Reflection

I didn’t see Skyler anymore when Michelle took me to my next class. Was he mad at me? What did I do? If he was really that upset about Kyle giving me his number, he needed to grow up.

I got to art class early and sat at the back table, where I’d been assigned the previous day. The art class had five tables, each with four chairs. There was paint and brushes in the middle of each table, obviously set up for the project she was giving us. I watched out the window, checking the reflection every once in a while to see if Skyler was done with his temper tantrum.

The bell rang to start class, and a few minutes later the teacher started talking. I wasn’t really paying attention. I was too busy studying the patterns of the clouds.

“Your partner will be the person sitting next to you, and you can get started right now please! Remember, this is a no talking assignments, let the words flow through your paintbrush!” The female teacher instructed. I sighed in my mind, not really wanting to be partnered with anyone. I looked next to me to see who I was paired with, then immediately rethought my idea about being partnered up.

“Hey,” Kyle said, smiling at me. I smiled as well, wondering if I should say something about him giving me his phone number. Or would that make me seem obsessed? Would he care?

“Uh, I’ll go get the paper.” He said, then stood up and walked to a counter on the side of the classroom. I’m such an idiot! Why didn’t I say ‘hi’ back? I just sat there and smiled like a total moron. Nice.

He came back with a big, rectangular paper. A thin black line cut it in half, and his half was already started. One side of an acoustic guitar was sketched, like the black line cut it in half.

“You play the guitar?” I asked, looking up at him as he sat down.

He looked at me for a moment, then down at the drawing. “Oh, yeah, yeah I play the guitar sometimes,” He looked back at me. “Why, do you?”

“No, I just like to listen.”

“I should play a song for you sometime,” He said and laughed a little. I smiled back at him, trying not to get too sidetracked with the though of Kyle singing to me. “Hey, sorry if I weirded you out before. You know, giving you my phone number… The kids I was hanging out with put me up to it and I can never say no to a dare.” He said with a mischievous grin.

“It’s fine, I understand.” I nodded, then we both stopped talking. I watched him start to sketch music notes around the guitar. The project was about things we liked, or enjoyed doing. There was something more about bonding with peers, but I couldn’t remember. I grabbed a pencil and started to draw the front view of my jeep, cut in half just like his guitar was.

“So you said you like to listen to acoustic, right?”

“Yeah.” I answered eagerly, but continued to draw, and so did he.

“There’s an open house type deal tonight at Chets, you should come. I’ll be there.”

“Okay,” I said, my voice sounding as thrilled as I really was, which was a little too overexcited. “Um, what’s Chets?”

He chuckled a little. “I guess it’s a café, pub sort of thing. I can meet you outside at seven.”

Just before I was about to agree, the pale, dark haired teacher interrupted. “No talking.” She snapped. I smiled to myself, ecstatic about being invited somewhere by a gorgeous guy.

After the bell rang to end second period, the rest of the school day flew by. I didn’t see Kyle after that, obviously he didn’t have any classes with me. Michelle and I had a few other classes together, but I didn’t have any time to tell her what happened. I tried to see if Skyler was still following me, but I didn’t see him.

I did feel a little guilty that I didn’t listen to Skyler, but why would he say something that mean about Kyle? He seemed nice to me. At first he seemed like a player type of guy, but after talking to him in art class, he seemed like a nice guy. A nice, flawless, very attractive guy, who invited me to a café.

Once I got home, I sprinted into my house and dropped my books on the dinner table, immediately heading for the phone. I snatched it and looked at my palm, where Michelle wrote her phone number. I started to dial in the number, anxious to tell her about Kyle.

“Who’re you calling?” My mom’s boyfriend questioned from behind me.

“My friend.” I murmured, finished typing in the numbers. I turned around and avoided eye contact, then passed by him to run upstairs to my room. He muttered something behind me, but I was already upstairs, walking into my room.

“Hello?” Michelle answered.

I closed the door to my room. “Hi, it’s Alex.”

“Oh, hey.”

“Okay, so Kyle has art with me second period, and he’s my partner for the project we’re doing.” I spilled, walking farther into my room.

“Oh my god, what happened?” She panicked. I caught my reflection in the big mirror on my dresser. Suddenly I saw something move and gasped, but soon realized it was Skyler, leaning against my wall, his arms crossed. “Are you okay?” Michelle asked.

“Oh, yeah I’m fine.” I continued to talk about Kyle to her, avoiding Skylers glare. She gasped and ‘oh my god’ed in all the appropriate spots.

“He invited you to Chets?! You’re so lucky!”

“Yeah, I’m really nervous.”

“I have an idea! I’ll go too, just to watch you, I won’t interfere with your date. If something goes wrong, I’ll be there to make it better.”

I agreed. After about another half hour of chatting, we hung up. Skyler and I were in total silence. Finally he spoke.

“You’re gonna regret this. I’m just giving you a fair warning, and I won’t say anything else about it. I just wish you would trust me, Alex.”