In My Art

Chapter 19- Grow Up

Song- American Teen by Khalid

…/…

“What’s up?” ID asked as I entered the suite. “Still nothing,” I replied. It’s been a week now and they’ve been asking every day about Dan’s state. Of course, I’ve been giving them the same response, but each day I find new hope to keep me throughout the day.

Since the dream I had, I’ve been hopeful. The dream felt like confirmation from Dan himself that he’d wake up again and I decided to hold on to that dream for as long as I needed to. Over the past week, the exams had started and Bryan had stuck closer ever since he heard about Dan.

I hadn’t seen Asher since he bought tacos for me and I received the bad news, but then again, I don’t blame him. I mean, how would he check up on me without having my number? The happiness from the mystery of not knowing his name has transformed into that of not having his number. It kinda felt like leaving it to fate.

I headed into my room to read ‘The Nutcracker’ again, but not for fun this time. I had a different mission. The summary I wrote last time didn’t do enough justice to dissecting the whole book, so this time, I’m going to attack with my pencil, marker, and sticky notes.

As I’m about to dig in, my phone rings. I checked the screen, only for me to see ‘Tim’. I looked away from the screen out of shock. “What could he be calling me for?” I asked no one. ‘To pick or to not pick’. I really wasn’t sure which would favor me. I was getting ready to do serious work and a conversation with him would really distract me.

At the same time, I couldn’t just ignore it. If it was important, maybe an emergency and I found out later, I’d feel most terrible. The voice in my head weighed the options in seconds and before I knew it, I picked up the phone to answer the call.

“Hey,” I said, making sure to pass the fact that the call was weird across the phone using my voice. “Hey! I heard of what happened to Dan. I am so sorry, Char”. Of course, he’s calling because of Dan. Why else would he be calling me? The imaginary face-palm was very much needed.

“It’s okay. I’m actually good”. “Char, you don’t have to hide from me. I know you and I know how you deal with stuff like that. You can talk to me, I’ll always listen to you”. I had to take the phone away from my ear and take it to my face so I could see the caller ID. I could always talk to him. He’ll always listen to me? Is this some sort of joke?

“I’m really fine and I can handle myself, thank you”. The way I responded may have come off as rude, but I know Tim. He’s very manipulative and only does things so he can get a favor from you. A habit I am very familiar with.

“Charlotte, this isn’t about us”. He did not just say that right now. I calm myself down, so as not to come off as flustered. “But then it is. You haven’t spoken to me for ages and then you call me randomly one day to tell me that I can talk to you and you’d always listen to me? What does that even mean?”

“Look, I still care about you, Charlotte”. For the second time this evening, I checked to see who I was actually speaking to. “No you don’t, you only care about yourself and what we had going on. You just miss that, you don’t miss me”.

“If I miss that, doesn’t that mean that I miss you?” I scoffed. He can’t be serious right now. “You just want someone to love you again and you miss that feeling of being loved, you don’t miss me, Tim”.

“You know what? I’m done with you. You always do this, think for me, and stuff like that. It’s not cool. Plus, Samantha and I have been talking. I just might replace her with you”. “Grow up, Tim. It’ll do you good,” I responded before cutting off.

Samantha? I hadn’t spoken to her because of the time difference and, well, we are both in school but she wouldn’t stoop so low as to go out with Tim. I am a hundred percent sure that she’s heard the news that Tim and I aren’t together anymore. Tim could never score a girl like her.

That was enough distraction for one day. I have a book to finish or at least, get to a significant part where I can sleep and not feel disturbed for having not made any progress.

As I was reading the book, my mind couldn’t help but wander for a while. “Where’s Dan right now? What’s he doing right now? Is his memory still going to be intact when he wakes up?” These thoughts take a stroll in my head looking for where to set up camp. All these thoughts except ‘Is he ever going to wake up?’

Dan would wake up before it started snowing, I just know it. He wouldn’t want to miss it. All that needs to happen is for me to let him know that he has to wake up soon because it’d start snowing soon. Maybe I’d call my dad so he’d put the phone on speaker and, hopefully, Dan would hear me.

…/…

“You guys, it has been so long since we watched a movie together,” Lexie says. This is the first time since the exams started that we’re all in the living room. “In the middle of exams?” I asked. “We have three free days, it wouldn’t hurt to take a break,” Lex replied.

“Yeah, I guess so”. “How many papers do you guys have left?” Lexie asked all of us. “I have one left,” I replied. “Two”. Of course, just one person had to reply for both ID and Jane, and it was ID. “I have one left. It’ll just be a 5-hour break, no men allowed”. She said that last part, looking directly at ID, and then later, she turned her face to me, saying, “That includes you too”.

“Fine, but we can have boy talk,” I said. “Yeah, definitely. I feel so outdated with all the drama happening in your lives. So yeah boy talk”. “We can paint our nails too,” Jane suggested. “Nope, not a chance! Alright, what movie should we watch?”

“C’mon Lex, it’d be fun. I’d paint it black, or white or dark grey. Nothing too extravagant,” she says, trying to convince Lexie. “I’ll think about it,” Lexie says.

“We could watch ‘Scream’ or any horror movie,” ID suggested. “Nope, no way!” I objected. Horror movies scare the hell out of me. “Well then, no romance movies,” she said. “Fine, we could watch strictly comedy, but you know the best comedy movies have a little bit of romance”.

“That is so not true. The best comedy movies have action in them,” she responded. “Yeah, a little bit of action, and romance,” I said. “Nope! Strictly action,” she said. “You can’t be serious right now,” I said. “You know what guys? Why don’t we watch something old? A classic,” Lexie suggests, to keep us from arguing.

“Fine, you pick one,” ID says to Lexie and I said, “Yeah, I trust you”. “Okay uhm, nothing is coming to my mind right now”. I looked at Jane, who could care less. She was busy typing away on her phone. “Jane, what movie should we watch?” I asked. “Anything you guys pick would be perfect”. As I said earlier, unbothered.

I was definitely going to ask a lot of questions about the reason we’re having this party in the first place, also known as ‘the person she’s chatting with right now, that’s making her smile’. Wait, we could watch ‘Yes Day’. The look ID and I gave Lex could definitely send her into the ground. “You can’t be serious,” I replied. “Yeah, she’s joking,” ID added.

“Let’s just watch ‘Imagine That’. It’s funny and really interesting. “Is it new? I haven’t seen it before,” ID replied and Lexie said, “Me too”. “Oh wow, Jane, have you seen the movie ‘Imagine That’. It’s not new”. “Nope, never heard of it,” she replied.

“Name the main characters,” ID said to me. “Uhm, Eddie Murphy, Yara Shahidi but she was younger. She was a kid. It’s very interesting, I promise you”. “Okay fine, let’s watch that”. “I’m down,” Lex said when I turned to face her. “Me too,” Jane yelled.

“Okay then”.