took in a couple of quick breaths, with her hands eased down the worry lines and crashed on a couch kept behind the desk. Jake smiled again from a distance. Could he stop smiling? Right. No. He couldn't. He had got this I'd-smile-whatever- it-takes disease which if you don't know by now can be deadly and seriously irritating to others around you.
"Look, Amy, people don't believe me. But I am always right." Her voice was lower. "Once I told a mother that her child would be surrounded in darkness and he did." My hands shaking, I lifted the glass up to my lips and slowly sucked the liquid in.
"How?"
"He was trapped in a lift," she laughed. Her bracelets hung loose on her wrist and the tiny beads embedding them collided with each other to make a tinkling sound. I was baffled. Was she the same pretty lady who had just scared the shit out of me, had just shouted once at me already and exposed some of the paranoid revelations about her? Did she just say that I was soon going to be hit by something? Only she didn't know what. A cold wind hit my chest and I shuddered.
I thought more in distance. What would hit me? A truck? A bus, a car or a tram? I didn't know what would strike me? It could very well be a limousine carrying a famous Hollywood heroine, who would hush her driver with bundles of green crisp notes and silently drive beside my body. Feeling silly for a second, I immediately shoveled out these thoughts.
Curling my fists into the size of my heart, I drank in all the anger and let out a heavy sigh. I noticed Melanie(the beautiful-but dangerously weird lady) wearing a dragon tattoo. The orange color of the tattoo melted into the yellow-ocher shade of the design, and a black smoke emerging from his mouth.
"Um, please say you're kidding, coz' you are."
"No, I ain't", she said, now looking more concerned than angry.
"Whatever," I mimicked. I turned around in a fashion unique to cheerleaders, not me. As I did so, Jake hopped down from the wooden table he had been serving for all along and walked towards me.
"Why did you have to hide there and not be here with me?" I hissed, unable to hide resentment in my voice. He looked at me, as if his mere green eyes would peel out all the strange thoughts which had been running in my head for so long. I moaned. I wanted him to come and ask Melanie to shut up, but he didn't. He rather liked to browse on his Facebook account than anything else. He thought all this was not worth his attention and whatever Melanie had been blabbering about was pointless.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. "You know she was just..." he tried finding a good word. "...abnormal." I was still not feeling any better.
He blocked my way and locked me into a hug. I protested. He didn't budge. At last, giving up the anger, and forgetting the moment after we had payed for the dress ever existed, I too extended my hands into a hug. I heard a snicker follow from where Melanie had stood, but I didn't care. I knew as long as Jake was with me...I was safe.
~~~~~
Next day at school. I separated my sweat-shirt away from my wet, soggy body and dumped it down in my sports bag. Undoing the knots in my sneakers, I thought about all that had been presented to me the previous evening. A pretty green dress, the information of a party that I was surely going to remember for a lifetime, and a revelation which could be true or maybe not. I thought what possibly could go wrong and what could hit me. I began wondering if a truck would run me down or would it be a limousine with a famous actress taking its ride? Again! What was with my fascination with limos and actresses? My imagination failed me and I got up to wipe away the sweat from my body. The gymnastics period was my favorite but however after the encounter with Melanie, nothing seemed to be fine. I knew I was over-reacting, but what could make me certain that what she said was crap. After all she claimed that most of the things she had predicted now, and almost everything I mean, had been true. She wasn't sure though what could possibly hit me, that was for me to ponder over.
"Hey," a rustic voice brought me out of my reverie. I looked down at the emerging shadow as it got bigger every passing second until it was finally besides me. The whole locker room was vacant and it was just me thinking about weird things until now. I turned to my left and the face of the horror struck me. Ellen stood there, with a tiny book squeezed between her waist and her arms. Have I ever told you that how much pretty she is and she could give Megan Fox a run for the money? Or have I ever told you that her beauty killed Eric and he left me for this bit**?
Anyways, a smile as an etiquette had to pass my lips and it did so. I stood there, half undressed, in my shorts and spaghetti. The last thing I had expected today was to find Ellen see me like this that too for our first encounter. I didn't feel like any hatred towards her. Sorry, I am bluffing. I did. If I had no law to obey to I would have probably picked up the first pointed object I came across to and smacked it right on her face. Or rather I'd have taken her elbow in my hand and twisted it so hard that her bone must have felt a prick of her own bone crashing into it. Weird. But it could have happened.
"Hey!" I mimicked her, trying to sound all that sweet. "What's up?" I said it, but nothing was in good humor. I stood there with my arms crossing around me chest just that she couldn't see how flat chested I was.
"Nothing. Hmm, you take long." She smiled, shaking her head mildly.
"For what?" I asked, surely perplexed.
"For changing up. All other girls have left." She rolled her eyes. Did I have to giggle now?
Girl, that's because I was thinking of what could possibly run me over. But that wouldn't have happened if I had not met Melanie whom I met because Jake took me there and whom I befriended because you stole Eric. So it's you who's to be blamed.
"Oh, yeah. I'm as slow as you are on the field." I giggled and kept a hand on her shoulder. Okay, I over-reacted.
Surprisingly she didn't shout at me, or pushed away my hand which seconds later I myself did. She simply smiled back, her eyes twinkling as she did so. I bit my lip and crossed my hands.
"So..." I stopped. If I am not wrong this was the first time we both had talked to each other face to face. When she had joined the school earlier this year, we had watched each other live into our own lives, not even once bothering to contact or smile at each other. And then she was the only thing I could hear or see for a long time after Eric decided it was time we parted our ways. I had thought this won't be that tough even though I wanted to snatch out all the hair on her scalp.
"I think..."
You think what?" I asked, flinching my eyebrows.
"We should bury the hamlet and become friends." She smiled, pulling back her jet black hair. I wanted to say 'no'. Why would I like to hang out with her and see her being ruffled by Eric? It wasn't such a sweet thought.
"Maybe." I replied modestly. Neither it was a no nor a yes. I had taken the middle path. Safe enough.
"That means?"
"That means we can work it out, but not sure..." I trailed off my voice, purposely. She started fidgeting with her small book, holding it tight in her grasp. She looked into my eyes pleadingly, but I couldn't make up my mind. If I became her friend, which I doubted I would, I would be forced to be with her most of the times and that would mean confrontations with Eric now and often. Even though I did want to bury the hatchet, I wasn't sure if becoming friends was right.
"Fine." She tried to smile hard, and that's when I noticed her eye colour. It was a very different hue, nothing like we get to see here, at least in America. Her eyes were over-powered with a ember like a colour like I once saw in honey. Every time she rolled her eyes, they would seem to grow into a fierce colour of red. I thought at first that I was trying to picture evil in her so that might have been the reason I hallucinated all this. But I knew the hallucinating thing wasn't true. "See you, then." She grimaced and turned around to leave the room.
That's when I remembered what I was supposed to do. "Ellen, hey, wait!" I bounced and held my bag in my arms. I opened the zip and extracted a neat pink and blue coloured envelope with Ellen and Eric written in bold letters.
Instantly she looked back and winked. "Yeah, Amy?" She asked.
"Here's the invite. Jake's throwing a party for my birthday this Saturday and I've invited you and Eric." The last word took time to came out of my mouth. I tried to plaster a fake smile on my face.
She hesitated a bit, pulled in her lower lip inside her cavity but finally nodded, taking the envelope from my hand.
"Thanks. And you do know that I didn't ask Eric to....break up with you."
"I think so. It wasn't your fault." I lied. Of course if we, or rather I saw it practically it wasn't her fault that she was beautiful and Eric slipped for her. But somehow making her an object of my hatred made all this thing feel better.
"Catch you later." She spoke calmly and walked out of the room, disappearing behind the shadows of the water coolers.
Her silhouette vanished in the slowly redeeming light and the whole room was empty once again. Well, but I was there.
I started imagining that would it be now that I would be killed by something or would the truck(or any other vehicle) let me celebrate my birthday?
~~~~
When I found Jake at lunch, tons of teenagers surrounded him, talking excitedly. I shoved my way through the crowd until I found Jake. He flashed me his million-dollar smile that made everyone want to hang out with him. Smiling back, I took a seat next to him. Jake gave the group of teens a look, and reluctantly, they retreated to give us privacy.
"What's up, Genna?" he asked/
"I have detention with Mrs. Harrowgate next," I replied, grimacing. Jake squeezed my hand with sympathy.
"Well, let's not think about that," Jake said. "Everyone is talking about the birthday party Saturday."
"Yes," I agreed. "That explains the one thousand teens here at this table." Jake laughed at my sarcastic remark.
When he finished laughing he said, "Aren't you going to eat anything, Amy?"
To keep Jake off my back, I plucked a few French fries from his tray and shoved them into my mouth. I resisted the urge to spit them out. They were greasy and tasted like cardboard. Jake watched me, pleased. I ate a few more fries to satisfy him farther. To my relief, the bell rang in a few minutes.
"See you after school," I said, kissing him. Taking a deep breath, I excited the cafeteria and made my way to Mrs. Harrowgate's room (AKA the torture chamber).
<3
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