To Love Him

Chapter 2

Sammy Walcott

Rumors; I hated them. And gossip too.

If I had my way and right I would have loved to see Crystal's friend gasping for her breath as I strangled her with my bare hands. I'm usually violent, now I feel murderous.

"Dude, that tapping is distracting." Some guy said calling my attention with his ruler.

I turned to him with my trademark glare. Do-not-mess with me look, thankfully and easier for me, he understood the look perfectly and backed off, raising both palms up. That always works, unless the person on the receiving end had a death wish. And right now, I'm feeling particularly generous.

I'm the f*****g fairy Godmother or genie.

I sighed running a hand through my hair. I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill. So what if Crystal's friends lied, it doesn't- it shouldn't matter. It also doesn't matter that I've spent a better part of my today looking out the windows and snapping my attention to doors whenever someone walked in.

I shouldn't be doing this but-- but I'm waiting for him.

You're such a fool Sammy, waiting? Again? You've been waiting for six bloody years, aren't you tired? Why aren't you tired? He's not coming. They lied.

I exhaled, balling my fist and releasing. I stopped tapping my finger on the desk and I heard the guy from before sigh in relief. I'm used to this. To getting disappointed.

I tried to distract myself by staring at the digital clock hanging on the wall. Thirty minutes more before this detention is over and done for. The clock was failing me because my mind kept wondering back to the name Elijah Garcia.

How tall is he now? Will he still remember me? Does he have tattoos and piercing? Cut it out Sammy, he was your best friend. This time of curiosity is reserved for lovers and that's certainly what we weren't.

I started on my English Essay ignoring the looks the other guys were giving me for snapping my pen into two.

Detention ended sooner than I expected- wanted. As weird as it may be, I wanted to stay there longer. Yes, I couldn't stand the other boys but at least that place was kinda keeping me sane. Being out now was like letting an angry bull out of its den or cage, whatever.

I was anger and I had all this bottled up energy inside me. I wanted to punch something, somebody. I'm on a look out for trouble. And......

"Watch it dude, you almost stepped on me." Some guy said; I knew he was referring to me but for his own good.

"Dude, I'm talking to you." He said placing a hand on my shoulder.

I stopped walking to him. "What did you say?"

He opened his mouth to talk and from the corner of my eyes I saw his friends pulling and pinching his hand. From the look in his eyes, I could tell he was foolish. "I said you almost stepped on me."

"So?" I asked taking a step forward.

"So, it right that you apologize."

"And if I don't?"

"I-If if you- if--" he shuttered at a loss for words.

I grabbed his t-shirt pulling him forward, his eyes widened and the emotion he's been trying to hide finally showed through his eyes; Fear.

I smirked. That's just right.

"If you don't want me to almost step on you, then clear out of my f*****g way." I pushed him back, causing him to slam his back against the lockers. Then I stepped on him.

With another satisfied smirk, I pulled my hoodie lower and walked out. I could hear them grumble and mutter behind me.

Thankfully my walk back home was trouble free, just me occasionally kicking any glaring stone, rock out of my way. The clouds were beginning to gather and the wind was picking up. This weather plus the little walk helped release a little anger boiling inside me. I felt—freer; still angry but not murderous anymore.

Reaching my house, I noticed unusual thing; being two giant moving trucks. On a closer look, I deduced that people were moving into the house next to mine, new neighbors.

Seriously? It’s just been a week since the last meddlesome neighbors left. Why can't I get at least a year free, or even a month? Is that too much to ask?

"Yes."

My head wiped around in alarm. Was someone hearing my thoughts? Was I speaking out loud?

"Yes dad, we didn't forget the ball stack; it's still on one of the trucks." The male voice spoke again. I've never heard anything more masculine.

Someone inside shouted something I didn't catch, only heard the end which said "...rain's coming."

"Of course the rain is coming. I've told you before, this day is jinxed." The male outside said again.

My lips twitched for a second. Every day is jinxed, but for them I guess today is pretty horrible. The rain is going to beat some of their stuff. I resumed walking and my new found curiosity shocked me.

I wanted to see the guy speaking. By his voice he wasn't too old or too young, my age mate then? Who's my neighbor and is that the new voice that's gonna be waking me up every morning? Before the kettle, our former neighbors were my alarm clock.

I heard a grunt as I came into view with the building and then a base ball came rolling towards me. Now the wind had really picked up and was blowing everything in sight, my poor hair. I watched the ball until it came to stop at my feet.

"Great. I bet something fell off right now." The guy grumbled.

He was carrying a huge box, really huge, I mentally commended his strength. The box was blocking off half his body and I could only see his khaki pants, blue Nike and the sleeves of his blue shirt plus his fingers; big, long and apparently strong hands.

I picked up the ball. "Yes, something did fall off."

I don't know what made me talk. I should've just ignored the ball and walked home but I did talk and now the only thing I could hear was the wind. My voice isn't as great as his, that's for sure.

He chuckled, "please tell me it’s not something valuable."

He's talking back, nice.

"Depends on how you value a baseball." I said walking closer, the ball playing with my fingers.

"s**t, very." He says and makes a sound like light chuckling.

I smiled again; weird, then stopped right in front of him. The only thing separating us was the giant box. I was curious to see his face but it seemed impossible in this circumstance.

"I'm just gonna put the ball back in here." I said placing the ball carefully, back into the overflowing box.

"Thanks Man, I appreciate."

"You're welcome." I said, I think he nodded but I didn't see.

He turned around with another grunt walking into his new house and I jogged into mine.

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