Imagine (2 page)

I love you and I hope you
’re doing great

at school
. We really need to talk, so call

me sometime
please.

I
Love you, Mom x x x

1:23 PM

I hit the delete button without a second thought and set my alarm for an hour’s time, four o’clock. I crawl into bed and pull the dark red comforter over myself; I bury myself in my pillows and close my eyes.

 
              I wake up after what seems like two minutes to my alarm blaring. I’ve got ten minutes before I’m supposed to meet Chelsey for dinner but I know that she’s going to be early, knocking on my door any minute.

I feel refreshed and surprisingly eager to get out and have dinner with her though, the nap did
just the trick. I’m excited to go to Dave’s, the old-fashioned diner style burger place in

Nevada City, a beautiful gold rush town that I enjoy going to because it r
eminds me of the past and what people used to be like. Honor, courage, family, those used to be the important things in people’s lives. I don’t feel like they mean the same thing that they used to, that’s for sure. In today’s society everyone is so caught up in the newest gadgets, people just don’t seem to be able to communicate face-to-face anymore. I watch couples all the time and it makes me sad because ninety percent of the time I see one of the two on their cellphone absorbed in what’s going on in cyber space and not talking to each other at all.

I love older couples, holding hands and still caring so much about each other, their relationship having morphed into a great friendship
over time. I know, I know, sarcastic, moody Trish is a real old romantic at heart. Who’d have thought it? Well I am! You’d never have me admit it out loud, just like I’d never tell anyone that ever since I first bumped into him, every time I see Keagan I get giant butterflies in my stomach and my palms become sweaty.

I
pull on my favorite jeans and a red Volcom t-shirt. I throw on my flip-flops and rush to my mirror. I stare at the girl looking back at me. High cheekbones, bright red curly hair down my back, my bright green and gold eyes stare back at me. I look a bit pale and tired, which surprises me since I feel so energized. I start to throw on some war paint to hide my tiredness. I pick out some black eyeliner and mascara as well as a light pink eye shadow.

Chelsey picks that exact moment to storm into my room.
“Looking good McKay, but you better do something with that hair of yours. Want me to straighten it for you?”

 
              She looks stunning! Wearing a short, flowery skirt and a loose fitting teal blouse. Her blonde, shimmering hair just thrown into a high ponytail and big hoop earrings encrusted with diamonds dangle from her ears. 

She always wants to do something with my hair and for some reason I d
ecide to take her up on her offer. I pull out my flat iron and watch as Chelsey’s jaw hits the ground. This is a first and I’ve never worn my hair straight since I’ve been here. It used to be something that my Mom did when we still lived in Florida. Since arriving here I’ve stayed away from things we used to do together, but I really want my hair straight tonight.

 
              “Really? I get to do your hair? You’re going to look so fabulous; Keagan won’t be able to keep his eyes off of you!” She says through her beaming smile while reaching over and taking the brush from my desk. 

“What do you mean, Keagan won’t be able to keep his eyes of
f me? Do you know something that I don’t?” I ask, I know she’s up to something. 

“Oh I didn’t tell you, were not just meeting Eddie at Dave’s!” she tells me while she’s pulling the brush through my hair.
I look over my shoulder at her but decide not to say anything, since my stomach is already in knots at just the thought of getting to spend time with Keagan.

After forty minutes at the
hands of Chelsey, my hair is laying perfectly around my face. Really bringing out my eyes and skin tone. We walk over to the bus stop, about a ten minute walk. During which Chelsey fills me in with stories from her day, we don’t share all of the same classes at school so we always have to fill in the blanks for each other. 

We arrive at Dave’s
at around six and I notice that the place is pretty packed. I take a deep breath and reassure myself that I am going to have a great time, this is good for me. I need to get out and be around other people, not just Chelsey. We push our way in and I notice Keagan right away, I take a minute to just look at him and I once again really like what I see. 

“What are you looking at freak girl” I hear behind me.
I turn around and there is Porsche, looking beautiful in an exotic way. Porsche is one of those girls that is beautiful and knows it. She always has a different guy hanging from her tall, shapely figure. Her blonde hair is long and stick straight, not one hair is out of place. She’s wearing an outfit that screams look at me. Knee high boots, short black skirt and a hot pink tank top, which is tight and showing some serious cleavage. Not really an outfit for dinner at Dave’s more for going to a club. Maybe she’s heading out dancing after, but I doubt it. There aren’t any nightclubs in Nevada City.

She stalks over to Keagan, puts her arm through the crock of his arm looking me in the eye while doing it. I see him also lift his blue eyes to me and then shift towards Po
rsche.

 
              “Can I help you, Porsche?” he asks her while trying to push her away. She pouts prettily and tries to hold on, but to no avail. She is not used to being rejected and flashes me a dirty look. She simply grabs on to the next guy that walks by and waltzes away as if nothing had happened.

At this point Chelsey grabs my arm and we make it over to a corner booth. I grab the menu and check to see if they have sweet tea, whi
ch naturally they don’t as I’m not on the east coast anymore. One of the many things I dislike about California, as well as the terrible drivers and how people just don’t seem to know how to be polite. 

 
              The waitress comes over and takes our order, Chelsey orders a salad and I decide on a cheeseburger and fries. Dave’s is famous for them. At the very last minute I add a chocolate shake to my order. It is absolutely divine, definitely one of my better impulse purchases. It is creamy and tastes like pure heaven with lots of chocolate sprinkles on top of fresh whipped cream.

“Hey
ladies! You two are looking mighty fine today, how’s it going Chelsey? Eddie says with an arrogant grin on his face as he and Keagan slide into the booth with us.

Chelsey immediately lights up and they fall into convers
ation about how the school year has been and how much they enjoy being at Dalton. I glance up, realizing that Keagan is staring at me and I give him a shy smile. I don’t really know what to say or do with myself. “Hey newbie, how do you like your classes so far?” he asks me.

This is the first time that I have ever had a conversation with him and it
has run through my head a million times. Each time with me being full of confidence, smiling and engaging him in conversation. Sadly though, that is not what happens. I just stare at him like a grinning idiot.

“She loves it
here; she really enjoys Mr. Monous American History class!” Chelsey comes to my rescue, as she had noticed my distress. I finally come back to earth and find my words.

“Ha,
ha you know I don’t like him! Just because you can’t get enough of his lessons doesn’t mean that I enjoy his endless blabbering!” I tell them both.

 
              “But you
do
like it here, you can’t deny it!” she replies. At that moment our food arrives, I am as thankful for it as I am completely tongue-tied once more. I cannot seem to put together two sentences in front of him. With one last look at us the boys get up and head back over to their friends, leaving us to eat.

I immediately start
digging in, the burger is so good! The cheese just oozes over the perfectly cooked patty, the whole thing served on a classic, perfectly toasted sesame bun. The fries are handmade too; they’re perfectly crisp with a nice little kick.

“You guys have a good weekend!” Chelsey yells after them.
Eddie glances back over his shoulder, winks at us and says

“We all should hang out
, tomorrow maybe? Wanna catch a movie or something? How about we meet in front of the dorms at 5, grab a bite and then go check out what’s playing at the old theatre?" 

 
              "Sounds good, Trish and I will see y’all at five tomorrow." she replies.

Did that really just happen
? Did Eddie just set up a double date with us? I can’t contain the huge smile anymore, and as soon as it appears on my face Chelsey begins teasing me.

“I knew all along that you were crazy about him, I really don’t get why you just won’t admit
it!” Chelsey smirks and throws one of my own French-fries at me.

“I guess he’s al
llllright!” I reply with a wry smile on my face.

“Well I can’t wait to see what
they have planned for tomorrow night” she says, stealing one of my French-fries and stuffing it into her mouth.

 
              “I know me too. I’m really excited!” I tell her.

II

imagine falling for someone

I wake up the next morning, roll over onto my stomach and glance at the alarm clock next to my bed. It’s already ten o’clock. I don’t think that there is anything I love more than not having to wake up to an alarm, being able to sleep in as long as I want and then being able to just lie in my comfy bed and daydream once I do wake up.

 
              I can’t help but
Imagine
Keagan smiling at me tonight when he sees me. I already know that I’m going to blush when I see him. That being said I still cannot help but daydream that he’s going to walk right on over to me and give me a big hug. I think about the point when his arms wrap tightly around me, it’s going to feel amazing. In my daydream at least, he smells wonderful, freshly showered and just a hint of cologne. Then we’re going to go out to eat and he’s going to hold my hand while were waiting for a table, telling me how he’s been waiting a long time for the chance to take me out and how he hadn’t ever asked me before because he gets too nervous just being around me.

I snap out of my daydream and get r
eady to go for my morning run; Mom always said that it was important to be in good physical condition. That being able to run could save yours or someone else’s life one day. I thought that she was full of bologna; I still did it though, as running calmed the beast inside of me. Sometimes I get frustrated with how other people treat me or with schoolwork that confuses me but I’ve found that running with loud music in my ears calms me down. So I do it a lot, almost daily actually. 

I pull on some running shorts and a hoodie, I know it’s going to be som
ewhat chilly outside, but I just don’t really like to run wearing long pants. I pull my hair into a ponytail and wash my face. The makeup still on my face from last night makes me look like a zombie panda, huge dark circles underneath my eyes. I look at myself in the mirror to check I have got it all and am presentable.

Grabbing my i-Pod, I place a headphone in each ear while jogging on the spot, and head out of the door. I choose Rise Against for today’s running soundtrack. I like up-tempo stuff when I’m
running; it really gets my blood pumping. I do have a tendency to play my music way too loud though, sometimes people will make a sarcastic comment as they can hear it too. But music is meant to be played loud, in my opinion so I never let it bother me.

I make it out the building without seeing a soul, somewhat surprisingly for a Saturday morning. I slowly continue to warm up, stretching my tight muscles. Just as I predic
ted, it’s pretty nice out but still somewhat cold. My favorite kind of weather for a morning run. I
never
run when it’s over eighty degrees out. I just do not enjoy running when it’s so warm that my face gets all hot. It makes it hard to breath. So during the hot Californian summers I make myself get up super early and run, when it’s cool outside. I like seeing the sun come up on a new day while outside too. It’s never too dark to run here, our campus is very well lit at nighttime.

I’m finally warmed up and start my three mile jog. I’d love to call it a run, but jogging is more my speed. I enjoy running but I’m not that fast. It usually takes me about thi
rty minutes for my three mile circuit around campus.

I get lost inside of my music and the scenery, a
nd about a mile into my run a shadow falls in front of me, getting bigger. When I glance around I notice that it’s Keagan. Holy Smokes, can a guy look any better? With that thought I stumble over my own two feet and crash to the ground.

“Crap!” I utter, I just sit on the ground where I fell and take out my headphones, wrapping them around my iPod as I turn it off, just as the song ‘Swing Life Away’ begins. I look at the damage, I’ve got pretty bad rug burn on my hands and knees, the skin looks pretty cut up and blood is begi
nning to seep from my wounds.

“Oh wow! I’m so sorry
, Trish. I didn’t mean to scare you. I saw you running and thought I’d catch up to say hi. Maybe talk about tonight and what exactly the plan is.” He says, barely out of breath.

Keagan looks worried about me.

               “It’s not as bad as it looks, and it wasn’t your fault I just tripped over my own feet I’m somewhat of a klutz.” I try to say as brave as possible, while my hands and knees burn like crazy.

“I do think that I might be done with my run for today though. I’m gonna have to head back and put some Antise
ptic on my hands and knees to make sure that they don’t get all nasty.”

“I’ll walk you ba
ck, it’s the least that I can do as it was me who caused you to fall” Keagan says with a twinkle in his eye.

He holds out his hand and pulls me up. Holding my hand
a little longer than need be, I can feel my face flushing with heat. He is smiling at me, butterflies flutter like crazy in my stomach. I hate to admit it, but Chelsey was totally right. I have got a huge crush on him! 

We head in the direction of my dorm
slowly; I can’t believe that this is actually happening. How I could be so lucky as to have run into Keagan this morning. I shyly glance over at him and meet his gaze, the corners of his mouth curl up smiling at me, I give him a smile back. I start the conversation.

“You and Eddie seem like you’re pretty good friends. How long have you guys known each other?”

               “Eddie and I actually grew up together; our town is pretty small so everyone knows each other really well.” He tells me.

 
              “So where are you from?” I ask my question seems to catch him off guard.

Stumbling on his words a little he replies “N-n-not too far from here a
ctually. I still miss my hometown though, and my family as they don’t really come to visit. They are always really busy.”  

I can see a shadow crossing his features and he pauses, seemingly lost in his memories. He con
tinues “I miss how calm and beautiful my home is and how close all the families are. I remember growing up, if I fell and hurt myself like you just did or had any kind of accident anyone would come and make sure I was alright. Take really good care of me and take me back to my parent. If I had a hard time with any of my training then I would get extra attention, nobody would make fun of me for being a little slower than everyone else.”

“Your home sounds like a really great place, you’re so lucky to have a community like that, one that is so close.
 I didn’t really have that growing up. It was just my Mom and me. Now it’s just
me
.”

For just a m
oment I am gripped with sadness thinking about home, but I shake myself out of it, remembering that I’m currently walking with Keagan and we’re actually having a conversation.

I
am still caught off guard when Keagan nudges me lightly with his hips. I look at him with surprise; he has a huge grin on his face. I don’t think that I have ever really seen him smile before. From the first moment I saw him I found myself attracted to Keagan, but I really like this side of him, it makes him even more attractive.

 
              “You’ve got us Trish! Chelsey, Eddie and I. I have to say I’m really looking forward to tonight. I haven’t gone on a date in a while!”

My heart seems to splutter. Did K
eagan just call tonight a date? OMG! It takes every bit of self-control I have to not do a happy dance.

“I’m looking forward to tonight too any idea whe
re were going for dinner or what movie we’re seeing?”

“I’m not telling you, it wouldn’t be a surprise then would it? You’re just going to have to wait and see!” He says, giving me another nudge with his hips.

He’s teasing me; Keagan is teasing me, flirting. Who would have thought that going on a run this morning would result in this? Certainly not me, that’s for sure. But I am very glad I stopped to wash my face before I left my room this morning.

We continue our flirting all the way to my dorm. Except for him opening up about his home
town, he’s not too forthcoming with details about himself. But we still have a great time and I’m sad when we stand in front of my dorm. Not only is our walk over, but it seems that we have picked the worst time to return. 

Porsche and a group of her friends are all
sitting on the stairs.

“Ugh what are you doing with HER Keagan?” Porsche in all her blond glory sneers and points at me. Her gang giggling away. “I really thought that you had better taste? Monkey breath? Of all the girls you could choose to date”

The carefree, smiling Keagan that I was just with has now completely disappeared. In his place, is the dark and brooding Keagan that everyone is so used to. 

“Porsche, why don’t you go bleach your roots or something? They’re star
ting to really show! Or see if you can find another tiny skirt to squeeze into.” I shoot back at her.

Could she look any sluttier? I mean seriously, does she not have any self-respect at all? Take today for example, her en
semble consists of a bright yellow, and I mean highlighter yellow, skirt and a halter neck top that’s short too. Showing the world her belly-button piercing.  

“You know how you call me monkey breath? Well, I think it’s only fair that I have a nickname for
you
! I’m going to start calling you
‘Slutty Barbie!
”

“Am I supposed to be offended by that?” Porsche say
s as she throws her blond hair over her shoulder, giving Keagan a smoldering look from under her fake eyelashes.

“Ugh, whatever Porsche! I feel like I’m losing brain cells just talking to you! I better save some and go for a shower!”

With that I turn to Keagan and give him a hug. I whisper in his ear “I enjoyed our conversation, I’ll see you later!” With one last smile over my shoulder I run up the stairs, past a Porsche who’s catching flies with her open mouth trying to think of a comeback. With a skip in my step I head towards Chelsey’s room, because I know before I can do anything else I have to tell her all about my morning.