Amanda tapped her feet impatiently as she waited outside of the school waiting for Nick’s arrival. She glanced down at her G-Shock watch for what seemed like the thousandth time that day. Her detention had lasted for and hour and a half because Mrs. Whitelaw had been earlier than her by one minute and therefore, exceeded her detention by half an hour, “Geez, he could have called,” Amanda mumbled, checking her watch again. Barely one minute had passed.
“Waiting for someone?” A voice said behind her.
She spun around. “Alex!” Amanda exclaimed. He was standing right behind her, leaning against the brick wall with his bag, one strap on his shoulder. The breeze ran through his hair thoroughly as he brushed it back carelessly. He gazed straight into her eyes.
“Yeah, it’s me. So, who’re you waiting for?” He repeated, looking around as if to make sure that there was no one around.
“Nick, he said he’d pick me up, and I don’t want to walk with all this art junk with me,” she indicated, holding up a frame with a white piece of silk covering it.
“He’s still not here?”
“Yeah, I did tell him that I got detention and he said he’d be here on time,” Amanda rolled her eyes.
“Want a ride?” Alex offered generously, although it seemed to Amanda that he was more pleading than offering.
“Um,” Amanda hesitated.
“Come on, it’s just a ride.” Alex insisted as he opened leaned over and opened the door to his sleek Corvette.
Amanda thought for a while, why not? She figured, it’s not like I did anything with him. But why do I feel like I’ve eaten 30 pizzas? Finally thinking that it would be impolite to turn down the offer, she hesitantly slipped into the seat next to Alex. Sitting nervously, she stared straight ahead, not daring to catch and eye contact with Alex. She doesn’t know why but whenever she was near Alex, she feels that something is going to happen, something bad, yet, she can’t resist him. Breathing deeply, she closed her eyes and concentrated hard on Nick.
“What’s wrong? You meditating or something?” Alex asked, glancing over to Amanda while focusing on the road as well.
“Nothing, nothing, keep your eyes on the road!” Amanda squeaked as Alex swerved the car in front of them just in time before they nearly crashed into it.
“Oh geez! Sorry! Are you okay? I thought Nick always drove like this, you should be used to this!” Alex exclaimed, scratching his head.
“Nope, ever since the accident, I always had to drive him! I’ve never seen him drive or anything.” Amanda told Alex. A deafening silence settled. “So, um, well, how old are you?” Amanda finally asked lamely, breaking the silence between them.
Raising one eyebrow as if confused by the question, he finally answered, “21. Why?”
“Uh…” Amanda didn’t know how to answer. She only asked so that the ride wouldn’t be quiet the entire trip.
“Never mind, you live here right?” Alex asked as they stopped in front of a house with tall weeds and overgrown wildflowers. The paint of the fence was peeling off and broken.
“Uh, no, it’s actually two doors down, but it’s okay, you can drop me off here, I’ll just walk,” Amanda said, getting ready to get off the vehicle. Opening the door as fast as she could, she stepped out and waved a brief good bye and ran towards her house, with Alex’s intense gaze on her back the whole way.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
Panting heavily, Amanda slammed the door behind her loudly. She slumped down on the cold and bare marble tiled floor dropping her bag carelessly next to her. She put her head in her hands.
“Yo brat,” A voice said called out from the den.
Looking up, she saw Nick walking towards her, “Where were you today?” Amanda snapped.
“Hey, I’m sorry! We had practice and I just got back as well! I wanted to call you but it wouldn’t go through. Don’t have to bite my head off! Look, you’re here now anyway…” as he said this, Nick slid his arms on Amanda’s waist, hugging her tightly and then kissing her passionately on the cheek and slowly to her lips. Her anger immediately vanished as she closed her eyes and slid her arms around Nick. Wishing that everything would go away and there would only be him and her left. Trying to imagine as hard as she could, the door suddenly opened to reveal her parents. Nick and Amanda immediately separated. “Um, hi,” Nick said, his cheeks flushing to a dark crimson color.
“Oh, uh, we were… just leaving! You kids continue and ignore us,” Amanda’s father informed them hurriedly. He pushed his wife out the door and slammed it.
“Hehe, that was cool,” Nick commented as he continued to kiss her.
“Nick,” Amanda pushed him away. “We need to talk.”
“Sure, shoot,” Nick replied casually, not sensing Amanda’s nervousness. He leaned back against the wall gazing into Amanda’s eyes.
“I… I,” Amanda hesitated. What did she want to say? All of a sudden, everything that she wanted to say had all vanished. So much that she wanted Nick to know, she much that she wanted to let out. All had been diminished from her mind. Taking in a deep breath, she finally mumbled, “I love you.”
Smiling happily, Nick slid his arms around her waist again and whispered softly into her ear, “I love you too.” Amanda rested her head on Nick’s shoulder as she began to cry softly.