Shattered Crimson

©2006 Kirsten Nussey

After Cameron and I arrived at school and registered – on time for once. We made our way straight from our tutor group to our separate classes. I made my way into the classroom early, taking my usual desk near the back and next to the window. I said hello to Ivy as I passed, she was the only other person in the classroom up to yet. She was quite cool, in a heavy gothic sort of way – which was exactly the reason why so many other people in our year seemed to hate her. What was wrong with Goths? Why can’t people just be the person that they want to be?

I’m not sure why it was that I liked being near the window so much, maybe it was the relaxing view outside. A way, in which, I could perhaps escape my lesson and pay a little attention to what was happening outside of school.

I watched as a man and his girlfriend walked their small black puppy, which appeared to a Staffordshire bull terrier. My favourite type of dog. I immediately liked it because it was so inquisitive just like me, stopping to admire every new sight and to smell every new scent – well maybe not exactly like me, seeing as I didn’t make a habit of smelling everyone and everything. But still it paid attention to each new tree and each new flower, truly appreciating everything.

Or maybe it was just looking for a nice place to take a piss? I thought to myself as it did its thing on a large oak tree that was straight outside of the window.

“Hey Liam,” I looked up from my trance at the sound of Kaitlyn, who had just entered the maths classroom with most of the class, greeting me. “Do you mind if I sit here?” She asked in her usual polite way, pointing to the empty seat next to my own.

“No, go ahead. How was your half term?” I asked out of politeness more than anything even though we had been friends for the past six months now – since the start of term when we were both thrown in to the same class with no body that we knew.

“It was great. I actually managed to do all of my homework for once.” She sounded quite excited. “I mean I still got a little stuck, and it took me ages but I actually managed to do some.” In a way I felt kind of sorry for her, she didn’t seem to have many friends, and she was always so involved with her work – especially maths which was quite obviously her weak point. In another way I envied her dedication and the fact that she didn’t just quit like I was often so tempted to do.

“Cool.” I was pleased for her, I mean she’d struggled her way through maths since the beginning of the year and here she was actually making some progress. So why wasn’t I as interested as I should have been?

Cameron. I couldn’t help but feel something tugging at the back of my mind about him, and I was determined to find out exactly what it was.

When I saw him on Saturday night, he just seemed so depressed. He’s always been depressed but even more so lately. It’s not right; I mean on a half term break people our age should be happy for the time off – not counting the days till we go back to school. We’ve always said that we could tell each other anything, so what’s he keeping from me? What can’t he tell his own best friend?

I’ve been worried about him for a while, and it’s not only me that’s noticed the changes. I mean even the teachers have seen a difference. I’m sure that something must be going on at home but still… he’d tell me if there was something he needed to… right?

On Saturday night as he tried to sleep next to me I found myself unable to sleep as I lay awake listening to his own restless night; and then as I listened to him crying in the ensuite bathroom when he thought that I was already asleep. I needed to know what was happening, what was changing my friend.

Last night hadn’t been much of a difference; and when he finally appeared to drift away to sleep he only managed to wake himself up as he suffered his way through nightmares, after which he just cried in his sleep. Was I supposed to play blind or was I supposed to say something?

“So how was your half term?”

“Sorry, what?” I had to ask, having paid no attention what so ever to what Kaitlyn had said.

“I asked how your half term was.” She paused, “Is something wrong?” She asked me frowning. Whilst we might have only known each other for a few months, already she could read me like a book, analyzing every move that I made, reading every emotion that I displayed. I sucked in a deep breath and quietly sighed.

“Everything’s fine, I’m just a little bit tired that’s all. I didn’t really do much exciting; I spent the first few days with my aunt in London and my family and Cameron stopped this weekend.”

“Oh cool, is your aunt ok?” She asked sounding concerned.

“Oh yeah she’s fine, it’s nothing bad, we just went down to see her new baby – my new cousin. It’s real cute.” I said, tagging on the bit at the end that I knew she would ask me anyway. I liked her and all but girls were just so predictable when it came to babies and I was too worried about Cameron. She made that weird high pitched, excited sort of squeak as she thought about the baby and I had to force myself not to roll my eyes.

“Is “it” a he or a she?”

“She – Erm… her names Layla.”

“Awww, I think that is such a nice name. Do you like it?” Why was she asking me so many questions? What was it with girls and babies anyway? Broody much.

“Erm… yeah.” I answered, not really sure what else I could say. Fortunately though, I was saved from having to answer any more of her questions when our teacher finally entered the room.

He was quite a short, middle-aged man with thick round glasses. What little hair that he did have seemed to be of some sort of faded brown colour and whilst he wasn’t really overweight, he was quite plump and had a permanent smile plastered to his face. His name was Mr. Matthews.

“Good morning class.” He greeted, like we were some kind of seven year olds. I could tell already that this was going to be a really long lesson as I glanced up at the clock and noted that even though he was a few minutes late we had fifty two more minutes to endure.

We spent the majority of the lesson doing some work on factorizing quadratic equations - not that I could ever see the point in doing any of that shit. How does sticking numbers in brackets help you to solve anything anyway? Judging from the grunts of annoyance coming from the seat next to me and from the rest of the class, Kaitlyn and the rest of them seemed to be just as frustrated as myself.

“Can you help me with question two?” I asked her, noticing that she’d already done it.

“Yeah it’s quite easy; you just need to take a common factor of four out first before you factorise it.” It seemed stupid after I took another look at it, but all the same I was glad that I’d asked. It makes no point to be stuck on a question all lesson when you can just ask somebody else for a bit of help. We were all in the same boat after all.

“Have you got any plans for tonight?” She asked me.

“Erm… I think Cameron should be coming over later. How about you?” She seemed quite disappointed with my response.

“Oh…nothing much really,” She blushed. Now this was weird… Did she like me all of a sudden? What brought this on?

“You could come over too if you wanted…” I said reluctantly, though trying not to sound it.

“Are you sure?” She asked me, blushing again.

“Yeah.” I scribbled down my address on a piece of paper. “Here’s my address, you know it?”

“Oh yeah, it’s not too far from me. What sort of time?”

“About five?” I suggested, mentally kicking myself as I remembered that Cameron could be arriving later. I’d have to mention it to him if she said yes. I hoped that he would be ok with it

“Yeah that’s fine.”

“Great. See you later.” I smiled, in what was hopefully a friendly but not flirty way. Why did girls have to be so complicated? The bell rang overhead as I was contemplating this, and she started to pack away her notes.

“I can’t wait. It’s a date.” She said laughing before realising what she said, “Wait… no I didn’t mean that it was like a date date… I meant like as in an arrangement…” She was stuttering and trying to get her words out blushing even more now than before. “I’ll see you later” She mumbled before hurrying out of the classroom before I could say anything.

Girls.

Hey thanks again for the support everyone, I hope this chapter is satisfactory and I hope to recieve even more reviews :D A good review is the key to building a good chapter... hint