Destine (The Watcher's Trilogy) (5 page)

The rest of my morning was uneventful
.
Science was interesting, and the rumors about Gabriel had escalated
.
Now h
e was apparently not just a
juvenile
delinquent
, but an actual fugitive from the law
.
He seemed to be unfazed by
the rumors
; s
peaking to no one
,
from what I saw, and neither
confirming
n
or denying
any of the ridiculous stories
.
Come to think of it, I hadn’t heard him utter a single word
.
A
s
far as I knew he didn’t even speak English
.
I would keep that to myself, lest I create yet another rumor about the new kid
.

In lunch I again found Cami sitting by the windows with a packed lunch
.
After grabbing my usual chocolate milk and slice of pizza I plopped down next to her
.
I immediately dove right in
to my art club pitch without hesitation
,
acting as if I didn’t know she was ticked at me
.

“
…
and we’ll get out of a w
hole day of school for the trip,
”
I finished.

“Michelle, I appreciate your attempt, but my mind is made up
.
I’m running for student council treasurer and that’s it
.
Alex thinks it’s a great idea, and no one else has shown interest in running for that position
.
Maybe we are just finally growing apart
.
If you want to jo
in art club without me go ahead,
”
Cami replied.

I felt as if someone had punched me in the stomach
.
Not because she was determined to pursue this student council thing, but because she actually claimed we were growing apart
.
I didn’t feel like we we
re growing apart!
Actually
,
I felt like we were as close as ever
.
I didn’t know what to say
;
I just stared blankly at her
.
Cami took my
lack of response as an answer, and quietly proceeded
to finish
eating her lunch
.
When the bell rang
,
ending lunch, I still hadn’t thought of anything else to
say to Cami as I fought back the tears welling in my eyes
.
She got up without a word, threw her trash away, and proceeded to gym without so much as a wave goodbye
.

I was so distracted by the whole Cami predicament
.
I walked int
o British L
iterature and just sat down in the same seat as yesterday
.
I was racking my brain on how to fix things with my best friend, and for that matter what I had done so wrong for her to be this upset with me
.
It wasn’t until Gabriel came and again sat down right behind me that I remember
ed
that I was planning on moving my seat
.
The class only consisted of about twelve students, so why sit directly behind me
?
There was plenty of room to spread out
.
If I got up and moved now it
would surely seem
rude;
I had enough people annoyed with me right now, I didn’t need any more
.
So I stayed put, but just like yesterday I got the same eerie sensation
.
It felt like little bugs were crawling along my skin, and I swore if I touched the back of my neck I would feel all the little hairs standing straight up
.
I tried to ignore it and think o
f a way to fix things with Cami. A
s the bell rang to end class I
realized
I had missed most
of what Mr. Brown
had said
for the second day in a row
.
Tomorrow I was
definitely
moving my seat.

I continued on to gym, alone
.
After another gym period of militaristically cruel exercise, I changed back into my jeans and t-shirt
,
attempting to keep from sweating all over my clothes
.
At least my braided hair had stayed tied firmly in place
.
I then wandered off to study hall
,
still unsure how to treat Cami and her new resolution for popularity
.
It was then that it hit me. T
his was just another fad and I
needed to treat it like all the others before it
.
Support Cami in whatever
ha
ir
brai
ned
idea she was wrapped up in, and eventually this too would pass
.
Already feeling more optimistic
,
I hurried off to study hall.

Cami
was exactly w
h
ere she was yesterday
reapplying
her
lip-gloss
, and I plopped down beside her
.
I immediately leaned over and whisp
ered, “Hey, I’ve been thinking
…
i
f you want to run for student council, go for it
.
I think it’s a great idea and I’m sure you’ll be great at it.
”

Okay so the last part was a lie
.
I doubted that Cami even knew that a treasurer was in charge of keeping track of the money, and given Cami’s history in math class I was not sure
at all that she would be great
. B
ut what are friends
for
?

She turned and smiled at me.
“I’m really glad you understand
.
I just think it’s about time we start doing things separately
.
I mean after all, what are we going to do next year when w
e go away to different colleges?
”
She turned her head back to her compact and smeared more cotton candy scented lip-gloss across her lips. 

Huh? I had always assumed we would go away to college together and of course share a dorm
.
It never occurred to me that Cami didn’t feel the same way
.
I attempted to conceal my shock at her sudden disregard for the fact that we had been inseparable since kindergarten, and ventured on
.
“Yeah, I think I’ll join art club anyway and like I said I’m sure student council is a great idea for you.
”
I forced myself to smi
le in an
effort to sell the lie
.

She smiled back.
“I’m glad you understand.
”

The rest of study
hall we helped each other figure out our calculus homework
.
She acted
like everything was normal, but I couldn’t quite shake the feeling in the pit of my stomach that everything was not okay
.
I did not want to join separate clubs, I did not want to grow apart, and I
definitely
did not want to go to separate colleges
.
When the bell rang, I fo
llowed Cami to our lockers
.
We stuffed our books into our bags, and as we turned to leave Alex came up to Cami
.
She immediately turned on the charm
.
Apparently there was a lot to talk about concern
ing student council elections
.
She
walked
off with Alex only taking a second to turn around a
nd
wave bye to me
.
She didn’t even promise to call tonight.

When I walked in the back door, I crossed through the kitchen and into the living room
.
Just like every other day, I passed my mother sitting on the couch watching television
.
She glanced at me with glazed over eyes, and didn’t even so much as mutter a hello
.
Why on earth could I not have a normal mother like every other kid I knew
?
Why did I have to have the mother who was crazy
?
A mother who didn’t even know where she was half the time, let alone that her only child was having a personal crisis
.
The
mother I had when I was younger would’ve
noticed something was
wrong, she would’ve
asked me what happened, and then given me advice on what to do about Cami, but that wasn’t my mother anymore
.

Ever since I was twelve my mother had been different
.
It had started out slow
ly
.
She bec
ame
depressed, then paranoid, and by the summer of my sixth grade year she was seeing things and talking to people who weren’t there
.
The doctors said she was schizop
hrenic, and they offered us no
real reason as to what had brought it on
.
All
they could do was medicate her into a near comatose state, and give my father and I advice as to best handle her “condition”
.
My father handle
d
it by working as much as possible, and being in denial
.
I handle
d
it mostly by ignoring it
.
I focused on
school and getting into college and moving away
.
If I were away I wouldn’t have to worry about her wandering into town and embarrassing me, or worse yet completely ignoring me
.

I spent most of the rest of the night finishing homework, and feeling sorry for myself
.
I figured I was a teenager and I deserved a little selfish wallowing
.
I went down around seven-thirty
and cooked dinner
.
When Dad came
home around eight
, the three of us sat in silence and ate our grilled cheese and tomato soup
.
I did the dishes and then went upstairs to read, some science fiction was in order to take my mind off my miserable life
.
I waited, but Cami never called
.
  

Chapter
3

Revelation 6:1; "And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see."

The rest of the week went by in a strange blur
.
Wednesday faded into Thursday and Thursday into Friday, until I found myself dragging my feet into homeroom Friday morning
.
It had been a bad week, even by my standards
.
Cami and I were still barely talking and this “phase” she was going through was starting to look less and less like a phase
.
She and Alex had been discussing election campaign strategy all week
.
Alex was in hot pursuit of the senior class president title and apparently needed all of Cami’s undivided attention to come up with campaign platforms
.
My pathetic situation met its pinnacle when Cami sat with Alex and his fellow followers at lunch on Thursday
.
It had gone something like
…
”
Chell
, you don’t mind if I sit with Alex today
,
do you
?
Just for today so we can talk about campaign posters.
”
She pushed her bottom lip out in a pout for extra effect
.
I
,
of course
,
had
agreed
.
I was still walking on eggshells around Cami because I didn’t want to give her any reason to ignore m
e further, but by Friday
the writing was on the wall
.
Not only had she no
t
sat with me at lunch, but she hadn’t stopped by my locker or called me since Monday
.
To top off the week, I walked to school today in the rain
.
I usually enjoyed rainy days, but today’s rain just seemed to darken my mood further
.
As I shuffled to my seat in my wet sneakers I heard Cami’s high pitched giggle ringing like bells over the other
murmurings of the classroom
.
Couldn’t she even pretend to miss me a little
?
I glanced over, but I already knew what I would see
.
She was leaning over Alex’s desk, looking at some paper he was holding, and angling her v-neck shirt to show just enough of her cleavage
.
He was smiling, showing his perfectly straight white teeth, and artfully looking down her shirt without ogling
.
I dropped down into my seat with a
huff;
I was both jealous and repulsed by the display
.
What was Cami’s deal
?
You do not ditch your best friend senior year! Especially for a guy!