Chapter 18

Drama.

Damien Reyes.

Time/Area: Nyc 2013, July 10th.

To be honest, I kind of woke up expecting eggs to be growing out of my chest.

But, thankfully, my skin seemed to be it’s usual tannish brown. I felt the spot on my back where the puddle from the Bronx may or may not have went through,

“Feels normal to me,” I thought, rolling out of my bed before letting my bare feet touch the carpet.

I walked over to one relatively clean looking pile of clothes in my room, selecting some black shorts and a red shirt to wear for the day.

It was a quiet morni-

BANG!

My door swung open, my father standing at the entrance.

I jumped from the sudden noise, turning around slowly in minor annoyance when I realized it was just Dad, “You guys should really knock more often,” I muttered, stretching my arms out to the side of my chest as I let my stiffened joints loosen.

“What was that?” Dad asked, his eyes narrowing.

I looked up at him with as big of a smile as I could muster, dropping my arms back to my hips, “I-I mean..come in whenever you like!” I coughed.

Parents.

He nodded, his frown increasing as he eyed my arms,

“Son?” He said.

“Uh..Yea?” I quizzed.

He walked over to me, poking my shoulder, “You need to eat more.”

I rolled my eyes. He said this every time he saw me without a shirt on, or even in short sleeves for that matter.

“I-I’ll be fine,” I replied, “Maybe you can tell Mr.D to put more stuff in his bagels.”

I added that last part in a persuasive tone.

Dad laughed, “Yeah,” He spoke sarcastically, “I’ll also tell him to lower his prices.”

He sighed, glancing at the framed pictures I had on my nightstand behind me before playfully shaking my shoulders, “I bet if you played basketball with your dad more you’d develop more bulk instead of all that lean muscle from that Karate or whatever.”

I pretended to perform some kind of finger strike to Dad’s solarplexius, “It’s Taekwondo,” I corrected, smiling a little, “And I’ll play with him later.”

He went along with this, “Oh yeah?” He questioned, removing his hands from my shoulders before relocating them to my head in order to mess up my hair, “Good, cause I’d bet he’d be pretty bummed if his only son never used the nice new basketball he got him for Christmas.”

I resisted the urge to glance over my shoulder at my bed. Underneath it was that very ball. I cleared my throat, weaving out of dad’s grip before faking two jabs at his ribs, “His son has just been busy.”

Dad grinned, walking over to one of the framed pictures of me and Sarah before speaking, “Really?” He said, his back turned as he reminisced over the photo, “With what?”

My eyes widened. I needed to give Jason his phone back! I smiled, trying to picture his expression when I would give it to him. My dad caught my smile as he turned back to face me, “I have two PHD’s” My dad stated, placing the memory back on the stand, “And I still ain't got a clue to what you’re smiling about.”

I laughed, “Sorry,” I scratched my head, heading towards the door, “Thinking about something that’s happening at school today.”

He stopped me from leaving, quickly dashing over to my bedroom door while smiling mischievously, “So it’s a girl?” He guessed.

My face went red, my thoughts instantly switching to Selina, “Wh-what girl, no girl.. uh.”

I stared at my dad as he began laughing maniacally, “I got an email about some school dance. You got a hot date?”

“Can you let me leave?” I asked, the words coming out more like rushed gibberish instead of sensible English.

I had to get out of here. Out of all the times my father has ranted about some imaginary girlfriend he thought I had, this would be the first time where it would actually prove true. Well, I didn’t know if we were like that yet, but one can dream.

Dad tilted his head, “She better be hot. Also, don’t bring home any stupid girl. Your mom would eat her alive.”

I frowned, “She’d still do that even though she’s a genius.” I said.

“Don’t you mean if she’s a genius?” Dad grinned slyly, the facial expression only growing as he realized that I realized that I had screwed up with my words.

Before I could defend myself, Dad faked a surprised blink at the watch on his wrist, “Well would you look at the time!” He exclaimed, finding my backpack on the floor before slipping it onto my back in one smooth motion, “You’re gonna be late to school!”

He grabbed my shoulders once more, rushing me out of the room and to the front door.

“O-okay! adiós!” I yelled, not daring to glance back at my dad before charging outside.

I found Mr.Drake standing on my apartment steps as I exited the complex,

“H-hey Mr.D!” I greeted, trying to recover the calmness the morning usually brought me as an outside breeze blew past me.

He laughed, “Hey Little man! Me and Andre are gonna go shoot some hoops!”

I nodded, happy that Dad wouldn’t be entirely alone.

“Cool!” I said, walking past him, “I gotta go to school now, bye!”

I ran altheway to the bus stop, feeling every ounce of guilt I once had evaporating into the air as I breathed in the daily pollution with anticipation. Every turn, every angry New Yorker I accidently bumped into, and every annoying street advertiser suddenly became ten times more bearable as I practically owned the sidewalk.

Upon arriving at the crowded intersection that was my bus stop, I found Jason waiting beside a street lamp outside of Mr.D’s shop.

Jason tilted his head awkwardly upon seeing me,

“What’s up?” He asked, questioning my evident excitement.

“ I have a surprise for you!” I announced, getting straight to the point.

He nodded, “I like surprises...”

Without wasting another second, I produced the silver device I had tucked into my short’s pocket, placing it in his hand with confidence.

He looked down at his phone, all of his smile fading, “T-this is my phone Damien.” He pointed out.

I laughed nervously, not quite expecting this obvious statement, “Uh..Yea?” I smiled, “Don’t get too excited about it.”

I absently looked around for Selina. What dad had said earlier made me want to talk to her.

“Damien, where did you get this?”

I coughed, “Uh-well,-”

He narrowed his eyes, “Tell me you didn’t do what I said not to do.”

I coughed, “I mean...does it matter-?”

“Yes it does!” He raised his voice a little. The people happening to stand around us began to quiet down, clearly not used to hearing Jason yelling. Jason was typically just that quiet innocent rich kid that didn’t bother anyone and was oblivious to every girl but Melissa.

I stared at him, “J, what’s the big deal? I got your phone so-”

“So what? When are you going to realize that this wasn’t really even about me.” He interrupted me, “I told you specifically that It was a phone. I don’t usually use this card, but I’m r-i-c-h.”

I blinked, feeling the ‘Cole Effect’ begin to take hold. The Cole Effect was just what I called the super annoying thing that happened whenever something dramatic occurred with Jason or his family and everyone in school would talk about it.

Basically everyone within five feet of us was staring now, and I caught Selina in the corner of my eye. She was looking down at her shoes, pretending not to hear what was going on. Jason didn’t seem to be aware of all the eyes on us.

“Chill. I just got it to make you feel bet-”

“No you didn’t.” He glared, “This is just about the crap going on with your sister, isn’t it?”

I was out of words.

“You did this because you felt bad about yourself. You just wanted to drag me into this to have something to blame your...venting on. ”

I didn’t say anything.

Jason suddenly chuckled, “You know what?” He said, lifting his phone above his shoulder. The bus was in view now. It was coming down the road and was about to hit the brakes in order to start letting us board.

But before it did, and after Jason had checked the phone pocket for any cash, Jason hurled the phone straight into the road.

Everyone around us pretended not to watch as the bus trampled the device, shattering it into a million pieces across the street. Jason turned back to me, the bus doors now opening,

“You...” He finally caught sight of everybody, frowning as he too realized the consequences of the Cole Effect, “Are..really annoying sometimes.”

With that he walked away, heading onto the now open bus. My brain hurt too much to speak, clearly having trouble trying to deny anything that was just said by Jason.

“Maybe that’s because you can’t.” My brain told me, my thoughts reverting back to Sarah.

Dang...I really was an idiot.

All the other highschoolers began to file in after Jason, each one either not caring about what happened, caring and gossiping about it, or were just oblivious to the world around them.

I followed suit after a large majority of the kids had boarded, still thinking about how right Jason was and how bad this day was already going.

I looked at my shoes while I walked down the bus aisle, struggling to find a seat since I obviously couldn’t sit in the back like usual. As I stayed standing though, and as no one seemed to offer me a seat, It grew increasingly likely that I would have to risk it all and fight Jason for the right to sit next to him.

But suddenly, before I could reach Jason and begin the battle, I was pulled into a seat by Selina.

I yelped as I was yanked next to her,

“Selina?” I coughed, startled.

“So?” She asked in a demanding tone.

I looked at her quizzically, “¿Qué?”

She rolled her eyes, “Don’t ‘¿Qué?’ me!”

“Umm.”

She sighed, “How long until you two drama kings make up?”

I looked down, “I-I don’t know?”

She raised her hand to slap me, but I caught it,

“I don’t know, okay?” I hissed, struggling to keep her hand back.

She was excessively strong.

Selina frowned, “Hmm,” She muttered, retracting her hand, “Hate to say it, but I freaking knew this would happen. Called it as soon as you called me yesterday night.”

I rubbed my arm, “Whatever...”

She nodded, “Well, he’s probably not going to care about your feelings until the end of the day when you two hug in the hallway for like an hour and everyone claps.”

I glared at her, “Thanks.”

Selina frowned at my lack of emotion, play-punching me in the shoulder, “Though I won’t lie,” She admitted, “That little subway thing was actually pretty fun.”

I grinned despite the situation, “I thought that was pretty low on your list.”

She fiddled with the blue strands in her hair, averting her gaze towards the window of the bus as we began to move, “W-well,” She stuttered, “Good company improves experiences.”

--

I got through the 1st period fine, but that was just because Jason wasn’t in it to make things awkward. Fourth period Spanish, on the other hand, was where the difficulty was found. As I walked into the room, everyone’s attention was split between me and Jason, signifying that the Cole Effect was now in full swing. I pretended to ignore the class even though I was literally facing all of them as I stood next to Mrs.Rodriguez. From what I could tell through facial expressions, the only ones who really seemed to know or care were the heavy gossipers among our period, so it wasn’t that big of a deal, but it was still kind of annoying.

“Good morning class!” Mrs.Rodriguez exclaimed, pulling me out of my thoughts, “Today, we will be doing the same thing we did on Monday, but instead of a grade this will just serve as a practice period!”

Sighs of relief and quiet gasps of approval settled across the room steadily, everyone clearly glad by the direction the period was taking.

“This is to give you all a break before the school dance,” She paused, “which I hope that everyone attends.”

I didn’t get why teachers cared so much about getting kids to go to some dance. The idea of them doing it to be nice was out of the question, so maybe the dance served as a day for teachers to catch up on grading. The only teacher who I could see actually caring about our well being was Mrs.Rodriguez, but regardless of that, she acted like this was the Superbowl or something.

“Levantaos!” She yelled, beginning to head back to her desk while motioning for me to follow, “Get into your groups people!”

Everyone began talking and milling around the room.

“How are you doing today Damien?” Mrs.Rodriguez turned towards me, handing me the recording device from Monday as she sat down on the black leather rolling chair behind her oak desk, “I heard about what happened at the bus stop. I think I heard a group of girls from my previous period talking about it.”

I groaned, “Who hasn’t?”

She raised her hands in surrender, “You don’t have to tell me about it,” She smiled, but the kind look quickly degraded into a half frown, “But with Jason’s family business in Cole Industries, his last name hits New York Daily almost every week on some page or another. The paper is always talking about how they bought out some kind of food chain, or maybe it’s his father’s ‘Top Ten Stocks to invest In’ list again.”

I scratched my head, nodding, “So he’s popular. I don’t get why kids care though.”

Mrs.Rodriguez just shrugged, “Kids will find anything to talk about, and because of how prestigious this school is, Principal Leroy...controversially... values kids whose parents provide the most school funding.”

I nodded once more, “So the thing at the bus stop caused some disruptions in class,” I summarized, “That’ll probably go away eventually, but Jason isn’t dumb enough to try and get his parents to stop funding the school for that.”

I could talk like that to her because of how close our families were.

Mrs.Rodriguez laughed, “sí sí,” She said, “But still, handle that please.”

I went around checking people’s use of grammar and wordage. Today, mostly everyone was talking about who they were taking to the dance, but a couple were actually talking about Jason.

Ugh..get a hobby people.

When I got to Jason, he didn’t even notice I was there. He had partnered up with Selina, who had noticed my presence but didn’t alert Jason.

“¿Cómo está tu hermano?/How is your brother?” She asked him, keeping direct eye contact. Selina had used brother to signify a close male friend in this case, so by all technicalities that was correct.

He only shrugged, “No me importa/I don’t care.”

Nice grammar.

Selina tried again, “Me enteré de lo que pasó/I found out what happened.”

I glared at Selina, not sure as to why she felt the need to keep bringing this up.

Jason’s voice held annoyance, “Why does everyone feel the need to pry into my business just because of how big my parent’s paychecks are?”

Selina couldn’t help but glance at me, which alerted Jason to my presence.

Jason stared at me, “Do you need something?” He asked, his tone not changing.

I coughed, figuring that the roof looked more pleasant than this conversation was about to be,

“Uh, good grammar usage?” I said the compliment quickly, looking back at Jason in time to see him blink slowly. The gesture clearly meant to leave, so I conceded and headed back to the front of the classroom.

I leaned against Mrs.Rodriguez’ desk, hearing her typing away replies to student emails or grade results from behind me as I gazed about the space.

Jeez this was dramatic.

Ring Ring!

The bell rang, signaling that it was time for lunch.

“Deal with it, Damien.” Mrs.Rodriguez said, causing me to turn back to her as she smiled and stood up, “You have the rest of the day.”

She exited the room, probably going to wherever teachers went during lunch breaks while the rest of our class streamed out after her.

“That’s it.” I thought, sitting up and dashing towards the back.

I coughed to get Jason’s attention, who was still packing up at his desk.

He ignored me, just grumbling as he stuffed a dull pencil with an image of a Flymouth scribbled onto it into his backpack. A Flymouth was a monster in this game we liked called Fight4Life.

“Oh c’mon.” I groaned, not knowing what else to do. He sighed as he waited for everyone else to leave. Selina nodded at me as she vanished out of the room. It was just us in the class.

Jason glared at me, sitting back down, “What.”

I pulled up a chair and sat across from him, “Look, sorry about going to get your stupid phone.”

He rubbed his temples, “Do you just not listen?” He ridiculed, “Forget the phone. I’m just sick of whatever kind of mental crisis you seem to be going through because of the stuff going on with your sister. It went from abandoning me on my science project, to now running around the city trying to find a phone. What exactly is even going on with your sister, and Energis, and-”

Just then, two adults walked in.

“Jason Cole?” One asked.

Jason stood up, “That’s me…?”

I was surprised they even needed to ask, since you could literally look this kid up on Google. “You are being recognized as the winner of the science fair. You’re supposed to have lunch at the teacher’s lounge bud!” The other exclaimed.

I wanted to say congratulations, but I didn’t think Jason wanted to hear that from me. The same teacher nodded at me,

“He can come too if you w-”

“No.” Jason interrupted him, staring at me, “He didn’t help.”

Ouch. That was painful.

Jason looked back at them,

“But this girl named Selina did, can I get her?”

Dang...we’re really gonna go there..

A teacher nodded, “Let’s go get her!”

Jason walked away with the two, not once looking back at me. I don’t know if he wanted to take Selina to annoy me, or because he wanted a friend there. Regardless, It looked like I would be eating alone. I tried to smile, thinking of what my dad would do in this situation.

He’d probably go to the teacher’s lounge anyway...or maybe he’d just straight up throwdown with Jason..nah..he’d probably be the one to win the science fair in the first place. Part of me wished that I had just skipped school to play basketball with him. I knew he’d never allow that, but it would be better than this place.

The rest of the day was so tiring, there were multiple times where I felt like just falling over and going to sleep. I was tired since I didn’t sleep on the bus, I was anxious because what Jason was saying seemed 100 percent correct, and I was constantly nervous about what my sister could be doing at the moment.

As the last bell rang, I found Jason by his locker.

I walked up to him, figuring now would be an unlikely time to get interrupted by a teacher, “Jason.”

He looked back at me, “Damien-”

“I know I know,” I interrupted him, “But I just wanted to say that erm...I guess you were right.”

I awaited a response, but after a couple of seconds Jason just sighed,

“I know I was, but it’s okay I guess,” He ran a hand through his dark colored hair, “I guess I was just overreacting to the thought that you weren’t telling me everything about what was going on with you and your sister.”

Before I could say anything, Jason went on,

“And I guess…” He shrugged, “You don’t really have to tell me. I mean, she is your sister, not mine.”

I shook my head, “Believe me,” I said, “I’d totally tell you, but I actually just don’t know.”

Jason looked surprised at this, “Really?” He asked, “Oh, well er, why were you acting out all of a sudden then?”

This time I shrugged, “I don’t know,” I started, leaning against Jason’s locker as we stepped out of the way of an oncoming platoon of kids, “I just didn’t want to be sitting around doing nothing while I waited to hear back from whatever Sarah was...is still doing.”

He nodded, “That makes sense. It sucks not knowing things.” Jason suddenly frowned, “But secretly taking the subway just to ‘keep busy’ seems like, I don’t know, kind of a lot.”

I blushed while glancing at the ceiling, “Well um,” I coughed, “I might’ve ended up ducking out if erm-”

“If Selina didn’t agree to come with you? She was in on all of this?” Jason grinned at my silence, shaking his head as he caught eye of his crush passing through the hall,

“Girls, dude.” He said, staring at the back of Melissa Ember’s head as she walked by us.

“I know…” I agreed, “You should totally ask her out to the dance by the way.”

Having moved on from the last topic, Jason glared at me, “She’d just reject me.”

I just smiled, remembering the reaction Melissa had upon seeing Jason a couple of days ago, “I don’t know man,” I looked at him, “I mean, I asked out Selina-”

“Ha, no you didn’t.” Jason stopped my half lie, “If anything, her announcement to the class was her asking you out.”

“Same thing…” I muttered, “Anyways, we good?”

Jason nodded, “Duh.”

Just then, out of nowhere, Selina slid in front of the two of us, “Hey, Thing one and Thing two.”

I stopped leaning on the locker, standing up to my full height while Jason let out a silent cackle.

“Hey.” I greeted, ignoring him.

Jason waved.

“I believe an I told you so is an order..” She said, glaring at me.

I motioned around at the trains of chattering highschoolers leaving the building, “Your prediction was wrong. We didn’t hug dramatically for an hour.”

Selina just frowned, “Whatever, keep your secrets,” She moved on, “Anyways, since you two are good now, Jason now knows about the fight we had with that guy-?”

“Anyways!” I interrupted, “Y-you guys want to walk somewhere?”

Jason shook his head, “We both have tons of English homework.” He reminded me.

I laughed, “O-okay then ,” I said, “Then I’ll see you guys tomorrow..”

I began to walk away.

Selina began to crack up, “Are you not going to tell him that a complete psycho attacked us and knocked you into an irradiated pool of Synth chemicals? The only reason I didn’t tell him was because I didn’t want to get kicked out of the Teacher’s lounge earlier! They had some good doughnuts. Am I right or am-I-right Jason?”

I winced, slowly turning around to face Selina,

“Selina!” I hissed.

“What?” She quizzed, “The teacher’s lounge has some crazy good brownies.”

Jason’s eyes widened, “You fought a creepy guy?!”

I scratched my head, “Um, well-”

“Oh jeez people,” Selina interrupted me, “I don’t know about you two, but I’ve had enough drama today. I thought boys would be stoic and boring. Tch!”

Jason sighed, “Eh, I don’t care anyway,” He breathed, shocking me, “You had your girlfriend to protect you so...”

I nodded back, “Ye-wait what? Th-that’s not what-”

He began to laugh as Selina hit him with her backpack, “Back off, rich boy.”

“But did you say something about an Irradiated pool?” Jason asked, calming down a bit.

Selina shrugged and looked at me, “Just tell him when you have your sleepover..”

I looked back at Jason, who just shrugged.

“Yeah sure, homework now, pool of death later.” He summed up the plan, walking away.

Selina did too, but I stopped her. I had just remembered something crucial about Saturday.

“Yea Dami?” She smiled, “Don’t tell me you want a kiss already.”

I coughed, “I just-uh..I don’t know how to dance.”

Her eyes widened, “You thought I didn’t know that?”

My face turned red.

She started to crack up again, her seemingly infinite laugh deafening my ears,

“Don’t worry about it,” She soothed, wiping tears from her eyes, “I don’t think any freshmen know how to dance.”

-

I didn’t have Taekwondo on Thursdays so I just went straight home after school.

When I unlocked our apartment door and headed inside, there was a note taped to the fridge.

It read, “Damien- Your Father and I are out for our 30th Wedding Anniversary- do your homework and there is food in the fridge. Love, Mom.”

I had totally forgotten about their anniversary, but then again, I always did.

I sighed as I walked into my room, closed the door, and sat down at my desk.

After I emptied what seemed like millions of pages of English homework on the table, I picked up a pen and started working.

I couldn’t help but smile,

things were finally back to normal.

As if on cue, a small, warm sensation pricked at my spine, causing my head to swim as my heart rate elevated.

I grimaced, glancing over my shoulder at my back.

Well, almost normal.