Chapter 5

The final bell resonated through out the school, bouncing off the walls in the hallways and signaling freedom for the remainder of the day to everyone the occupied the premises. Stormy gray eyes blinked tiredly as the girl they belonged to shoved her U.S. history book into her, too full, messenger bag. All around her students were running out of the classroom, eager to get on with their life.

Slowly, Roxi hoisted the strap of her bag up onto her shoulder before starting toward her teacher’s messy and unorganized desk. “Um, Ms. Trallyn?” She addressed the short, white haired woman sitting behind the desk, bent over a pile of papers.

“Yes dear?” Ms. Trallyn asked, in her dry, breathy voice as she peered up at Roxi, through big thick glasses.

“Uh, I was wondering if I could get some extra work, you know, to bring up my grade?” the girl pushed a strand of purple hair behind her right ear before adjusting the strap of her bag on her shoulder.

“Why yes, of course. Just one moment,” Ms. Trallyn stood from her stool and shuffled across the room to a large silver filing cabinet. Roxi watched with cloudy gray eyes as the old woman pulled open a drawer and sifted through the papers inside, extracting a few as she went. “Here we are,” Ms. Trallyn said as she pulled a final paper from the drawer before pushing it closed and starting back over to her desk.

A small stack of papers was pushed in front of Roxi’s face, and stayed there till she took them in her hands and moved them. “Thank you Ms. Trallyn.” The girl turned to leave, in desperate need of a coffee.

“Make sure to read the directions at the top of the paper,” Ms. Trallyn called after her.

“Will do,” Roxi stepped into the hallway and started toward the exit leading out to student parking. She was completely blind to the people around her as she made her way through the halls, mentally making a checklist of everything she had to do.

“Roxi!” A high voice broke Roxi’s concentration. Her head went up and her stormy gray orbs landed on a bubbly girl skipping towards her.

“Hey Brea,” Roxi greeted as she continued walking.

“Where’re ya goin’?” the girl chirped as she began to bounce along beside a flustered, and slightly frustrated, Roxi.

“Home,” Roxi lied, not really wanting Brea to tag along.

“Well, Bryce told Tray, who told me to tell you that Bryce is looking for you,” Brea said as she brushed a strand of smooth red hair behind her ear.

Roxi let out an exasperated sigh. “Can you tell him that I can’t go running with him today?”

“Yeah, okay, I guess I could probably find him. Doesn’t he have football practice tonight?” The redhead asked, looking up at Roxi with a quizzical expression.

“Uh… I don’t know,” Roxi answered as she glanced at the girl beside her. “Can you still find him and tell him, for me?”

“Sure.”

“Okay, I’ll see ya later,” Roxi spoke hurriedly as she pushed the door, that led out to the parking lot, open and strode out of the building. Instantly she turned her path so that she was headed for the little blue car in the back of the parking lot.

“Rox!” A familiar voice called from behind her.

“Yeah?” Roxi turned around to find the little blue car sitting just behind her, her friend Amanda in the driver’s seat. Swiftly, she glanced back toward where she had last seen the blue car, to find an empty parking space.

“Come on, get in,” Amanda called, waving her hand out her open window.

Roxi quickly turned and jogged back to the front passenger seat. She pulled the door open and slid into the seat, dropping her bag by her feet.

“So, are we on for coffee?” Amanda asked, as she hit the gas and started toward the parking lot turn out.

“Yeah, I’ve got a lot of work I’ve got to do if I want to get my grade up,” Roxi said, sadly as she stared out the front windshield.

“Jeez, how bad is your grade?” Amanda questioned, glancing over at her friend.

“Roughly a C minus,” Roxi mumbled, turning her gaze down to her hands in her lap.

“In all your classes?” Amanda’s tone made it obvious that she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Well, not in… yeah, never mind,” She glanced over at Amanda. “Yeah, in every class.”

“Well I see why you have a lot of homework,” Amanda laughed as she pulled onto the street. Roxi nodded her head sullenly as she stared out of the windshield.

The remainder of the ride was silent, as Roxi tried to make a mental checklist of everything she had to do. Amanda appeared to be concentrating on driving, but in reality, she was trying to calculate how much money she had left to buy a coffee.

A few minutes later, the little blue car pulled into the parking lot in front of the coffee shop. “Hurry up, Roxi,” Amanda called hyperly as she ran toward the glass door. “You have a lot of homework to do!” Roxi rolled her eyes as she hoisted the strap of her bag onto her shoulder. Slowly, she followed her friend inside.

“So what are you going to get this time?” Roxi asked as she walked up to Amanda to find her scanning the little triangular menu on the table.

“I don’t know!” Amanda cried like it was a huge choice. Shaking her head, Roxi slid into the booth across from Amanda before she unzipped her bag and pulled out a binder. “What’s with the service? Where are the servers?” Amanda scanned the room quickly before she noticed the blond man, standing behind the counter, with his head resting again the wall. “Hello?” she called to him.

The man lifted his head and glanced around the room, seeing that it was pretty much empty, before he saw Amanda and Roxi. He stood up straighter and stepped out from behind the counter.

“Hey, Rox, you might want to see this one,” Amanda commented softly as she watched the man walk closer to them, from the corner of her eye. She made a soft sound of pleasure, before looking back at her friend. “Roxi!” Roxi glanced up at her friend before glancing over her shoulder to see the man. She smiled at him as he got closer.

“Hi,” she greeted when he reached their table.

“Hello,” he said with his fading Irish accent. Amanda stared at Roxi, dumbfounded. He glanced at Amanda before turning his chocolate gaze back to Roxi.

“Oh, Manda, this is Milo. Milo this is my friend Amanda,” Roxi introduced.

“It’s nice t’ meet you,” Milo smiled politely at Amanda, nodding his head in greeting.

“You too,” she responded, grinning.

“So wha’ would you like?” Milo asked, pulling the notepad out of the pocket in his apron, taking the pencil from behind his ear.

“Uh…” Roxi glanced around, unable to remember what she liked. “Uh, what did I have last night?” she asked.

“Ah… A mocha cappuccino,” Milo answered, writing it down on the pad.

“Yeah, I’ll have another one of those,” Roxi said, taking a pen out of her bag. Milo turned to Amanda.

“Wha’ for you miss?” he asked.

“Caramel mocha latte,” Amanda smiled flirtatiously.

“Coming right up,” he said as he turned to head toward the kitchen.

“Was that the guy you said you met?” Amanda asked as soon as Milo was out of earshot.

“Yep,” Roxi said as she turned back to her homework.

“You didn’t say he had an accent!” Amanda exclaimed, staring wide eyed at her friend.

“I didn’t really say anything about him,” Roxi remarked, her gray eyes glued on the paper in front of her.

“Yeah, we’re going to have to work on that,” Amanda said seriously before pulling a magazine out of her bag.

“Maybe later,” Roxi scratched out her answer and wrote a new one, not really paying attention to her friend.

“You do realize tha’ the capital of Turkey isn’ Istanbul, righ’?” a soft voice questioned near hear ear, a minute or so later, causing her to jump. Roxi glanced up to find Milo leaning over her shoulder, watching her paper. He peeked at her before straightening. “Sorry.” Roxi smiled sweetly as she turned back to Amanda to find her friend staring at her. The coffees sat on the table in the white cups, with painted on roses.

“It’s okay,” Roxi said, scribbling out her writing. “Thanks,” She smiled up at him.

“Anytime,” he answered with a crooked smile and a wink before he scanned the room. “Now, I’d better get back t’ work.” With a nod, he turned and started across the room.

“You like him!” Amanda squealed before sipping her coffee.

“No I don’t,” Roxi answered calmly, looking away from Milo’s retreating form to watch her friend.

“Sure,” Amanda said sarcastically, obviously not believing Roxi. “So when do you plan to break it off with Bryce?” Amanda leaned on the table a large grin on her face, her arms folded.

“Amanda, I’m not dumping Bryce!” Roxi said, sounding slightly offended. “I like him not Bryce… I mean Milo.” Amanda’s grin only grew, her eyes sparkling a little. Seeing her friend’s expression Roxi became defensive. “It’s a common mistake. They look a lot alike.”

“Really?” Amanda said with a patronizing smile. “How so?”

“They both have brown eyes,” Roxi stated as she lifted her coffee to her lips.

“Bryce’s eyes are hazel,” Amanda put in stumping Roxi for a moment.

“They’re close to brown,” Roxi argued.

“Whateva’,” Amanda dropped it. “So are you going to the party this Friday?”

“Have you seen my work load? Does it look like I’m going to any parties any time soon?” Roxi asked as she scribbled random answers to the questions.

“Come on, you need a little fun,” Amanda tried to persuade her. “You don’t have to hang out with Bryce. I’m sure he’ll just be with his stinky football buddies.”

“I don’t know,” Roxi sounded unsure, which was completely new for Amanda to hear.

“You need something to get your mind off stuff.” Roxi shook her head.

“I don’t need to get my mind off anything. I need to get things settled. After that happens I’ll go to parties every night with you,” Roxi said wistfully. She wanted to go to the party. She wanted her worries to drift away like they always seemed to at parties.

“Really? Like last year?”

“Yeah,” Roxi mumbled, wishing she could go back in time to when she didn’t care about school. More then anything, she wanted to be like Amanda again.

“Lorisa’s been flirting with Bryce, at parties, when you’re not there,” Amanda said, trying to being the aggressive, protective, Roxi to the surface.

“Bryce it a football player, he draws a little bit of attention. He wouldn’t do anything with her,” Roxi said, reading the next question. Amanda bit her lower lip, a crease in her forehead. Roxi put so much trust in her boyfriend, and it was beginning to worry Amanda.

Sorry that it's been so long since I've update this story... or any of my stories... But I hope you liked the chapter. I hope everyone had a happy holiday. Anyway, I'd like to thank Lynn-Night for reveiwing the last chapter. Your comments are always welcome, so please, feel free to review this chapter, it would help a lot. Just simply tell me what you think about the story. If you feel like it, maybe even say what you think should happen. All help is good!!!!

Tootles,

Roselyn