Fantasía

Life is a bitch. As I walked down the hallways of Stelton High School, I realized that. My first semester was finally over, and I still had another one to do. As if the first wasn’t enough for me. My friends all thought it was sad that our freshman year of school was almost over, but I couldn’t be happier. After all the drama I had with boys, friends, and teachers last semester I wasn’t sure I could do it all over again. It didn’t matter though, because here I was weaving through the teenagers vaping in corners of hallways, kissing, screaming, chattering, not even taking a second of their pathetic lives to make eye contact with me. Just one more semester, one more.

Our stairwell was at the very end of the school so getting there was crazy, but somehow I managed to. I pushed pass the end of the crowd finally reaching my destination, but what I found near the stairwell I tried so hard to get to had me wanting to run the other way. Sebastian Dawson. He leaned against the brick so cooly with his arms crossed, staring directly at me.

Frozen like a dear in headlights, I stood across from him with my heart pounding a hundred beats per second. For a good ten seconds we stared at each other while people swirled around us. He grinned wickedly and cocked an eyebrow before leaving our staring contest. Embarrassed, I dashed into the bathroom taking a breather. All I wanted to do was cry, but of course in this fucking school I couldn’t be alone for two seconds, as there was six girls gossiping and reapplying excessive amounts of make up on. Sighing, I left and decided to get to class before I was too late.

My feet rushed up the stairs as quick as possible while I tried to get to class before the tardy bell rang. It wasn’t even two flight of stairs before I was already out of breath, yet I still managed to get to the third floor wheezing. A groan of frustration escaped my lips when I saw on my schedule that my classroom was all the way at the end of the hallway. Angered, I began trotting to it. I obviously needed to work out some more as my lungs burned tremendously. All I could think was: Why was this school so damn big? I finally got to my classroom and as soon as I reached for the doorknob, the tardy bell rang. With my fingers crossed I prayed that the teacher would let this minor incident slip, if it wasn’t for stupid Sebastian Dawson, I wouldn’t be in this position.

As I walked in, my teacher stopped her talking and looked at my up and down with her glasses laying low on her nose.

I cleared my throat. “I’m so sorry,” I looked down at my schedule searching for her name, “Mrs. Clarkston.”

She sighed annoyingly, “Lucky for you I was just calling attendance, and I hadn’t gotten to your name, I don’t think.”

I knew Mrs. Clarkston hadn’t. My last name started with a ‘Z’ so I was always at the end of attendance. Still a loud booming voice had to announce to the class what my name was.

“Scarlett Zimmer is her name Mrs. Clarkston!”

My body went cold, and my heart stopped. I snapped my head into the direction of the voice and my heart was pounding like crazy for the second time today, but still it was the same person who gave me the reaction. Sebastian sat in the back of the classroom with a cocky expression.

“Well, since you two are so quaint, why don’t you take the empty seat next to Sebastian, Scarlett.” Mrs. Clarkston said, not even looking up from the attendance book. Maybe if she did she’d see the look of horror on my face and reconsider my new seating arrangement. Slowly, I walked to the desk, my nerves were a wreck getting worse as I got closer to HIM.

I sat next to Sebastian not even looking in his direction just keeping my face forward to the board. It didn’t take long for all the memories of last semester to flood into my brain.

High school was really good for me at the beginning of the year. I had plenty of friends in my classes, made good grades, even had a nice boyfriend. It didn’t take long for my perfect life to come crashing down, and it all started when I met Sebastian Dawson.

One night, after me and my boyfriend broke up, I decided to do all the things my goody goody boyfriend said I couldn’t. I heard of Sebastian Dawson’s party he was throwing for his sister’s birthday. Some older friends I had came and “scooped” me and we buzzed off to his party. I thought it was amazing, but it was just my first high school party so there was nothing to compare it to for me. People were making out, drinking, and smoking who knows what. Nobody gave a shit about what anyone thought, they were carefree and living for the moment it was exactly what I needed at the time. My friends and I smoked, drank, vaped, but we all decided we wouldn’t do any hard drugs. I grabbed a beer from some guy who I was talking to and went outside. There wasn’t really anybody outside except for a few badly wasted people. Suddenly I just felt the need to be alone. So I went to the back yard.

It was there I found a cute swing set to sit on. For the longest time I was just having a good trip on the swing while looking at the stars, feeling more content than I hade felt in years. For once I wasn’t living the perfect life everyone expected from me. I started crying there on the swing, letting all my pent up frustration out. I was swinging high in the sky letting the cool air hit my tear streaks while the sting of cold kept me awake. In the midst of my swinging I was stopped and slowly let down. I looked behind me to see the intruder of my bliss. He was gorgeous, at least to me. He had dark brown hair color, pale skin, and these ocean eyes with yellow near the pupil. He was perfect, but even in my buzzed daze I could see who it was. Sebastian Dawson, king of Stelton High School. I had never talked to him before that night and his presence had intimidated me.

“Shew doll, you have to behave yourself, going up that high will kill you, and I’m not looking to explain to my mom why a girl went through our roof.” His voice was silky and smooth and he talked with so much humor.

I scrapped my feet against the grass to give myself some traction to slow down. Once I was stopped Sebastian came to the front of me. A look of concern made his smile disappear.

“Why are you crying love? Pretty girls like you don’t need to be acting this way.” He was genuine with his words, which surpised me. Everyone said that Sebastian was just a cocky, always fucked up son of a bitch, but they all loved him.

I shrugged not caring what he thought of me in that moment. He rested a hand on my face and wiped off a tear that laid on my cheek.

“You’re gorgeous, Goddamn, I’ve seen you around school, but never had the chance to talk to you. Also I heard you had a boyfriend and anyways I had, have, a girlfriend.”

I just nodded. The attention he showed me was nice and the vibes he gave me were so different. He oozed confidence and I loved it.

“Are you going to talk to me, huh?”

I said nothing.

He sighed, “Welp, you’ve given me no choice.”

Before I knew it he was tickling me and I burst into a fit of laughter.

“Stop! Stop! Ok! Ok! I’ll talk to you!” I said between giggles. He stopped and gave me a minute to catch my breath.

“Alright now what are you doing here at my party, swinging by yourself crying?”

I used my sleeve to clean up my messed up mascara. “My boyfriend broke up with me.”

Sebastian shook his head, “He lost something special baby. You’re not like the other girls I’ve been around. You’re always so happy and kind with a trail of friends behind you. Don’t let his dumbass ruin that. You could get any guy in our school, so don’t worry bout this.”

For a minute I let his words seep into my brain. He was so perfect and already I was feeling better. I wasn’t sure why I let the words slip out of my mouth, I could blame it on the alcohol, or drugs, but I was in complete control when I blurted out the only thing on my mind.

“I want you.”

Those words sent us both into overdrive. I don’t think either of us understood what we were doing, or maybe we did and we just didn’t care. Right on the lawn of Sebastian’s backyard under the stars, I lost my virginity. He was sweet and caring, and never hurt me once. We departed soon after, incase of someone catching us. Then my group of people and I went home. That night the moment between us was all that was on my mind, but it was short-lived. We both went back to our lives, but something in me changed. I felt more confident, like I could accomplish any challenge in my life. I became a bad bitch closer to the end of the semester. I was still nice, but I stopped letting people run all over me, dropped all my fake friends, and started letting myself be happy truly happy.

Sebastian never talked to me after that, probably because he was a junior and we had no classes together. All I knew was this: Sebastian Dawson changed me that night. I wasn’t the same Scarlett I used to be.

I looked to my right and faced Sebastian. He was still as handsome as I remember. Almost in sync with me Sebastian turned his head in my direction. Nothing this semester was going to be normal. Sebastian chuckled and averted his attention back to the board, but I kept staring. Maybe, I didn’t mind so much to change.

“Take a picture it’ll last longer.” I heard Sebastian whisper under his breath, while he still looked at the board.

I rolled my eyes and turned to the board, but in my peripheral vision I could see Sebastian smiling, not grinning, but an actual smile, and I couldn't help think I might be the reason behind it.