by Joshua Laack
Chapter 5
Josefina's eyes narrowed as she looked down at the food on Andrew's tray. As with the day before, she had chosen to go through the line without eating anything. She had also chosen to sit with him again. Most of the crowd of boys had dissipated back to their normal seats now that they knew she was not interested. A few still sat nearby, as if hoping she had not been serious the previous day or that she would change her mind. Andrew didn't care either way since she had still chosen to be with him. He still wasn't sure why, but it was nice to have her there. He held up one of his French toast sticks.
“Do you want to try it to see if it's as bad as you think,” he asked her? She shrugged and picked it up. She took one tiny nibble from it as if she were afraid of what might happen to her. She frowned and quickly set it back down on Andrew's tray with a disgusted look on her perfect features. The disgusted look melted into one that seemed like she was about to be ill. Her face took on an almost greenish cast, something that everyone says when someone is sick, but not something Andrew had witnessed before.
“You okay,” he asked her? She shook her head.
“No, this doesn't seem to agree with my system at all. I will be right back.” She stood up and rushed from the lunchroom in the direction of the restrooms in the hall. Andrew picked it up and tried a small nibble of the food. It was bad, but all school cafeteria food was. It was still edible though. A minute or so later, Josefina returned looking healthy once again.
“Better,” Andrew asked? She smiled and nodded as she sat down.
“Yes, sorry to run out like that, but I felt quite ill for a moment. I will have to remember to avoid the lunches altogether from now on. I doubt they will have anything here that agrees with me.” She smiled at him. “If you don't mind, I would still like to sit here with you, even if I'm not eating.”
Andrew felt a thrill run through him. He didn't mind at all. In fact, he liked that idea a lot.
As lunch ended and the afternoon progressed, he saw Josefina once again in so many of his classes. Andrew found himself wondering how that had happened. It wasn't a big school, but in six classes and a study hall, he didn't think there was a single person who shared more than three of those things with him. Yet the new girl shared four classes and study hall. And she also happened to interest him in a way that he had never experienced before. Life never worked out in his favor. Something was going to go wrong, he just knew it.
When the last class was over and they were walking back to lockers, he finally got up the nerve to ask her about being in all of his classes. She gave him a half smile that seemed to be her favorite expression and a small shrug.
“Just lucky I guess.” Andrew snorted at that. “What,” she asked? “Don't you believe I could get that lucky?”
“No I just don't know that getting into a class with me is all that special. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not the most popular guy around here.” He got another half smile.
“I don't care what the rest of the school thinks of you, though I doubt it's as bad as you think. You are better than most of them to me.” Andrew shook his head. How was this happening? The first and only girl he was interested in was looking for someone with personality instead of just going after the hot, popular guy? It didn't seem like something any girl he knew would do. On top of that, Andrew was the one she thought had personality worthy of her time. What had he done to deserve this?
At this point they were walking down the hall away from the lockers. There were some students left in the hallway, but not many. A majority of the students rode the buses which had taken off several minutes before, but Andrew had Trusty Rusty to take him home.
Trusty Rusty was a nineteen eighty four Oldsmobile Cutlass. The nickname came from the fact that there was just enough good metal left on the hull to hold the rust spots together. It was not a nice car by any means, but it had always worked for him. Now with Josefina walking beside him toward the lot Andrew felt embarrassed. What would Josefina think about such a piece of junk? Would she be disgusted by it?
Andrew wanted to tear his hair in frustration at the thought. These ideas kept appearing in his mind and he couldn't control them, these thoughts of fear about Josefina and thoughts of his own unworthiness. The thoughts felt foreign to his mind and no matter how hard he tried to prevent them, they continued to find their way to the surface. He needed to ignore them and push forward. No matter what his thoughts told him, it seemed that Josefina wanted to spend time with him and didn't mind his strange behavior. If she didn't care about that, she wasn't going to care about his car.
Andrew made up his mind that he was going to act like she wanted to spend time with him no matter what his thoughts told him. It was Wednesday and Andrew had to work from three thirty until seven thirty. He decided to ask Josefina if she wanted to hang out for a bit after that. No, she wouldn't like that.
Andrew frowned. That last thought had appeared in his mind before he even had finished thinking about asking if she wanted to hang out. The two thoughts had overlapped each other. That was something he had never experienced before.
Thinking two thoughts at once was the strangest feeling. Kind of like trying to listen to two different songs at the same time. The negativity of the second thought was diminished by the effect of the crossover. Andrew felt at that moment more alone than he ever had. He couldn't even trust his own thoughts to not betray him. If he couldn't even control himself, there was no hope of anyone else being able to help.
Andrew grunted as Josefina's arms appeared out of nowhere and wrapped around Andrew in a bear hug. Despite being smaller than he was, her grip was strong enough to expel the air from his lungs. The hug did more than push out the air. The strange thoughts and feelings in Andrew faded the instant he felt her skin brush his and that strange current flowed once more.
Josefina released him and stepped back at his grunt, almost as if she were afraid that she might have hurt him.
“Sorry, I am not usually so impulsive.” She gave him her customary half smile. “Do you have anything going on today? I would like to spend some time with you outside of school.” Andrew gave her a half smile of his own, one of several real smiles that had appeared in the short time since meeting her. The bleakness struggled to crawl up out of back of his mind, but somehow it was unable to break through his excitement at spending time with Josefina.
“I would definitely like that, but I have to work until about seven thirty so it would have to be after eight,” he paused for a moment, “Also, feel free to be impulsive as often as you want to. The hug was nice.” Josefina smiled and nodded. She turned and began to walk away. Andrew bent down to throw his books into the car and then looked up. She was gone. He looked all around the parking lot, but there was no sign of her, and he hadn't told her where he lived.
The light that appeared with her hug faded as he started his car. Andrew wasn't able to keep the darkness repressed any longer. Despite that, a real grin stretched his face. Somehow he knew that she would surprise him just as she had with everything else so far. Even though the dark was back now, it would leave again when he was with her. The smile didn't leave his face for the entire drive to work.
During his shift at work, some of his coworkers and the regular customers commented on how happy he seemed. That was something Andrew never heard from anyone. The best part about it was that they weren't wrong. The darkness was still there, but the glimmer of hope that usually faded so quickly remained with him throughout his entire shift. Andrew wasn't sure what this girl was doing to him, but whatever it was, he liked it.