No Turning Back - Chapter 8: Chapter 8

"Danny," I heard Melanie's voice say as her footsteps made their way into my room. I was lying on my bed with my face buried inside my pillow. I wish that I could have been sleeping but I had way too many other things running through my mind. These past couple of days had been rough for me. After Melanie had driven me home the day I had my face pounded in, she once again tried to clean me up. She even used makeup to try hiding my eye's swelling and the cut on my lip. I was grateful for her help but I knew that my parents were going to be able to see right through the concealer. Especially my mom since she knew everything about makeup. Plus, they knew how my face normally looked. So, of course, they noticed my bruised up face and I got a lecture about how I had to stay out of trouble so that none of the college admissions counselors would change their mind about me being a perfect student. My dad also yelled at me about not knowing how to defend myself. He kept telling me that he had raised me to be a strong man, not a weakling. If only he knew what I had gone up against. I never told them exactly what happened or with whom I got into a fight with but I did give them hints that the guy could still kick my ass even with his hands tied behind his back. Eventually, they did stop talking and left me alone but they didn't drop the subject. My dad kept giving me indirect looks that showed his disapproval while my mom tried not to look at me. I could tell that they were disappointed but I honestly didn't know what else they wanted me to do. The only way to get Jayden off my back was to let him pound on me. That was going to happen no matter what.
"What's wrong," I heard Melanie ask. She walked over to my bed. I heard her sit down before I felt her hand on my back. "Are you alright?"
"Yea," I murmured into the pillow. "I'll be fine." I rolled over to look up at her. Her face was hovering over me, her brown eyes warm. I noticed that her hair was now a honey brownish-blonde, causing her eyes to glow. She looked pretty.
"So there is something wrong?" I sighed and pointed over to my desk. She looked over in the direction I was pointing and raised an eyebrow. Yet, without question, she got up and opened the middle drawer. Her eyes widened as she pulled out a stack of letters. "Dartmouth...University of Pennsylvania...Brown...Cornell, Princeton...Columbia...Yale...and Harvard. Danny, you got accepted into all of these Ivy League schools!"
"Keep going. There's more where those came from." She put the letters on the desk and continued to pull out the rest of them.
"Stanford...Duke...University of Chicago... Daniel, you have so many acceptance letters! Oh my gosh, I'm so proud of you," she yelled as she jumped onto my bed. Her slender arms grabbed me into a tight hug.
"Thanks," I murmured as I wrapped my arms around her as well. Melanie pulled her head away so that she could look me in the eyes. She tilted her head at me as a frown came over her face.
"What's wrong? Why aren't you happy about this?"
"It's just...my parents...they can't find out about those letters."
"Why not?"
"Because you know what they're going to try do it. They're going to try to force me into a college that I don't even want to go to."
"You don't want to go to an Ivy League school?"
"I do but I want it to be my decision of where I want to go. Knowing my parents, they'll try to influence my decision and I really don't want to deal with that. I just wanna have some time to really think about it, ya know. Maybe I'll visit them all over again and see where I think I'll belong best at. And if I don't pick an Ivy League for undergrad then maybe I'll go to one for my medical degree. I just...I want to do my own thing."
"I understand," Melanie said with a soft smile. She lay down beside me, her brown eyes looking at me with admiration. "I know that you'll make the right decision." I sighed.
"Yea. But, enough about me and my stupid, nerdy problems. What's been up with you? I know you came over here to tell me something."
"I came over here to check on you," Melanie said with an eye roll. "Your face is looking a lot better."
"Yea. It's healing, I can say that much."
"You haven't talked to Jayden...have you?"
"No. He hasn't been in school. I think he took a break so that he doesn't kill me. I said some pretty fucked up things to him which is why the fight even happened in the first place."
"Maybe you should apologize the next time you see him. Clear up the bad blood. Maybe then you guys could be friends."
"I doubt that but I'll try to apologize. Just hope that he accepts the apology. But, if you see me talking to him and I so happen to go missing: call the police." Melanie shoved my shoulder.
"Shut up," she said with a soft laugh. "So, how are you and that blonde girl – Mia's her name right?" I nodded.
"We're good. She's a really sweet girl."
"Does she make you happy?"
"Yea." Melanie nodded. She smiled softly at me.
"I'm happy for you. Make sure I get an invite to the wedding and I get to be the godmother for all of your children." I chuckled but shook my head at her.
"Will do. So, who was that guy you were talking to the other day?"
"What guy," Melanie asked quickly. I could see some pink starting to travel up her cheeks at my question and her eyes had widened. I smirked at her.
"Tall, dark, and handsome." Melanie blushed harder and looked away. "Do I need to have a talk with him?"
"No," Melanie replied quickly. "He's not my boyfriend or anything. We're just friends, that's all." I raised an eyebrow.
"You like him?"
"Daniel-"
"Mel, I'm your best friend. You can tell me if you like the guy. I won't tell anyone." She sighed.
"Okay well his name is Damien. We've had a couple classes together since sophomore year and he likes to annoy the living hell out of me. I've always liked him but then I was in love with you and now he's trying to ask me out all the time and-"
"Why aren't you saying yes?" Melanie looked up into my eyes, her brown orbs turning to a vulnerable state.
"Well, if we're being honest here...I'm kind of scared to go out with him. I've never had a real boyfriend before and I don't really know what to expect with him. He's...something else but he's sweet and funny and I'm happy when he's around. I just don't want to get my heart broken." I gave her a soft smile.
"You've got to give him a chance, Mel. You'll never know if you never go for it." She nodded.
"Okay. The next time he asks me out, I'll say yes."
"Good." Melanie smiled at me.
"I really missed you, ya know." I smiled wider, pulling her into a hug.
"I really missed you too."
X
I walked down the hallway towards my eighth period class. Today was finally the last day of Spirit Week and I was once again tired as all get up. I had been working most of the Spirit Week activities including the pep rally. Hell that one mostly fell on me. Tonight was the homecoming dance and I kind of wasn't looking forward to it. Sure, I knew that I was bound to be crowned homecoming kind and all but I just wasn't for it. I just wanted to crawl into my bed and sleep for a couple of days. All of my busyness hasn't exactly helped my college situation either. I haven't had one minute to sit down and really compare my options. I was trying to take my time but also do it in a way where my parents wouldn't get too suspicious. My dad was already going crazy about wondering where my letters were. He knows that we should have heard something by now. I usually play along with his confusion but I was beginning to get tired of the act. I wished college wasn't such a big rush. I wished he wasn't so obsessed with it. I wished I could make up my mind already.
"Hello Daniel," Mr. Myers greeted me as I walked into the classroom. I shot him a polite smile as I returned the greeting. I looked towards my lab table to see that my partner was back. The sight of him sitting there, doodling in his notebook, caused a tight knot in my stomach to form. He was dressed in a pair of dark jeans, sneakers, and a blue shirt that had our school name on it. Since it was Spirit Day, we got to dress down. I was dressed in my football jersey with jeans. Almost all of the other students were sporting their jerseys or their school gear. It was the one day of school that we all actually seemed to be united.
Jayden didn't seem to pay me any mind as I walked to my seat and sat down beside him. I looked down at his paper to see that he was drawing a very detailed picture of two lovers embraced into a passionate kiss. I was surprised at how real the picture looked despite it being all in pencil. You could see the infatuation behind the girls' closed eyes and the protectiveness that surfaced in the boys' tight grasp around her waist. Their clothes were actually done in small detail as well. While the girl was dressed in a classy gown, the boy was dressed in raggedy clothes. Her long ringlets of hair fell down to her waist while the boy's curls fell messily around his head. I noticed that he had drawn them on a dark street, under a lit street lamp that shone down over them. It was a beautiful picture.
I looked away from his paper as Mr. Myers began his lesson. The class was unusually quiet today as Mr. Myers lectured and gave us notes. For the last fifteen minutes of class, he granted us more time to brainstorm on our projects. Most of the students thanked him for it as they began to take out papers and such. I looked to Jayden whose emerald eyes were trained down to the desk. I noticed that they were weary and filled with a hidden anger. I wondered if the anger was directed towards me but I quickly dismissed that thought. If Jayden were angry at me then he would have made it known by now. He wouldn't be sitting there, glaring down at the table. Something had happened in his own personal life. I wanted to ask him what but I knew that was none of my business. We weren't friends. We were barely acquaintances. He wouldn't tell me a thing about anything that was happening in his mind.
"Can I talk to you," I asked cautiously. Jayden blinked a couple times as his eyes refocused back into reality. The emerald orbs looked back over at me but they were blank and void of any emotion. He didn't seem angry or upset. He was just...staring. "I just wanted to apologize for the things I said last week. It was wrong of me to push your buttons like that but I just thought that you would get over whatever anger you had towards me if you just punched on me for a minute or two. Now, that you have, I thought that maybe we could get over ourselves and just tolerate each other for the sake of this class and our project for the rest of the year. We don't have to be friends but it would be nice if we weren't arguing all the time."
"Or," Jayden said, his deep voice sending a trickle of a spark down my spine. "We can still dislike each other. I think I like it better that way." I rolled my eyes at him.
"Whatever. Do you accept my apology?"
"Sure," he said with a shrug. He looked away. "I'm not sorry for rearranging that pretty face of yours though."
"I didn't think you were," I told him. The sides of his mouth tugged upward as he looked back at me. His eyes were amused now, a small light shining in them. "So, when do you want to start working on the project?"
"I'm free tomorrow if you want to start early. There's a big library downtown that I can get to." I nodded.
"Yea, I know which one you're talking about. Cool. We can meet say...2 o' clock?"
"Sure," he said. It was silent for a moment as he looked away again and began to flip back to the page where he drawn the lovers. I watched as he began to scribble in the darkness that surrounded the light's reflection on the sidewalk.
"That's a really nice picture," I told him.
"Thanks," he said simply.
"Is there a story behind the picture?" His eyebrows creased in confusion but he didn't ask what I meant. "I mean, is there a background to it? Unspoken events that led them to where they are."
"Oh I don't know. I kind of just...drew it."
"Well, I get the idea that they're forbidden lovers. Because see how differently they're dressed." I reached over to point to the girl. Jayden watched my hand as I did so, his emerald eyes scanning my arm casually. I guess he was making sure I wasn't going to try to punch him again. Nope. I learned my lesson. "You can obviously tell that she's part of an upper class of some sort by how elegant her gown looks and the perfect styling of her hair. Then there's the boy who is inferred to be in a lower stance than she due to his raggedy clothes and messy hair. Plus, it's set at night in what looks to be a deserted street under a single street lamp. It's like a meeting place that they go to at night since they can't be seen together in public. Maybe they met because the boy works for her father or she sneaks out to go to other parts of town for some fun. They fell in love because they saw past the money aspect of their identities and just saw their souls instead." I glanced up to see Jayden staring at me, a strange look on his face. If anything, he looked shocked but I wasn't sure if that was the right word to describe the expression. I unconsciously blushed and looked down. "I've been the victim of tons of romance movies," I admitted sheepishly. I heard Jayden chuckle causing me to look back up in confusion. There was a ghost of a smile playing on his lips.
"You're weird," he stated before shaking his head. "It's just a picture, white boy. Don't look too much into it."
"But what fun is that then?" Jayden shrugged.
"I'm not a big analytical person. I see the picture and it's either I like it or I don't."
"What about books? Do you judge those by the cover too?" Jayden narrowed his eyes at me.
"And if I do?" I put up my hands in surrender.
"Hey, I'm just asking." Jayden looked away, the ghost smile faltering from his face. "You should read this book called Perfect Chemistry. It's a total chick book but I thought it was pretty good. And Tiger's Curse. That's a four-book series but it was better than I expected. There's action, adventure, lots of mythology and geography but it's interesting. I enjoyed it. Oh and have you ever read any of Cassandra Clare's novels? Those are really good. I like the Mortal Instruments series the best though."
"So you're an overachiever and a book worm. I should have figured," Jayden mumbled. I rolled my eyes at him.
"Just give at least one of them a try."
"Why should I?" Jayden challenged as he looked back over at me. I shrugged.
"If we're going to be somewhat cordial then it might help if we had at least one common interest, don't you think?" The ghost smile came back before the bell rang. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow, white boy," Jayden said before he got up and blended into the crowd of students filing out the room. Suddenly, I felt my stomach bubble in a bit of excitement. Tomorrow I would get to see Jayden – out of our stupid biased school atmosphere. That should be nothing special. So why was I suddenly beginning to look forward to it?