Right In Front of Me (Finished)

Chapter 20: Third Wheel

***Avalon's POV***

        I wake up a little early the next morning, so I go downstairs and remove my spoon from the fridge, and press it onto my eyelid. It is a cold, almost hurtful sensation, but I don't remove it. I go back to my room, and click on my iPod, plugging it into my speakers. I play 'Forever And Always' by Taylor Swift. I love Taylor Swift. I put the spoon on my other eyelid, then once I am done with the spoon, I place it on my desk. I wash my face with Morning Burst in th bathroom, then go into my room and open the curtains, revealing a very dead-looking outdoors. I cringe at the thought of going out in the cold in an hour. I get dressed, then sit at my desk and do my makeup. Then, I do my hair, and put on my beanie. I keep playing Taylor Swift songs as I get ready.
        My window opens suddenly, causing me to squeal. Greyson puts his hand over my mouth and whispers, "Quiet! You have a sleeping family in the house. You better not wake 'em up." I nod, and he removes his hand. He backs up, and stands up. I notice that he is already ready for school, and it is only 5:13. School starts at 6:00, and we leave at 5:45, so we still have another half hour, since we pick up breakfast on the way to school.
        "Why are you up and ready so early?" I ask him. "Because," He says, "I have an idea," He wiggles his eyebrows. "Ew, don't do that. Just tell me, Oh Wise One, what is your amazing idea?" I wonder. He says, simply, "A message pipe." I stare. "A who?" I don't get it.
        "A message pipe! You see, my dad went to the junkyard to look for parts to build a go-kart, and he had an extra pipe-tube thing! It's ten feet long, and has a four-inch radius. It's perfect!" He stares at me. I blink. He paces. "Oh, c'mon! We slide it through our windows, and send messages through it! We toss folded up papers through it! Genius, right?! Tell me I'm a genius. Go ahead, my speech is over. Praise me." He sits on my bed. I make a face. He opens his eyes. "What?" He asks about my reaction. "It's just that- I mean it's a good... plan, and all, but- it's just--" he cuts me off. "It's just what?!" I swallow. "It's almost winter."
"So?" He is getting impatient.
"How do you think we will be able to close the window with four inches of pipe between the window and the window sill?"
His shoulders slump. "I- I mean, it's good, just not...right now. Maybe in the spring?" I suggest.
"Yeah, I guess..." He murmurs.
"But you know what we should do with winter coming?" I ask. He blankly stares at me. Finally he says "What?" I say, "We need a cover for the bridge. For the winter; so that it doesn't totally get ruined with the snowstorms and stuff." Grey looks at me, says, "Okay, maybe, but not today. We don't have that much time." I say yeah, and we leave to go to school.
        On the way to school, we stop at Chick-fil-a for their breakfast sandwiches. When we get to school, we see that the hallway performers are being pushed out of the hallway, being told to get to class. I haven't watched the hall performers in a while; so I make a mental note to get here early tomorrow. I say bye to Greyson, and walk through the hallway, being greeted by a few people, five tops, on my short walk to class. I wave to each person who says good-morning and say something similar back. I walk into first period, Science, and sit near Lana, Taylor, Yolanda, Mercedes, Jackson, and Mason. I say hello, but Yolanda just stares. "What?" I ask her, glancing over my shoulder. "Is it true?" She asks in return. She leans in closer. "Is what true...?" I wonder, suspiciously. "That Hayden Diamond asked you to Prom?!" She whisper yells. The whole group leans in, encaptured by my possible answer.  "Uh, yeah-" I get cut off. The whole group starts saying things. "Shh! Shh! O-okay, okay. So, Avalon... how did he do it?!" Taylor says, silencing the gang. A few 'yeah's and 'how's escape their mouths. "W-well, we were hanging out at my house, and I went to the bathroom, and when I came back, Hayden and my brother, Brian, were holding cutouts of the letters of the word 'Prom?' in my room. So, I said yes!"
        Mercedes gives me a look. "And after? What happened after you said yeah?" She wiggles her eyebrows. I shoot her a secretive look. "Now, what happened after I said yes... is totally classified." I wink. Lana says, "Ooooh!" Her voice rises to high pitched at the end of her 'ooh'. I roll my eyes. Mason says, "So what you are implying is that-" I interrupt, "I wasn’t implying anything." He rolls his eyes, replies, "Maybe not, but is what you're suggesting that you got him laid?!" He shouts 'BOOM!' as he high fives Jackson with both of his hands twice; one down low and once up high. "No! I did not! And don't you go spreading that around the school, you pervert." I shoot back at him. He slaps his right hand to his heart, gasping out, "Be still, my beating heart! That hurt, Avalon Starr." He fakes passing out while Jackson fans him with a notebook. Mason sticks out his tongue, pretending to be dead. Taylor pretends to cry over the death of her loved one. Yolanda giggles, says, "I volunteer to give him mouth-to-mouth recessitation!" She leans toward Mason, puckering her lips, while Mason puckers his, after putting his tongue back in his mouth; but Taylor beats Yolanda to it, softly kissing his lips. He sits up and Jackson exclaims, "'Tis a miracle!" Mercedes cries out, "True love's kiss does exist!" The rest of the class period goes about like that, driving Ms. Scott crazy.

***
        At lunch, Hayden presents to me the most gorgeous pairs of earrings. "I want you to wear these to Prom." He informs me. I nod, agreeingly. "They're beautiful," I gush, thanking him with a kiss. I show them to Hallie, and she says, "They're beautiful, aren't they? I was there when he picked them out," she tells me. I give her a hug.
***
        The next morning, I can't find my contact case anywhere. I check under my bed, on my desk, even in my shoes; but they are no where to be found. I tell my father when he comes in my room to ask why I haven't left yet, that I am not feeling well, and may need to go in late. I text Grey not to pick me up, and that I’llk tell him why later. When my dad leaves my room, I glance toward the bottom of my bed, considering grabbing what I know is under there, but I dismiss the idea quickly, ruling out wearing my glasses to school. That would be social suicide, which I cannot afford, being super popular and all.
        I put on 'Superstar' from Taylor Swift's album 'Fearless'. This song used to explain my life. 'You smile that beautiful smile and all the girls in the front row scream your name. So dim that spotlight, tell me things like, 'I can't take my eyes off of you'. I'm no one special, just another wide-eyed girl who's desperately in love with you. Give me a photograph to hang on my wall, you Superstar.'  I could totally relate; I liked Hayden, and he didn't even know I existed. I wrote a million songs about it. I listen to the line 'I'm invisible, and everyone knows who you are.' That one would always give me tears. Now the only reason I would cry at that line is because I feel sad for the way I was before. It was truly sad. Now look at me! The next song I put on is 'Invisible', which is still by Taylor Swift. Then I play 'The Outside'. And a bunch of other songs by Taylor Swift that I used to relate to. Now, there's nothing there. Is that a bad thing?, I question myself. I shake that question off my shoulders and take a nap.
        At some point I wake up and I am greeted by my sister, Summer. "Hey, there, kiddo! How 'ya feelin'?" She asks. I rub my eyes, reply, "Fine, I guess." She brightens up. "Yay! Good. 'Cause we are going shopping. Get dressed!" I look over at my clock. "It's only noon. I should be going to school, right?" I ask. She says, "I think that you should stay away from school, just to 'make sure you aren't contagious'," she winks, "I mean, you are already excused from school today; why not take advantage of it? Plus, mom and dad are both at work." I say okay, and go get ready, then we leave.
        Summer and I always play a game when we go shopping; we both pick out three things for the other person to try on. We enter Forever 21, and split up. five minutes later, we both have three things for each other in the correct sizes. Before we enter the dressing rooms, we each grab a plain tank top, in case we need one to try on other things, like skirts or something. Then we walk into two separate dressing stalls right next to each other. "Ready?" Summer asks. "Yep. Go!" I answer. We fling the clothes we chose over the seven foot wall separating us. She catches her three items, and I catch mine. We try on the first item on our stack. We count to three once we are both dressed, and on three, we step out of our stall, revealing what we look like. Summer is wearing a gorgeous peach dress, and I am wearing a royal blue dress. We go gaga over how we look, then go to change into the second item. I chose for her a lace dress, which she adores. When we walk out of the stalls for the second reveal, she complains how the dress she chose for me looks so good compared to how it would look on her. For the third reveal, we both ended up wearing party-type dresses. I gave her a gold dress, which will look extravagant on her, with her tan skin. She gave me a dress with a color that was sort of hard to describe, but it looked great on me.
        After we placed the clothes to the reject rack, we decided to choose two Prom dresses for each other, just for laughs. Once we chose them, we returned to the same changing stalls. We walk out a minute or two after for the first reveal. The dress she walks out wearing is simple, but the color is gorgeous. She says that the color is nice, but not on her. She melts over the dress that I am wearing. "Definitely something of that color for your real Prom dress," I gulp. "Well, it's funny you mentioned that... since I... have a date for Prom already..." She screams, "OMG, do you really?! Who?" I shoot her a 'duh' expression. "Of course, of course. It's Greyson, right?" She asks, cheerily. I give her an 'are-you-stupid' face. "What?" She asks. "No! It is not Greyson! It's Hayden, duh!" I smack her head. Her lips form into an 'o' shape. "Okay, that's still awesome! But definitely something in this color for you. What do you think?" She questions. "Maybe; I love this color! But just not this dress; it's a little too... much, you know?" I answer. She smiles. "Totally."
***
        Hallie and Greyson stop by my house around 3:00. They barge into my room, yelling, "We come bearing Slushies!" I sit up in bed and say, "I wish you were coming in peace. I do have a headache, you know." I remind them, accepting my Slushy. They laugh. "Greyson told me that you texted him saying that you were sick, so we got Slushies on the way home." I slurp a little, then ask, "On your way home from where?" Hallie says, "Um, school! You know, they do still have that going on all day." Greyson chimes in, "Yeah, and some people still show up, you know." I play along. "Oh! Is that where everyone disappears to everyday?" They laugh. "Pretty much." They reply. "No kidding!" I exclaim in fake shock. "Where's Hayden?" I ask. "Football practice." Hallie informs me. I nod. We all decide to watch a movie in Greyson's room, so we all shiver our way across the bridge.
        When we walk into Greyson's room, Hallie announces that she is going to pee, preferably in a bathroom, then she leaves. Greyson and I sit on his bed and wrap a blanket around the two of us. I rest my head on his shoulder, then I feel him looking at me. I look up, and we are only a few inches away from each other. We stare into each other's eyes, but I feel my eyes drifting down to gaze at his lips. They are right there. If I wanted to, I could just push my head forward the few inches I would need to, and just kiss him. I could. I notice him staring at my lips too. Then he says, "Were you ever really sick?" Caught up in the moment, I shake my head. I can tell he wants to ask why I stayed home, so I answer before asks. "I-I couldn't find my contacts." He gives me a look. I don't want him to think I am superficial or anything, so I add, "And my glasses weren't where I thought they were. But then I found my contacts around noon, but my sister wanted me to go out with her today, since I was already excused from school, and she needed some sister time." He nods like he wants to say something, but won't let himself, and nodding is the only thing that will stop him from saying what he wants to. I smile a little smile. He smiles back, but it's tight. I drop my smile, and so does he. He closes the gap between his lips, and I turn my shoulders toward him more. I tilt my chin up, pushing my head closer to his. He lowers his head a little, leaving only about a centimeter of space now between our lips. I breathe lightly, not sure what to do. I'm pretty sure he is doing the same as me. I don't know what comes over me, but I move closer, about to brush his lips with mine ever so delicately, when I hear a flush. I stop moving forward, completely frozen. We both hesitate, but lower our heads. Hallie walks in, and he looks at her and smiles. I look at him, though the whole time he looks at her. I just stare at the back of his neck, but then she comes over and sits next to Greyson, then kisses him on the nose. Lightly, she asks what movie we are watching. When she asks me what I want to watch, I tell her I don't care; that she should choose. She puts in some action movie that she is "dying to see!".
        About halfway through the movie, Hallie looks at Greyson longingly. They get real close, then kiss sweetly. He, then pushes her down on the bed, pinning her wrists down as he climbs on top of her. They make out for a while; at least twenty-five minutes. She wraps a leg around his waist, while he kisses her neck. She has her hand on the back of his neck (where I was staring at him before) and she presses her chest against his. One of his hands is right above her boobs, and it slides down onto one of them, but he doesn't do anything to it, still trying to be gentleman-like. She grinds a little on him, and he kisses her lips roughly while one of his hands slide under her butt, and the other on her back, as he pulls her up into a sitting position. She wraps both legs around his waist, one hand messing his hair up, the other on his back, pulling him as close as possible while she grinds harder on him. He is now squeezing one of her boobs, and that's when I got up and left. The movie credits were already rolling, anyway. A single tear strolls down my cheek, though I don't know why.
        In my room, I close my window until it hits the carpeted wood of the bridge, and no more cold air can come in. I collapse on my bed, just wanting Hayden to show up, so I can remind myself how crazy about him I am, and so I can do all of things that Hallie was doing with Greyson, because I hate being a third wheel. I'm just in the mood where I want to be loved. I want to be loved so bad right now...