Chapter 3: Red Letter Day
The school day ended at 2:35, but it wasn't till about 3:05 when Zoe arrived at the library. The tables were full and there wasn't much room to sit and study. She signed her name on a clipboard saying that she was there. She looked around to find an empty table. There was one left in the back near the windows. It was a small table for about four people that no one had taken it yet. Quickly she walked over to the table and placed her stuff down. "Now to go get some books on this damn project." She said to herself as she walked over to the reference section.
A few minuets later Terry walked into the Library. He signed his name right under Zoe's and looked up to find a table not seeing Zoe anywhere in sight. He saw that every table that could hold four people had at least four people at it but the table by the windows in the back seemed to have only one person's stuff at it. He walked back to the corner and placed his books down. He took out a standard blue bic pen with and a notebook and wrote the person who sat at the table a note.
Zoe peered threw the bookshelf's and watched Terry putting his books down at the table. Her eyes were locked on him as he wrote something on a piece of paper and put it on her pile of notebooks and textbooks. He walked over to a computer and started working on one. After finding a few books about World War Two and the Manhattan Project, she walked back to the table and started gathering notes. Before she started, she read Terry's note.
To who ever is sitting here,
I am sorry to place my books here with out asking if it was all right with you first. There are no free tables as you can probably see, and I really need to get my History Project out of the way. I hope you don't mind that I am sitting with you. If you do, I'm sorry.
Terry Banks
Zoe just starred at the note. Her finger traced his signature, it was shaky and each letter seemed to connect to the next. Her finger traced the T once more. 'Everyone you meet will effect you if you like it or not.' Her friends voice echoed in her mind as she started opening the books, Zoe began to do some of the research that she had to do. 'Why can't I just get away from problems?' She thought before she started with making connections of events leading up to the beginning of the Manhattan Project.
She did not even realize Terry sitting down until he said something to her. "I take it your working on the new history project." He said staring at her from across the table. Zoe looked up quickly and then looked back to her book.
Her hand kept writing as she spoke. "Yeah, I'm just finding the stuff I didn't find last time."
"Have you found anything for the interviews?" He started working threw his print outs and notes. He went through the papers highlighting different facts in blue, yellow and pink highlighter markers.
"I've got some pages booked marked at home. Once I set up the computer I can get to them." She refused to look up while she spoke. Her eyes were fixated on the book in front of her. The picture on the page was of some poor Japanese boy after the blast. The boy was in his school uniform and some of his skin was falling off. Finally, Zoe pulled herself away from the book. She placed down her pen and covered her mouth as she yawned and stretched. The two continued to work through the afternoon. "Terry, what does he mean by Fact sheet?" Zoe looked up to see Terry 'resting his eyes' in a book. Zoe reached across the table and gently shook him. "Terry, wake up."
Slowly his blue eyes opened to see Zoe starring at him with a half smile on her face. His eyes held a different tone to them then they did earlier that day. His eyes now held warmth and a brighter look to them. "What time is it?" Zoe looked down at the watch hanging off her belt.
"Five fifteen. Want to call it a night?" She asked as she started to pack up the books from the reference section.
"Yeah."
"Need a ride?" She kindly asked pulling her car keys out of the front pocket of her bag.
"I've been an ass to you all day and you still offer me a ride home? Are you even close to being human?" Terry asked amazed.
Before she answered, she acted as if she was thinking about the questions. "Na, just the new girl." Zoe smiled at him.
"I'll call for a ride if Andy took the car. I don't want to trouble you."
"It's no trouble at all. I've been meaning to see this place since I'm gonna be living here for a while." The two packed up and walked out to the student parking lot there was a lone black car in the back of the lot. Terry pulled out his cell phone and dialed his house number.
"Hey its Terry." He said after a second or two of pausing. Zoe could hear the voice on the other end. "Can you send Andy to get me? He took the car." There was another pause as a voice on the other end spoke. "Oh ok." He hung up the phone quickly. He turned back to Zoe. "Can I still get that ride?"
"Sure." Zoe untied the red ribbon from her hair and pulled the hair tie out letting her braid hang free and slowly come undone. "My cars over there." She pointed over to the lone black car in the back of the parking lot before she started walking over to it. "Terry I have to open your door from the inside." She said as she reached the car.
"Why?" Terry asked with all right.
She batted her eyes as she looked at him. "Because my friends who fixed up the car for me screwed up the lock system and everything." She unlocked her door and climbed in. He watched her reach over unlocking the door and then opening it. "Check my case for something to listen to." She threw her bag into the back seat. Terry placed his bag on the floor and lifted up the CD case that would one day be the home over two hundred CD's.
"Where'd you get these?" He asked flipping threw the pages.
She started the engine and shrugged. "I buy a CD when ever I can. If I need it or not the I'll get a new one." He lifted out the Mix CD that had song listed on the front of it.
"I've never heard of half of these." He continued flipping though the pages.
"That's because their stuff I found at this discount CD shop down in Princeton. It's the greatest place." She turned on the CD player and flipped the lid open as Terry pulled a mix CD out of the case. "Put it in." Terry pulled the disk man to his lap and put the mix CD he was holding in. He kept looking over at Zoe drive as he paged through the CD case.
'I don't get it. Why she has all these CD's. I have heard some of these and they were not that good. But why does she keep them all in her car?' Terry thought as he paged threw it.
"So why does the school hold you, Andy and Joe like Gods. From what I've seen, you aren't anything more then three pretty boys with good hair and eyes." She totally looked past the fact that the three of them had very toned bodies and arms. Terry stayed quite listening to the song. "You need to tell me where I'm going or I'm going to take you to my house and have you help set up my bed room."
Terry slightly laughed. "When you get to the traffic light turn right." He said. As they drove, Zoe sang along with the music. Terry watched her with awe and amazement, 'the girl sitting here somehow is the same girl that I'll spend the next year with. She doesn't even seem to like me and she offers me a ride home.'
"I could have never imagined it'd work out like this, But I wouldn't change it for the world. I hope that you can just believe in me, put forth your faith, trust, love and honesty. But we can't predict what happens from here. So we'll take things as they come, Put the worries of our future away, and live life the best that we can," Zoe sang as if there was no tomorrow. Terry watched her as she sang. Tears started to form in her eyes.
As soon as the lyrics paused and it was, just an instrumental section Terry opened his mouth to say something but no words came out. Finally, some words escaped his lips. "Are you alright?"
She looked over to him as she stopped at a traffic light. "Yeah, sorry, I just remember a lot of old friends when I listen to this song."
"Why this song?" He asked innocently.
She smiled and looked down. A slight laugh could be heard. "The Friday before I left we went to Karaoke Night at the local Teen Club, Club Summer Camp, me and some friends went up and sang that song. It's 'Sorry about Wisconsin' by Red Letter Day or the Get up Kids, depends which version you find. I gave it my all that night, so did everyone else. We got people to notice our slot."
"Sounds like you guys had a lot of fun."
"Only thing we did have was that." She glanced over to Terry to see his questioning look. "We only had fun together." She started driving again.
"My house is right over there." She pulled into the driveway. "Thank you for the ride."
"Don't worry about it Terry." He climbed out and closed the door. "See you tomorrow in class."
"Right." She pulled out of the drive way and just started driving around town, not even knowing where she was going she was just driving.
Terry walked over to his front door and stood there before he unlocked it and walked inside. He placed his school bag down by the door and took his shoes off. Slowly he walked into the living room and sat down on the couch next to Andy.
"Hey." Andy said to his brother Terry.
"Hey." The two just sat there for a few minuets before anyone spoke again.
"You're being hard on her aren't you?"
Terry looked up at his brother. "She acts like her too much. I had to sit with her in the library cause there were no other seats. She didn't even realize I sat down until I asked if she knew where to get the interviews for the project." He stopped as a dirty blond walked through the front door.
"I drove by the school looking for you Terry, where were you?" the man asked.
"I got a ride home with someone I was studying with." Terry replied.
"So who was this person? Have we met them?" The man pried as he walked into the living room. His jean pants were torn at the knee and was slightly bleeding. His leather jacket hung open showing the white shirt under it. His dirty blond hair hung to his chin.
"Its just a kid at school no big deal."
"He better be just a kid at school." His voice was threatening but turned friendly with his next comment. "If you need me I'm crashing." He left the room without saying a word more. Terry and Andy watched him walk out of the room.
The twins stayed silent until they were sure that he was gone. "You've got to be kidding me. She drove you home?" Andy flew forward and turned to his brother.
"Keep it down. I'll explain later."
Each song on the CD brought back memories that overwhelmed Zoe. She kept the CD on to remember while she drove to forget. Before she knew it, Zoe was at the half a state away from where she started and was on the borders of her old town. She pulled over to the side of the road and called her mothers cell phone while whipping away tears from her eyes. "Hey mom I'll get something to eat when I'm hungry I'm working on my new History Project." She paused listening to her mother talking. "Wait mom, that's just a fucking lie." There was a pause where her mother can be heard screaming at her. "You know I don't care about cursing in front of you." Zoe sighed. "Here's the truth, I started driving and listening to this CD and it was like everything was great," she paused again watching the cars pass her by. "I'm outside my home town." Once more, she paused listening to her mother scolding her. "I'll stop by some ones to get something to eat, touch base and then head home." Her mother said something to her but at this point Zoe wasn't listening. "I love you mom." And she hung up and stared at the phone. "But I hate what you did to our family."
"I trusted misleading promises worth repeating, how could you do this? How could you do this to me?" The CD player sang.
Zoe's head fell to the top of the steering wheel. And rested there as her hands clenched the wheel tightly. "I Just can't do this any more."
Terry and Andy were setting up for dinner when the man from earlier walked out of the bedrooms and sat down at the table. He looked to see the two working on dinner. Each of them wore a bandanna over their hair to keep stray hairs from falling in to dinner. Andy was over a pot stirring something most likely instant rice while Terry was frying chicken to Andy's left. Terry had a rag over his shoulder to wipe his hands on after touching the raw chicken. The two boys worked around each other grabbing spices and different kitchen utensils with out saying a word.
"So Terry, Andy what's for dinner?" The man said braking the silenced of chicken frying.
"Fried chicken and instant rice and some greens. Just something quick. Dads working late again." Andy spoke as he started making a salad on the marble counter on his right. "Jeff can you set the table." Terry shot Andy a glare, Andy shrugged it off.
"Terry did you remember to season the chicken this time?" Jeff shot at Terry trying to get him to look up.
"Normal spices." Terry didn't even glance towards his brother.
The sound of a chair screeching across the floor rocked threw the kitchen. "So who were you studying with, Terry?"
"Why do you care?"
"Do you think you sound smart answering a question with another question?"
A slight smirk ran across his face. The sarcasm dripped from every slow word Terry spoke. "How do you want me to answer that one?" The sound of a plate crashing on the floor made Terry and Andy turn around.
"What the hell is your fucking problem little bro? What ever it is, it's so not cool. I understand you hate me for taking her but we both lost her all the same." Jeff was standing with his left foot forward and bent while it was slightly off to the side making him stand in a sparing stance. He clenched his hands into tight fists.
Terry leaned back on the counter. "My problem is that you're the reason she's dead and I'll never forgive you for that." Terry tossed the rag that was over his shoulder into the sink. He starred into his brother Jeff's cold blue eyes. "You didn't even know her."
"At least I saw the real her." Jeff and Terry were about to kill each other once again.
Andy stepped in between the two of them trying to stop the fight that was about to take place. "Terry your chickens burning. Jeff, clean up the broken plate. You guys have to stop fighting like this. It's going to be the end of one of you." Andy played peace keeper. 'or maybe me.' The fights his brothers had were starting to wear away at Andy's soul.
Terry turned back to his chicken. "Maybe it would be better."
It was close to ten when Zoe finally arrived back at her new house. Her mother was waiting for her in the middle of the boxes and furniture scattered threw the living room. "Where were you?" Her mother spoke as Zoe took off her shoes and left her backpack by the door.
"Home." She walked in and put her leather jacket on a hanger and carefully hung it in the closet near the door.
"This is your home now, you know that we can't go back there." Her mother's words stuck with her as she watched her mother.
"I can go back, you're the one who was made an out-cast."
"You're the reason why we had to leave."
"I'm sure being on honor roll, vice president of my class and a fucking girl scout for the past 12 years of my life really caused me to get looked down upon in that town. You're the one who had the affair, you're the one who cheated on Dad. I don't even know how you got me!" She was screaming at her mother.
"You want to know why I had to keep you? Its because you were the mistake that came out of my affair. The man you've been calling dad for the past 17 years isn't even your biological father." Her mother laughed as tears fell from Zoe's eyes.
"I hate you so much."
"Hate the only blood you have." Her mother said before Zoe ran out of the room. Zoe fell onto her bed and cried realizing that her mother just told her she was a mistake and was the outcome of an affair. She turned her music on to drown out the sound of her tears.
"I would have drove all night; would have run all the lights. I was misunderstood." Bon Jovi sang to her as she drifted off into an uneasy sleep.
"These words consumer her but they never set her free." The mix CD played in Terry's CD player has he sat on his bed in white pants and a tank top meditating. The lights were off except for the candles lit in the middle of the room on the two desks. The desks were pushed up against each other to make a small table in the room. A lap top sat closed on one desk and another sat open on the other desk. Three candles sat on the desk closet to Terry's bed while four were on the table closer to the bed near the windows. As the candles burned, Terry breathed deeply the light scents of vanilla and almond candles. Vanilla was Terry's favorite sent while almond was Andy's.
The door creaked as it was pushed ajar. Terry opened one of his eyes slightly to see Andy walk across the room after the door creaked closed. Andy pulled two candles out of his draw and lit them before sitting on his bed. While Terry still ware his uniform from the Karate school he worked at, Andy was in a pair of blue flannel pajama pants without a shirt. After pulling his hair tie out of his soaking hair Andy took the same position on his bed as Terry was on the other side of the room. Andy and Terry's legs were crossed and palms rested on their knees. Terry's hair hung down to the middle of his back while Andy's only fell to his shoulders. "What's wrong with her?"
"Who?" Terry opened the other eye and looked up at his little brother to see the look Andy was giving him. "Oh her."
"No one can replace Jessica." Andy opened his eyes to see his brother, his best friend, swallowing his pain. "You know no one will ever be like her. Jessica sucked at Chemistry, Zoe know's her stuff. She went up against the teacher. Failing miserably but she really questioned him."
Grabbing the hair tie in front of him, Terry began to speak. "Jessica taught me." He paused and tied a lose ponytail at he base of his skull. "Nothing. Never mind." Terry's legs stretched out in front of him and pushed himself off the bed. "I'm going to go take a shower now that your out."
"Wait."
"What?" Terry stood at the door waiting to hear what Andy had to say.
"Terry, you need to let go. You can't hate everyone who dances in the courtyard and calls you a loser. Give her a chance. You might just find something you like about her." Andy pleaded with his brother. "Ter, come on. Let Jessica rest in peace."
Fire flew up in Terry's eyes as he looked at his pleading brother. "How dare you tell me to forget the girl that I loved. How dare you tell me the girl that helped us out of so many jams. The girl that put too much oil in mom's Mustang make blue smoke come out making the highway around us look like Heaven. The girl that made you free, for this new girl that called me a loser and threatened me?"
"Terry your not understanding me." Andy jumped off his bed to stand face to face with Terry.
"I'm not Andy? Then tell me what you want me to do. I'll listen."
"I want you to give the girl a chance. It's what Jessica would have done. She would have gone up to Zoe and welcomed her, not give her the cold shoulder and make her feel like an outcast. In a place she obviously doesn't want to be."
"I'll talk to you later Andrew." Terry closed the door leaving Andy standing there.
"You'll never gonna get better bro." Andy spoke to himself before he walked back over to his bed and sat down to meditate.
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