Weather
Chapter 2: Coldness
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November
11, 1998.
It was very cold outside, at least for being Los Angeles. If they’d been in a more northern city maybe it wouldn’t be considered that cold. It wasn’t even below zero, so why complain?
“Fred, calm down, for God’s sake. Chill out, and slow down!”
Cecilia ran up next to Fred and grabbed his arm. He stopped abruptly and turned to face her.
“What?” he asked madly. “I’ve both slowed down and chilled out, so what do you want?”
Cecilia looked at him with pleading eyes. “Please don’t be mad at me, Fred.”
“Let’s see, why should I not be mad again? You lied to me, you deceived me, you was with another guy, you were at a party you shouldn’t be at, you made me look like a fool, and you behaved like a real bitch to me. Tell me again why I don’t have the right to be angry?”
“Lied and deceived is pretty much the same thing, Fred.”
“Don’t make fun of this, Cecilia. You wanted me to slow down, and now you have my attention. Talk.”
“Uhm...” She hadn’t really thought through what to say to him when she’d finally caught up with him. She didn’t even have a valid explanation. She had to improvise.
“I didn’t lie to you, Fred. Technically, I hid the truth for you. It wasn’t a lie. You always tell me that I should cut down on my talking, so you should be proud of me for finally shutting my mouth.”
It was obvious that Fred wasn’t in the mood for any of her flipped out explanations. An apology was what he wanted, not a try of seeming cute.
“Technically, I’m gonna leave you here on the side of the road until you get frozen to the pavement,” Fred muttered. “Too bad that this is L.A. If we were still in Sweden, there would be some snow to help the progress go faster.”
“If we were in Sweden, you and I wouldn’t be together.”
“If you wanna bring that up too, fine. Stay here and bitch about that with your new friend the Streetlight.”
Fred began to walk towards the school, and Cecilia sighed. She had to do something to make him stay. “Fred!”
“Yeah?”
“Can’t you just be angry while walking me back to the dorm? I don’t wanna walk by myself at night.” That was partly true. She hated to walk in the dark. She hated the dark. At least when she was all alone.
Fred stopped and looked at her. “Well, I’m not gonna carry you, if that’s what you think. Come on, then!”
Cecilia hurried over to him again. He was the best boyfriend in the world. For the moment, anyway. She might change her mind at their next fight.
“Thank you, Fred.”
“As much as I want you to freeze to death, I don’t want you to be here alone in the dark. Maybe we could get back here tomorrow, so you can freeze in the daylight instead?”
“’key.” It was probably better to agree with him, instead of starting a new fight. She really didn’t want him to change his mind about walking her back to the dorms.
They walked in silence next to each other. They both considered the situation as highly unpleasant.
“Besides, you can’t just blame me for irrelevant stuff,” she said, like she was in the middle of a sentence.
“Huh?”
“You said that I was with another guy, well, aren’t you exaggerating that just a bit? You’ve never had any problems with me hanging out with Adam before. Well, not since your little jealousy-act of yours, like ten months ago. You’re not having a fall-back, are you?”
“More like a fall-out. With you.” Fred looked a bit confused. “What are you talking about, really?”
“You blamed me for being with another guy! You behaved like I’d cheated on you or something.”
“I was upset, so shoot me,” Fred hissed. He started to walk faster, making Cecilia half run to keep up with him. “And I didn’t know that it was Adam.”
“Well, who did you think it was? Fred, come on!”
“I don’t know,” he shouted. “What were you doing at that party in the first place? You’re only thirteen.”
“No, I’m not. I’m the same age as you are. Remember last month, when you organized that party for me? See, it was because it was my birthday. The day I stopped being a...”
“Jerk?”
“No, I was going to say ‘thirteen-year old’. You’re the jerk. I was at the party because Adam asked me.”
“Why did you lie to me?”
“Because you were already pissed at me, and I was mad at you, so it was just an act of...”
“Stupidity?”
“Stop finishing my sentences!” Cecilia yelled. “It’s really annoying.”
“I bet it is. So, you were trying to make me even madder? Mission accomplished. Back to you, why did you have to ridicule me?”
“Hey, you didn’t have to shout at me like you did. It was your own decision to make a fool out of yourself. I tried to stop you, but no, no, no. You didn’t wanna listen, well, congratulations, how does it feel to be a loser?”
Fred put his hands into his pockets and nodded at the school’s direction. “I think you can manage to get back by yourself now. See ya.”
“Wait! Aren’t you gonna say something sarcastic or insulting back?”
“As much as I would enjoy that, I have to turn it down for now. Maybe later.” Fred began to walk over to the boys’ hallway, leaving Cecilia alone on the front porch.
“Fred!”
“I’m too tired to yell at you right now. Can’t we save this for tomorrow?”
“If I say I’m sorry, would you apologize for calling me a ‘bitch’?”
“Depends. Do you want me to be sincere?”
“Bite me,” Cecilia laughed. “Please, say you’re sorry, and walk me back to my room.”
Fred smirked. “So that’s what’s bothering you? Rough, tough Cecilia, aint afraid of nuthin’, big-mouthed, bragging, greatest of the world, the anti-girly stuff, fearless Cecilia is afraid of walking back to her room alone.”
“Just forget about it, then. I aint afraid of...”
“Nuthin’, yes I know.” Fred smiled to himself when Cecilia turned to walk back alone. “Wait, sorry, I didn’t mean to insult you. I’ll walk you back, come on.”
“Don’t bother, I’ll manage to walk back without you. See ya.”
Fred smiled when he saw her run up the stairs to her room. He could bet a thousand dollars that she would stop at every corner to check if it was safe to continue walking. She would jump at every sound she heard and she would walk on unsteady legs all the way to her room. Maybe he shouldn’t laugh at the thought of her being insecure and scared, but he couldn’t help it.
Actually, just as revenge, he would follow her on a distance. Maybe even scare the hell out of her.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Guy woke up
next to Connie. They had been watching some movie, he couldn’t remember which
one, and they had both fallen asleep. He looked at his watch. It was ten past
one in the night.
He’d better
get moving so he wouldn’t get caught by any of the guards. He knew for a fact
that getting caught in a girl’s room after curfew was a very bad thing. Last
time he had been discovered in Connie’s room, Mike had him doing choirs for a
week.
Just to
think how many choirs Fred and Adam must’ve done, all the times they’d been
caught in Cecilia’s room.
“Guy?” A
sleepy Connie tugged his arm.
“Yeah?”
“Are you
still here?”
“Obviously.
I have to get going now. Wanna meet up tomorrow?”
“Okay. You come
by and pick me up?”
“Sure. See
ya.”
Guy pushed
himself down on the floor and grabbed his jacket. Connie tugged his arm again.
“Guy?”
“Yeah?”
This was
how most of their conversations started. She called his name, and he answered.
It was stupid, but they’d been doing it for years now.
“Could you
lock the door when you leave?”
He nodded
and leaned forward to give her a kiss. “See ya tomorrow, Con.”
Connie
closed her eyes again and was about to fall asleep when they heard a scream,
coming from outside.
“What was
that?” Connie said, sounding scared.
“It sounded
like Cecilia.” Guy turned to walk to the door when he heard Cecilia’s voice
from outside.
“You ass!”
Guy smiled.
It couldn’t be that serious if she was yelling insults to whom ever it was who
had scared her.
Connie climbed out of bed and pushed past Guy to get to the door. “Move,” she commanded.
“Whatever you say, sweetie,” he smiled and moved so she could open the door. He could hear Fred laugh from the other side of the door, so he had already pretty much figured out the situation.
Guy pushed the door opened and walked out, making Cecilia turn around. He could practically see her jump several feet into the air. It was still dark in the hallway, so he had obviously scared her too.
“Damn, Guy, what the hell!?”
Guy laughed. “Calm down, jeez, Cecilia. It’s just me.”
Cecilia looked even madder now, and hurried to open her own door. When she finally got it open, she rushed into her room and slammed the door. Fred was leaning against the wall, still laughing.
“What did you do?”
“I scared her. She’s very scareable. I haven’t met anybody as nervous as her.”
“Be nice,” Connie yawned. “Bye Guy.”
“Bye Connie.”
Guy and Fred walked back to their own rooms, telling each other about their nights. Fred was still laughing when he finally got to his room.
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