No Time For Tears Ch.3

by Dragonfly in World of Books

Chapter 3

 

Diary,

Well, winter's come and gone. Spring has sprung and only a few more months until summer camp! Sure, it's old, it's musty and everyone at school goes to it, so it's not like you meet anyone new. But everyone's been going since they were two, almost. Coming in at eight was like, late. There's something about camp mixed with the charms of summer that truly makes it special. And even though winter's barely released it's hold, I can already feel summer. Taste, smell, touch. All five senses. Plus, a sixth sense. Summer calls me.

Could it be the possibility of a summer love? Allie and Billy ended their go to everywhere relationship(as in, they weren't dating, but they didn't go to any dances with anyone else) but they totally still like each other. They just don't have the guts to move farther. But I want what they definitely had. Billy was such a nice guy. He was always our friend, and definitely OTTP(Open to the public) at all times. OMG! Do I like Billy?! No. I can't. Not with camp and everything so fresh! Whatever. I don't like Billy. Such a silly lapse in judgment of a good friendship. I'm totally marking that out!

 

Shay put away her notebook, and tucked it into her bag. She was staying after school, waiting for Allie and Sally. Sally had some weird etymology club,(which was thankfully not about bugs!) and Allie was being professionally tutored for Algebra and Spanish, somewhere inside the school. The school had set up online tutoring with old students who'd gone to college, and would talk to kids about what they needed to do if they wanted to get accepted somewhere. When Shay had bothered asking her why, Allie had snapped at her:

 

"Ugh, Allieee, why bother? You know you're smart! What do you need a tutor for?"

Allie had turned, looked her straight in the eyes, and replied, "Because I wanna to get outta this dang small town! Some of us don't have relatives who live in the city and can get you into any college you want or even just support you if you don't. Heck, you're so rich, you could stay here all your life, then when you get bored, go visit the city on a whim. Some of us don't have that luxury!"

 

Later, Allie had apologized, saying she was just tired and her mom was bugging her lately, so she was super irritable, and she just couldn't help it. Shay had forgiven her naturally, she'd blown up before too. But what had been so weird was that Allie didn't blow up just like that. There had to be a deliberate reason. Things just didn't get to her like that!

Anyways, now Shay was sitting here, bored to absolute tears. The spring air still had a bit of a bite to it, but the warm Texas sun loosened it's icy nip. So she sat there. She didn't have anything to read, but she hated reading, so that was no surprise. She forgot her iPod, so she couldn't even have some music to drown out the endless silence. One would think that when you're in a small town, someone would always be out there, sweeping the porch or something. Shay sighed. Sally would say she was still thinking like a city girl. Even though she'd been here since she was eight, she might as well say hello to those city girl thoughts. Every now and then, she'd have stereotypes run through her head, even though she had probably disproved all of them, when she was like, ten. Shay sighed again. Nothing. Absolutely not-

 

"Boo."

 

Shay screamed and jumped at least ten feet in the air while still sitting. She stopped screaming as soon as she heard someone chuckle. She turned around and whipped right around again, going ugh, when she saw who it was.

 

Billy was still laughing as he sat on the stairs next to her. He had a harder time doing it because he was so tall, and even though he'd grown out of his clumsiness and into his jockness, he still had secret mess up moments that only Shay knew about. This was because she was the only one he believed wouldn't judge her. Which was dumb as she mentioned many a time, but he stuck to his guns on it, so she let it go. But she couldn't help laughing as she watched him make a fool of himself on the stairs.

"You are really...dumb, you know that?"

Billy laughed.

"What?"

"Well, it's just, if Sal was trying to insult me, I guarantee she would've come up with a way better insult. Something complicated and full of letters. And if Allie had been insulting me, she would of probably of made me feel bad for scaring her in the first place, and I would've apologized until I couldn't breathe and then some more before she forgave me. You just insult ne the way a normal person would."

 

Shay smiled.

 

"Yeah, so you're saying that Allie and Sally are exceptional and all I am is normal? Wow, that really hurts Billy. Truly. Go away. I don't want to talk to you anymore."

"Aw, I'm sorry Shay. Please forgive me. You know what I mean."

He looked at her with those green eyes of his and she was suddenly very aware of the fact that he was sitting right next to her. She smiled back. And before she knew it, they were getting closer and closer, in fact, he was just close enough to...

 

kiss her.

 

 

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New Words:

 

grapheme- a unit of a writing system consisting of all the written symbols or sequences of written symbols that are used to represent a single phoneme.

 

veritable- being truly or very much so.

 

pharisaic- (lowercase) practicing or advocating strict observance of external forms and ceremonies of religion or conduct without regard to the spirit; self-righteous; hypocritical.

ignominious- bearing or deserving ignominy; contemptible.

poltroon- a wretched coward; craven.

 

Sally finished up the last of the new words she'd learned at the etymology club. It wasn't really called that, but it didn't exactly have a name for it yet, so she just called it that. She tucked her stuff into her bag, said bye to the rest of the group and started walking out the door.

"Wait, Sal, why don't you stay and hang out for a little while? We were thinking about going to the Shop later. It'll be loads of fun."

The Shop was an old ice cream shop that had been around forever. It'd been passed down for generations and generations in the same family. There had been renovations over the years and was now pretty cool.

Sally looked up at the clock and considered the idea, but she knew that Shay was probably still sitting out there. She normally didn't give up unless her parents called her home. So she slowly shook her head no.

"Sorry guys, but I gotta go meet Shay and Allie. Maybe some other time." She waved good-bye and headed out the door. She was walking slowly, because she was digging through her bag, trying to make sure she had everything. Slowly, she pushed the door leading outside open and headed toward the front steps. She heard giggling and then silence. Silently, she looked up and saw Shay as usual on the front step. But before she said hello, she saw who Shay was with.

Murmuring quietly to each other, Billy and Shay were laughing together about something. Billy inched closer and whispered something to her, looking at her dead on in the face. Shay turned her head toward him and they slowly inched closer to each other, until their faces were almost touching. And then, they kissed.

Sally felt her mouth drop open. Millions of things to do ran through her head. Confront? Run? Tell? Sally could hardly think straight, something that rarely happened. And, walking in automatic mode, she just turned around and walked back into the school.

 

 

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Study Book

Blah, blah, blah. This week's tutor is so boring. Thank goodness he only has audio. If he was able to see me, I'd have to pretend to be paying attention. I know all of this already! Something I've told him a million times before. Oh well. I wonder what time it is. Oh! It's five o'clock! Thank goodness! I actually stayed on past four thirty. Now I can tell him I have to go while actually meaning it. Hallelujah!

 

"Hey, Geoffrey, I'm so sorry, but I really have to go. I'm already ten minutes late for dinner."

She waited for Geoffrey's nasally voice to come back on, and cringed when it did.

"Oh, okay Allie. Heh, sure. Sorry I kept you. Make sure you study that Geometry!"

" Absolutely Geoffrey!" she replied brightly.

She packed her stuff, shut off the computer and made a hasty escape for the computer lab door. She strode briskly down the hall, out the back door and ran the rest of the way home.

 

Dear Diary,

I hope Sally and Shay aren't to mad at me. I know I left them at school, but I really was late for dinner and I also didn't want to run into Billy on the way home. Things have been so weird lately! We're supposed to be friends, but every time I see him, I just want to hide! And when I actually have to talk to him, ugh! But it's fair right? After all, he's the one who kissed me, then breaks up with me two days later! I have every right to feel weird, right? I wonder if he misses me as much as I think I miss him?

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