Hybrid

by Melissas Writings

  “That means I am a bad girl.”I blurted out absentmindedly.

  She looked at me in confusion. “What? Why?”

  “I used to sleep with Simon.” I told her, but she merely shrugged. “Just one guy right?” I nodded.

  “I thought so. You are not anything like her. And Besides, if you had even an ounce of her qualities, I would have stayed miles away from you.” Her honest answer reassured two things.

  Firstly I am a good girl and Secondly we are definitely friends. First time when she said I was still not sure, but now with the way she was looking at me- genuine smile that was etched on her face, I surely believed her.

  Then she showed me Goths, emo, clowns, loner, nerds at various places across the room.

  She narrowed her gaze at someone in one corner.“See” she pointed towards one corner where another girl was literally sucking someone’s face. The boy I couldn’t see as his back was to me. “This is the reason why our teachers want to delay sex education. As if these guys already don’t know everything that is there to know about each others body.”

  Cooties!! Yucks! That girl will get cooties from eating someone’s face like that. It’s been more than four hours since they brushed their teeth last.

  “What about cooties?” I blurted abstractedly.

  Her eyes literally popped out of her skull. She started laughing. “Tell me, you are really not serious.”

  Before I could answer, she looked at someone behind me and murmured “Oh Boy!! Who is that??” she clutched my arm tightly and her expression went all dreamy.

  I turned and saw Alex coming in my direction.

  “He is Alex” I told her.

  Her head snapped towards me “You know him. Why didn’t you tell me that you knew someone like him?”

  Someone like him.

  “How do you know him?” she enquired with one raised eyebrow.

  “Well, he is my boy friend.” I replied casually.

  Instantly she became sober “Oh my god!! I am sorry. I didn’t know. I am so stupid sometimes, I should have figured that out the moment you said you know him.” Then she paused and murmured more to herself “What about Simon?”

  “What about him?” I asked

  “You said you used to sleep with him.” She enquired cautiously, trying to locate something on my face.

  Simon had stopped coming after his father’s deteriorating health. So I mentally calculated and told her the truth. “That was almost two week back.”

  Some realization dawned upon her as she hugged me tightly. “I am so sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “It is not such a big deal.”I patted her back lightly.

  When she left my arms, she responded with an utter seriousness. “You better keep a tight hold on this one. He is definitely going to give Blake a run for his popularity. Lot of girls is going to get crazy over him.”

  “It is his problem.” I answered coolly.

  She gave me “Are you serious look?”

  Alex was already at my side and he pulled me away from that line.

  He looked apologetic “Ashley, I left you with Adam in the morning. I am sorry for that.” I was surely getting lot of apologies today.

  “It is okay.”I smiled at him

  His apologetic look changed to a smug one. “I heard few things about what you pretty ladies just said.”

  What?? How can he hear that in a room filled with other indistinct noises? May he just heard the last part of our conversation.

  Chloe’s voice came from behind. “We are next.”

  Since Alex would have to wait for ten minutes, I asked Alex about his preference and took his order also in the same plate. We paid the bill and followed Chloe through the crowd to the nerds corner.

  There were three girls occupying those seats.

  All the three girls had the same dreamy look at their face and were literally staring at Alex.

  “Hey guys, This is Ashley and her boyfriend Alex.” She told them while paying extra emphasis on the term boy friend.

  All those girls looked at me apologetically.

  Why are these girls looking at me like that?

  Chloe introduced us “They are Emily, Ruby, Grace. These are also nerds like me. But we are not like the normal nerds. We do attend parties once in a while and also do a lot of fun stuff.”

  Emily and Ruby were brunettes. Grace was a blonde. But all of them were dressed according to their eye color. Emily was dressed in light brown shirt and jeans. Ruby was attired in light green t-shirt and jeans. And Grace was wearing a light blue summer dress.

  Alex and I shared lunch and those girls occasionally glanced at us. It was as if they were mute, they didn’t say even a single word. Although I enjoyed Chloe’s company, I was little uncomfortable around her friends. Even that didn’t deter Chloe from talking. She kept on asking questions to Alex and he just replied with a shrug and occasional Yes or No. In between she asked me about my favorite dessert and I excitedly told her about my favorite ice cream.

  The moment we finished our lunch, Alex grabbed my hand and raced towards the exit. Next class was with him and I was looking forward to those classes. He already knew a lot about me, so I was at ease with him. Moreover, my brother trusted him, so it was natural for me trust him.

  At the end of the day, four assignments were due this week. With Chloe being my tutor in biology, Math and English. But in rest of the classes where I had Alex in my class, Blake had been appointed my tutor. Since Alex had already studied Physics and Chemistry, the teacher didn't appoint anyone as his tutor.

  Also I came to know that Blake was good at almost everything- from studies, sleeping to basketball. Only downside of all this was that I had to do this at their homes. Because staying at library was not an option with Alex sitting on my head all the time. So either they will come to my home, which was very unlikely or I will have to go to their home, which can be possible for the time being.

  So I called Sammy with Alex’s phone and told him that I will be late today which caused a series of questions like

  Why?

  Is it important?

  Is it a girl or a boy?

  What’s her name?

  Can’t Alex teach you?

  How far is their home?

  When will you be back?

  I answered all of them patiently.

  In the end he agreed.

  “Take Alex with you to that place. He will come back once you are done.” He demanded

  “Okay.”I replied

  Sammy being a big brother was still little doubtful. So he further added “Do not go anywhere else. Okay?”

  “Okay.” I said

  --------------------------------

  We reached Chloe’s two floor house. Her mother greeted us enthusiastically. She asked about my family and I told her that my parents are not here and I am currently staying with my brother.

  Then once she was done talking with us. We went to Chloe’s room which was on the 2nd floor. Her room was very neat and clean. Books were stacked at one corner. We started with Math and then moved to Biology. Her phone beeped in between.

  After reading the message she called someone

  “Hey! Where is it??”

  Pause

  “We will be there.”

  I was perplexed at this sudden change in her mood.

  “What is it?” I asked

  “There is a party at Blake’s house. We are all invited.” She said excitedly while jumping on the bed.

  The first line that came out of my mouth was “I can’t go.”

  I was more than sure that my brother will never allow me to go to a party. Heck, I had also never been to a party before. Plus, I can’t take advantage of the trust that my brother has on me. As it is I am out of that house for more than nine hours.

  “You have to. We are all attending this party after a long time. Prettyy pleaseee” She pouted

  “I can’t. My brother won’t allow me” I told her as a matter of factly.<
br />
  “We will be back in an hour. My curfew ends at 10 pm.” She looked at the clock. “It’s already 8:00. My mother will ground me if I come back after 10 pm. She is really strict when it comes to high school parties.”

  I shook my head in response

  “I will treat you with your favorite ice cream.”

  Why did I tell her about my weakness?

  Stupid, Ashley.

  Say No.

  It’s been more than two days since I last had it. Also It is just one hour. Say yes.

  I subdued my inner voice and stated “I don’t have a dress.”

  She grinned like a Cheshire cat.Her face beamed with happiness. She came and hugged me so tightly that I couldn't breathe.

  "I have a perfect dress for you."She said excitedly and jumped up and down taking me with her.

  hYBrID XVIII

  A girl came towards me while I was packing my stuff. “Hey Ashley, I am Chloe.” She was a brunette, with green eyes and pale white skin. She was taller than me and had freckles on her nose. Overall she was pretty.

  “Hi” I said a little nervous.

  The teacher’s voice reached my ear “Ashley, your tutor for biology is Chloe. She is a straight A student. Whatever we have covered, she will help you out in that. If you still have some doubts you can come to me at any time.”

  I thanked her and we left the room. Greg kept his word and checked up on me the moment my first class ended. I explained how sweet everyone is here. His response was "See, I told you everything will be fine." I grinned at the response. So far school was a good experience and I liked it here. Even though I was missing Simon like crazy, but I wouldn't have missed it for anything in the world.

  After ending the call, Chloe chirped excitedly “I can tell that we are going to be great friends. Unfortunately all my friends have different schedule today. I will introduce you to them in cafeteria.”

  Once it was over, Chloe joined me for Math class. Since her timetable was same as mine for the first half, we proceeded towards our next class.

  Out of nowhere Lucas strolled past us and winked at me.

  “What was that all about?”

  “He wanted me to join Vampire club. So we ended up chatting a bit.”

  “oh… ok.” For some reason she didn’t look happy at all, but she didn’t show it. She didn’t ask any further questions also related to Lucas. Soon she started telling me about her friends, their names to begin with.

  Math class was also okay. She sat next to me and told me about her family. Her father was a lawyer and mother was a housewife. She had a younger sister who was studying in 6th grade. When it was my turn to tell her about my family, teacher arrived and saved me the trouble.

  Chloe was again made my tutor for math.

  As soon as the class finished Chloe dragged me towards Cafeteria. Cafeteria was filled with students. We went straight to the queue.

  My eyes wandered to the kids sitting in the middle of the cafeteria.

  Going by the look on her face she didn’t like them. not one bit. “They are the popular jocks of this school. They all come from extremely wealthy family. Most of the boys are football players and girls are cheerleaders.” Chloe further added with a scorn on her face. “The girl sitting on the lap of that gorgeous guy, Blake is Kate. Everybody worships them like they are God and Goddess of this place.” I don’t know why was she looking at her like that. She was one of the prettiest girls I had ever seen in my life. She was wearing a denim skirt and white blouse. Chloe was shooting daggers at her during the time her face was turned in their direction. “She has slept with almost every boy in this school.”

  “That means I am a bad girl.”I blurted out absentmindedly.

  She looked at me in confusion. “What? Why?”

  “I used to sleep with Simon.” I told her, but she merely shrugged. “Just one guy right?” I nodded.

  “I thought so. You are not anything like her. And Besides, if you had even an ounce of her qualities, I would have stayed miles away from you.” Her honest answer reassured two things.

  Firstly I am a good girl and Secondly we are definitely friends. First time when she said I was still not sure, but now with the way she was looking at me- genuine smile that was etched on her face, I surely believed her.

  Then she showed me Goths, emo, clowns, loner, nerds at various places across the room.

  She narrowed her gaze at someone in one corner.“See” she pointed towards one corner where another girl was literally sucking someone’s face. The boy I couldn’t see as his back was to me. “This is the reason why our teachers want to delay sex education. As if these guys already don’t know everything that is there to know about each others body.”

  Cooties!! Yucks! That girl will get cooties from eating someone’s face like that. It’s been more than four hours since they brushed their teeth last.

  “What about cooties?” I blurted abstractedly.

  Her eyes literally popped out of her skull. She started laughing. “Tell me, you are really not serious.”

  Before I could answer, she looked at someone behind me and murmured “Oh Boy!! Who is that??” she clutched my arm tightly and her expression went all dreamy.

  I turned and saw Alex coming in my direction.

  “He is Alex” I told her.

  Her head snapped towards me “You know him. Why didn’t you tell me that you knew someone like him?”

  Someone like him.

  “How do you know him?” she enquired with one raised eyebrow.

  “Well, he is my boy friend.” I replied casually.

  Instantly she became sober “Oh my god!! I am sorry. I didn’t know. I am so stupid sometimes, I should have figured that out the moment you said you know him.” Then she paused and murmured more to herself “What about Simon?”

  “What about him?” I asked

  “You said you used to sleep with him.” She enquired cautiously, trying to locate something on my face.

  Simon had stopped coming after his father’s deteriorating health. So I mentally calculated and told her the truth. “That was almost two week back.”

  Some realization dawned upon her as she hugged me tightly. “I am so sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “It is not such a big deal.”I patted her back lightly.

  When she left my arms, she responded with an utter seriousness. “You better keep a tight hold on this one. He is definitely going to give Blake a run for his popularity. Lot of girls is going to get crazy over him.”

  “It is his problem.” I answered coolly.

  She gave me “Are you serious look?”

  Alex was already at my side and he pulled me away from that line.

  He looked apologetic “Ashley, I left you with Adam in the morning. I am sorry for that.” I was surely getting lot of apologies today.

  “It is okay.”I smiled at him

  His apologetic look changed to a smug one. “I heard few things about what you pretty ladies just said.”

  What?? How can he hear that in a room filled with other indistinct noises? May he just heard the last part of our conversation.

  Chloe’s voice came from behind. “We are next.”

  Since Alex would have to wait for ten minutes, I asked Alex about his preference and took his order also in the same plate. We paid the bill and followed Chloe through the crowd to the nerds corner.

  There were three girls occupying those seats.

  All the three girls had the same dreamy look at their face and were literally staring at Alex.

  “Hey guys, This is Ashley and her boyfriend Alex.” She told them while paying extra emphasis on the term boy friend.

  All those girls looked at me apologetically.