Lizzie
Tik. Tok. Tik. Tok. I glue my eyes to the clock while doodling all over my bright purple notebook. No one wants to do geometry at 8 o’clock in the morning. The clock seems to stop in this class. One second in here is ten in the outside world. I look down at my notebook and realize that my equations turned into doodles, and as I turn my eyes to the board I see that Mrs. Dewitt has already moved on to the next chapter. Finally, the bell rings and I rush to put my notebook and pencil in my backpack and race out of the door. Going down the hall I see Samantha Johnson, my best friend since 6th grade. I run up and hug her from behind.
“Oh jeez, Beth maybe a little warning next time!”
Laughing I say, “What’s the fun in that?”
Me and Sam met in sixth period science class because of assigned seating, but we immediately hit it off. There was never a moment that felt awkward around her. I could tell anything and everything. There is no one else in the world I trust more than her. We start heading towards our English class. Sam hates English she would rather do 10 algebra worksheets than write a short response for a book. I on the other hand thrive in English. I love reading books and writing my opinions about them. We also differ in our looks too. While we both have dark hair, she has clear blue-green eyes with pale skin. I have dark chocolate brown eyes and skin just a shade or two darker.
“So, any plans tonight?” Sam asks hopeful
I start to laugh. I am one of the most anti-social people to ever exist. I have never been one for crowds. I am much more comfortable at my house, on my couch, with my cat Romeo.
I sigh, “Nope, other than the usually stuff.”
“Girl, you have got to get out more. Hang out with humans. Not ones on a Tv screen or in a book. You are senior! This is the time to live it up before adulthood comes for us”
Sam has always been the dramatic one, hence why she is the president of the drama club. Just as I am about to argue I see him. Spencer Jackson.
“What’s up Sammy?” He says as he tries to mess up her hair
“I thought we would pretend we didn’t know each other at school.” Sam replies while rolling her eyes
“Is it so bad being my big sister?” Spencer asks dramatically, putting his hands over his heart
When I first met him Sam and I were in sixth grade, and he was in fifth grade. He was shorter than me and weighed maybe one hundred pounds. He had pale blonde hair, big blue eyes, and black round glasses. Never in a million years would I have ever thought that I would have a ginormous crush on him. I didn’t notice the slight changes until now. He had grown a foot, he started swimming and weightlifting and traded the cute glasses for contacts. His hair had also gone from pale yellow to gold. He also is one of the biggest players in the school and every girl wants him. I stand there mentally drooling over him. I’m broken out of my daze with a fist to the head.
“Hey! What are you doing!” I say a little to loudly while struggling to break free from the head lock he put me in.
“Come on Beth, lighten up. You know I got to annoy my honorary sister.”
That’s when it hits me. I am another sister. He doesn’t see me as a pretty girl, just a sister he likes tease.
“Move stupid, Beth and I have class” Sam snaps as she pulls me down the hall into Mr. Kent’s classroom.
“Ugh! He is so annoying.” Sam says as she slumps in her desk.
I nod my head in agreement Trying not give away any of my feelings. I haven’t told Sam how I feel about Spencer. I don’t want it to be awkward between us, but I also feel horrible keeping this from her. She deserves to know, but the words get stuck in my throat when I try to tell her.
The days seems to drag on, but eventually the bell rings and I can escape this awful place. I walk to the parking lot to my car. It’s a simple little blue car, except there is a large body leaning against it.
“Oh hey Beth I was wondering when you would get here.” Spencer says as he hits me with his cute little smirk.
“What do you want?”
“Well I was just hoping that my favorite person ever could give me a ride?”
“Did Sam leave you again?” I ask giving him a smirk of my own
Sam has a habit of leaving Spencer when she gets mad at him.
“What did you do this time?” still smirking
“Nothing! Well I may have told her that I ate all of her Swedish fish” he answers sheepishly.
I roll my eyes, “That was a stupid move dude. Hop in, but don’t you dare touch the music, got it?”
He gives me a two finger salute, “Yes ma’am”
The drive from the school to his house is only 20 minutes, but it might as well be three hours. When I am around him I usually have Sam to hide behind, but it’s just me and him. I turn up the music, trying to make the silence less awkward.
“I can’t believe you actually like K-pop. You can’t even understand what they are saying.” He says trying to change the music
I slap his hand away, “The actual music itself is really good. I can still enjoy it without understanding the lyrics.”
He looks back to his phone and doesn’t speak after that. I try to focus on the road, but my thoughts keep going back to him. I want to tell him so bad, but if I got rejected I would never be able to face him again, and I don’t want to ruin our friendship.
I pull up to a small white house with a wooden porch that has cactus scattered around it.
“Thanks, Beth”
I try to play it off and shrug my shoulders, “No problem,”
Before he shuts the door, he turns and looks at me with an intensity and sincerity that I have never seen. It is so quick that I almost missed it. I whip my head back to my windshield and drive off. I have 10 minutes to calm down after dropping Spencer off. My mind is blowing it way out of proportion, but I can’t stop myself from imagining what it would be like to hold hands with him, or to stare into is sea green eyes without the fear of getting caught. I step out of mind for a second and realize that I’m in front of my white house with navy blue shutters and ferns hanging from the ceiling of the porch. I get out of the car, go up the big concrete steps, and open the big navy-blue door. As soon as a walk in I am bombarded with the chaos and noise of my family. My dad is in the kitchen making his signature fried chicken, and my mom is typing away on her computer probably finishing an IEP for one of her students.
Dad is the first to notice me. “Hey kiddo, how was school?”
My mom looks up from her computer and chimes in. “Hey honey!”
“School was good. Just the same old stuff just a different day.” I say trying to sneak a taste of crispy fried chicken.
“How is Samantha and Spencer doing?” Mom asks while staring at her computer
“They’re good too. Sam left Spencer at school again, so I had to give him a ride.”
They both laugh knowing all to well the dynamic between the three of us. We are not as much friends as we are siblings. We like to hang out together, tease each other, Spencer even sleeps over when Samantha does. That’s why my crush on Spencer is completely wrong. I don’t want to screw up the vibe between us.
After dinner I head down to the basement to my room and start to do my mountain of homework. I am struggling to do my proofs in geometry when I see a text pop up on my phone screen. My eyes widen and I break into a smile when I see who it’s from.
Spencer: Thanks for the ride Beth
Me: No problem dude
I wish we could talk forever, but I can’t think of anything to say. I exit out of the app but then see he texted me back.
Spencer: Could we meet up at the old park? Right now?
Me: Sure! See you in 10
Me, Samantha, and Spencer would go to this old, abandoned park that’s in between our houses and hang out after school.
I rack my brain of things he might want to talk about while speed walking to the park. I finally see him standing in the middle of a sandbox near a rusty teeter-totter.
“Hey!” I say walking up beside him
Spencer turns to look at me, “Oh, hey! Thanks for meeting me here.”
His shoulders are tense and he keeps biting his lip. This makes me hopeful that maybe that my dream is coming true, and he is nervous because he likes me back, but doesn’t know how to tell me.
“Beth there is something that I wanted to ask you.”
My heart is swelling, and all I want to do is jump up and down.
I try to contain my excitement, “Yes?’
“ I wanted to know what you thought about Mia.”
I’m crumbling like an old concrete building.
“Mia? Mia Smith? She’s nice.”
“Yeah, I thought I would ask her out. We’ve been flirting a lot at school, so I thought it would be nice”
All I want to do is sink into the sand and stay there until the end of time. This was not supposed to happen. He was supposed to ask me to be his girlfriend and we were supposed to share this adorable moment in a place we used to hang out when we were younger.
All I can spit out is, “That’s sounds good. You and Mia would be a cute couple.”
“I’m glad that you think so. Thanks for being there for me Beth and couldn’t do it without my other big sister” he says as he gives me a reassuring smile.
I thought being in the friend zone is bad, but being in the sister zone is even worse. All I can do is smile at him.
“Yeah, well I guess I’ll go now. I got a crazy amount of homework to do. Bye.” I give him a small wave as I turn and head to the house.
