The Awakening of a Soul Reaper

Chapter 6 Broken Friendship

The next morning Clarice wakes up and for the first time in a while, she feels completely rested, she gets up and puts on her clothes, going downstairs she finds aunt Bell sitting at the kitchen table eating some cereal while reading the newspaper.  The main headline reads West City Empty Tracks!  “I see you will need to take a different route this morning,” Aunt Belle says.  “Why?” asks Clarice.

“The accident that you witnessed yesterday caused some structural damaged to the overhead rail tracks and all trains have been halted while they are busy with repairs.  All traffic and shops facing the tracks in that block have been ordered to close today while they are busy with repairs.”  and also, the roads and shops have been closed, they also say that there are 2 people dead and 4 people injured in that accident” her aunt replies.   

“Did they say what caused the accident?” Clarise asks.

“Apparently the guy responsible for the accident was intoxicated.  He was on his way home from his wife’s funeral when he suddenly lost control of his car” replied her aunt.

“I hope no one got seriously hurt” Clarise says.

“According to the newspaper, two people died and four people injured in the accident, the woman was mom of 4-month-old baby” her aunt replies.

After breakfast Clarise takes a different route to school through a busier part of town, as she walks, she can’t help but wonder about the dark figure that went into the car, and that directly afterword’s the car crashed, did that thing cause the accident she wonders if it did, how did it manage it?

Her thoughts start to drift into a different route, Will I see Tyler today? She wonders, realizing she must be blushing, she tries to think about school work.

Reaching the main gate, she gets greeted by Willow, “You really are slow!” she says to Clarise

“I had to take a different route this morning because of the accident yesterday, the whole part of the street is closed off while they do structural repairs” she explains.

The two of them talk about the accident as they start to walk over to room 302, as they start to climb the stairs a student chased by another student, slams into her, spinning her around and causing her to losing her balance, her one-foot slips, as she starts to fall, she feels two strong arms catching her.  With her face against his chest, she smells a fresh clean aroma, almost like walking through a forest just after the rain.  I know that smell her eyes grows wide and she starts to turn all shades of pink and red in her face.  I remembered this smell from when I bumped into him the first time.  She pushes herself away from his rock-solid chest “hum, thank you!” she says feeling a bit embarrassed as she looks up into Tyler’s eyes. He starts to smile at her, wow what an amazing smile he has runs through her thoughts.

“We should stop meeting like this!” he says, realizing immediately how corny that must have sounded closing both his eyes you i***t he thinks for himself. 

“I feel like a complete klutz, these days, I’m not usually as clumsy” she smiles back at him, “You are Tyler, right?” she asks him, trying to be cool, leaning against the wall with her left shoulder.

“The one and only” he replies still feeling embarrassed, “sorry, but I don’t know your name?” he replies staring into her light green eyes.

“Hum, its Clarice…” she replies, it feels like her heart is pounding outside her chest, why do I feel so excited she wonders.

“Well Clarice, whenever you feel you need a hand to catch you again, just call me” he says with a smirk on his face, brushing his short hair backwards with his hand making them stand spikier.

The two of them stand there for a while just looking into each other’s eyes. 

“I will try and remember” before she can finish, “Ahem” Willow clears her throat loudly.  She is already standing on the second floor, “Hum, I’m sorry to interrupt you two, but we seriously need to get going” Willow says waving Clarice along.

“I hope I see you around” she says as she leaves him on the second last step of the stairs.  He smiles and winks “likewise”. 

“Well, sorry I had to call you away but I had to before you trip the fire alarm” Willow says giggling.

“I don’t know what it is about him…” before she can finish, she gets interrupted by James “about who?” he says as he puts his left hand on Clarice’s right shoulder and, his right hand on Willows left shoulder trying to pry himself in-between them.  “Take your hand off me” Willow says, she takes his fingers and start to bend them over forcing him on his knees, “this is no way to treat a lady” she says curtly.  “I’m sorry, I’m sorry...” he begs her.

Clarise started to laugh, she came to realize that Willow was not someone to be messed with, but she did not expect this, “Leave him, I don’t think he meant to be a jerk” she says.  Willow letting go of his fingers slowly, bends over and puts her index finger underneath his nose, “never, and I mean never! Interrupt, a lady when she is speaking!” glaring at him with her eyebrows lowered, her eyes squinted. 

“I’m sorry I won’t do it again, I promise” he replies dropping his head, “I was just joking around!” he tries to explain.   Clarise turns to him and reaching out to him with her hand to pull him up, he looks at her and accepts her help.

After he got up, he dusted off his pants, apologized again before walking off.  “I think he just tries too hard to be friends!” Clarise says while looking at him walking off.  “Yea I know all about that, and more…” Willow replies still looking a bit upset.

The two of them start to walk off, “what do you mean, more?” asks Clarise, “Were you friends at one time?”

“His dad used to bring him over to my dad’s barber shop for haircuts, and then afterword’s, his dad would take us for ice-cream or pudding, and would sometimes also take us to the park to play.” She says with her head slightly tilted to the side looking up and thinking back. 

“So what happened?” Clarise asks. 

“It just stopped, I guess he got tired of me or something” she replies dropping her head looking at the points of school shoes “he never really talked to me about it or gave an explanation”.

At room 302 all the students are standing in their groups chatting, making jokes.  Clarise walks over to her desk, the desk behind her is empty, that is weird she thought he should have been here by now.

At recess time as Clarise and Willow sat down, Clarise realized that she hasn’t seen James since the incident that morning, she looks over to Willow who is already through almost half her lunch.  “Have you seen James; I mean after what happened this morning? She asks her cautiously not knowing what to expect.

Willow pulls her lips together to the one side, “No I haven’t seen him, and, I don’t care” she replies, while taking another bite of her sandwich.  “I think I’m going to try and find out where he is, I think he might be ashamed about what happened this morning.  Are you coming with?” Clarise asks while packing up her lunch.  Willow gives a sigh of frustration “If I have to!” rolling her eyes.

As they start to walk towards their homeroom Clarise hears “Hey Clarise, is everything okay?”  She looks over her shoulder and sees Tyler standing there looking at her with some concern on his face.  “I’m just looking for someone” she replies hastily.

“Can I help in some way?” he asks following them.  “If, you want to, you can come with…” she replies.  The three of them go over to 302, they find Mr. Johnson sitting at his desk, enjoying n piece of chocolate cake.  S startled Mr. Johnson tries to hide the cake when the three students walk into his classroom, “phew, I thought you were someone else he says” wiping over his forehead with his hand.

“What can I do for you?” he asks while taking the cake out of one of his drawers.  “We are sorry to disturb you sir, but do you maybe know where James is today, we saw him this morning at school but since homeroom we have not seen him” asks Clarise.

Mr. Johnson digs through a pile of papers on his desk and picks up a small piece of paper, “yes, he didn’t feel well so the school nurse sends him home” he replies, showing the writing on the piece of paper to the students.  The three of them thanked Mr. Johnson and walked out.

Outside on the balcony overlooking the schoolyard, the three students came to a stop, “can we go to James after school and just make sure he is alright?” Clarise asks Willow.  “Yea fine!” she says while walking off. 

“So, we make it for around four” Clarise calls out to Willow.  Willow just makes an okay sign with her thumb in the air.

 “So, this James, is he your boyfriend?” Tyler asks curiously.

“Oh, no, no, he is just a friend” replies Clarise this is the first time she actually used that sentence she realize, she never had friends before.  “Oh, just making sure!” replies Tyler with a big smile on his face, “say can I also come with you to see James?” he asks.  Clarise can’t help but smile she can feel her eyes light up, “Yes sure, actually I would like that!” she says.

“Where would you like me to meet you?”

“Do you know Bells Bakery?”

“I think so?” he replies.

“I will send you the location on your phone, just give me your number” she takes out her phone and hands it over to him to enter his number.

After school Clarise rush home, she tries out a couple of shirts to go with her skinny jeans, “I hope I look okay” she says softly to herself looking in the mirror.  She rushes to the bakery where Willow is already waiting.  “I’m just going to send our location to Tyler” Clarise smiles fiddling on her phone.

“Is this the first guy you like?” Willow ask Clarise.

“What are you talking about?” replies Clarise.  “You can admit it, it’s obvious and it’s also obvious that he likes you!” Willow stated.

“While we wait for your boy-friend” Willow says teasing her “why don’t we get a bite to eat” she looks into the bakeries window.  “Wow, yea sure” Clarise says waling into the bakery with a big smile on her face.

Aunt Belle is so relief to see that Clarise is making some friends, she knows that back in Norbury she didn’t have any friends, except for her mother.  She was always withdrawn from everyone.

The two girls each sit and enjoys an éclair, topped with melted chocolate and a cream filling.

The door opens and Tyler walks in, he is dressed in a denim jacket, black shirt and tight jeans with brown hiking boots tucked in. 

Clarise's face lights up like a child on Christmas morning when she sees him, “Hey!” she waves him over.  Aunt Belle so completely stomped by Clarise’s reaction to him, calls over Clarise, “who is that?” she asks her.  “It's Tyler a boy from school” replies Clarise.  “Why are you blushing like that, you look like an overripe tomato” her aunt teases her

“No, I’m not!” she replies, she can feel her hears under her long hair becoming flaming hot.

 “Now go back to your friends” she orders her, pushing her lightly with the back of fingers, laughing.

The three leaves the bakery and starts walking over to James’s house which is not far from them.

They walk past the place where the accident happened the previous day.

Suddenly Clarise feels the hairs in her neck standing upright she stops dead in her tracks, she feels a cold shiver running down her spine, her eyes grow wide open, “there, there…!”