The City of Dreams -- Part 28

[Another short section. Nothing else to say.]

            Monday morning and my body felt like it wanted to be rested, but my mind wouldn't let it. One part frustration, two parts despair, and a side order of dread, and that's all it took to make rolling out from under my blankets feel like rolling out from under a concrete slab. I suddenly had a great deal of empathy for any vampires buried in mausoleums. If my floor hadn't been shockingly empty of any obstacles, I don't know if I would have had the energy to make it to my closet.

            "And God breathed life into the clay," said Dad as he walked past me in the hall. I muttered something that sounded like 'tofu kickstand' and plunged my way into the blessedly empty bathroom for a shower.

            I wasn't much more alert by calculus.

            "You look terrible," said Mike.

            "Shut up," I said, my forehead on my desk, "or I tell that you've been copying from me on tests."

            "I've never done that!"

            "Exactly. It would be petty and cruel, and I'll do it."

            "That's it," said Mike. "At lunch, I'm grabbing mustard packets from the lunch line and squishing them all over your peanut butter and jelly."

            "And then I'd be forced to convince Sook to dye her hair blue."

            "You wouldn't!"

            "I would. She was all set to do it last year. I be she still has the dye."

            "I know she was all set to do it. I had to spend two weeks talking her out of it."

            "That's right," I said. "And with just a nudge, she'd be right back there. So don't mess with me."

            Mike was quiet, and I felt what I thought were his eyes on me. I looked up, then dropped my forehead back onto the desk. I was right: his eyes were on me.

            "You wanted something?" I asked.

            "You seem a little different. More spunky."

            "I've tapped my inner rage. Yarr."

            "Right," said Mike. "Don't spend it all in one place."

            English was...long. I said 'hi' to Brie on the way in, and she smiled at me, but it was a smile like I was looking at her through binoculars, backwards. She seemed very far away. Hardly any words. No shoulder bump. No touching at all.

            I tried with MY smile to say something to her. I went for one of those sincere smiles that says with a glance what words can't get across. Apology, regret, understanding, interest, friendship, and the tiniest bit of willingness to change.

            Apparently my smiles needed work. She didn't look at me for the rest of English.

            "Something happen with Brie?" asked Mike as we walked to lunch. Alone.

            "Kind of," I said. "Though I think she might have something she needed to do during lunch."

            "You think that, huh?"

            "Yeah."

            "She had to do 'something?'"

            "Yup."

            "You're a terrible liar."

            "Yup."

            "Dude, what happened?"

            "I--I didn't catch all the signals."

            "Well, THERE'S a shocker."

            "I'm trying to fix it!"

            "Then why aren't you following her around on your knees?"

            "She walks too fast for that."

            Mike shook his head.

            "What was that?" I asked.

            "What was what?"

            "That head shake."

            "It was just a shake."

            "No, it meant something. It was like a 'here we go again' shake."

            Mike shrugged. "Maybe it was."

            "Why?"

            "You always have excuses to not go out with girls. Want me to list a few? I don't have any money. I don't have a driver's license. My dog ate my sister."

            "I've never said that last one. Besides, this time it's different."

            "I usually try to be upbeat with you, Perry, but I have to say that I'll believe it when I see it."

            "Exactly," I said.

            "Huh?"

            "I need to go work on something. Tell Sook I'll see her in biology."

            "Whatever," said Mike, putting a positive spin on his voice, even though doubt was all over his face like pie on a clown. "Have fun."

            I found a table in the lunch room near people that I'd never talked to in my life and sat down with my pencil and a notebook. I doubted I could take the papers with me when I fell asleep, but at the very least I'd have some ideas to work with.

            Besides, you never knew what could happen in the City of Dreams.