Chapter 17
Strawberry Morning
It was a terrible night for me. I barely slept. When I did sleep, I would dream of darkness. From that darkness, a smile would appear, and a metallic flash. Then I would wake.
So I spent the hours studying.
Daybreak came, and I did my daily routine, but I still took the bus instead of the subway. I still felt it was too early to be seen there again. Eason said there would be no problems, but I wasn’t so sure. When people fear you once, it’s difficult to forgive or to forget. I took the bus to school.
I arrived just as class started. The class was half empty, but I saw that purple skull ribbon. I sat down next to her, and she smiled.
“You’re not in this class,” I whispered.
“I know,” she whispered back.
The professor continued on with his lecture.
“Why are you here in this class then? You don’t even attend our other class.”
“Well, I wanted to give you something.”
“Excuse me!” the professor turned toward us. “If you have something more important than me to say, then please say it to the class.”
“No. Sorry,” I stated.
Class ended fifty minutes later. Grace and I walked out from the lecture hall.
“That was the first time I’ve ever gotten in trouble with a professor.”
“Sorry,” she stated. “At least, it’s a new experience!”
I shook my head, and we continued walking.
“So, why did you come today?”
“I wanted to say ‘sorry.’”
“You planned on getting me in trouble?”
“No!” she laughed. “I wanted to say ‘sorry’ for being so out of character – for being so moody.”
“You were stressed, so don’t worry about it. I’m always moody.”
“You are moody!”
“Thanks.”
“But still, I’m sorry.”
“Okay – but don’t really, don’t worry about it.”
“Here!”
She handed me a wrapped package. It was wrapped in black paper with a purple bow. A small skull patch laid on the bow. It looked like the ribbon in her hair.
“What’s this?”
“You’ll see!” she smiled.
I opened the package and pulled out the red tie.
Smiling is infectious.
A strawberry was sewn onto the bottom of the tie.
“It’s perfect. Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome!”
“So what do we do now?”
“How ‘bout lunch? You’re paying!”
It was an interesting way to start the day.
2 comments:
I think Grace is apologizing to the reader for being out of character, not just to Hank. It is an interesting point of literary philosophy then if you see it that way because the interaction then becomes the character apologizing and the author justifying.
All in all it was a touching chapter.
Haha. Deep.
I'm glad you liked it though.
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