Walking Among the Shadows: Awakening: Revised Edition (4 page)

As I watched her prance down
the hall, I so wanted her to slip on something and fall flat on her butt. But
Sarah was too graceful for that.

Oh well, to class.

As I looked around I began to
notice a lot of things and even though I hated to admit it, Sarah was right.
This school was designed as if we were not capable of thinking for ourselves. I
must be coming down with the swine flu to agree with Sarah.

T
he day
was moving pretty fast and before I knew it, lunchtime was upon us. I never got
to meet up with Tony during second period because I needed to sign up for
football tryouts. When Coach Towers saw me walk through his office door he
looked at me like I was the IRS ready to probe his entire life and every
opening in his body. When he inquired why I was there and I told him my
intentions, he nearly fell out of his chair. I was well aware that word had got
to him about my potential for the running back position and he was interested
in me joining the team. But he also was aware of the lunchroom incident during
my first year here with the starting quarterback’s older brother. He would have
asked me to try out a long time ago but he didn’t want to chance any
confrontations that could disrupt the team’s chemistry.

“Aiden, are you sure you want
to do this?” Coach Towers asked. “You understand the commitment it takes to
make the team and to remain on the team?”

“Yes Coach, I am aware and
about Brian…” I hesitated; I didn’t want to say anything that would jeopardize
my chances. “I will do my best to get along with him but he has to meet me
halfway…”

“True. Very true,” Coach
Towers agreed. “Okay, I will make you a deal. If you can make the team, I’ll
personally talk with Brian.”

“Thank you, sir”

“No problem Aiden and to be
honest, Brian’s brother
was
a real prick.”

We both laughed at the coach’s
revelation. Coach Towers was a great coach and one of the few decent mentors on
campus. He kind of had a pulse and could relate to us teenagers better than the
other teachers on campus. He normally came to our defense whenever we clucked
up and we teens tend to cluck up a lot. So we had him working overtime trying
to keep us from getting into more trouble than we were already in.

I left the coach’s office very
optimistic about my chances of having a harmonious and exciting school year. If
I could make the team and start at running back maybe I could start having a
lot more fun. My mom just may be right; maybe I needed to try new things. It’s
just that life seemed so boring to me. The world seemed so dull and lifeless or
at least my life did. I found myself constantly asking myself: “Is this it?” My
mom saw me backing into a shell and she just wanted more for me and enjoy life
each day as if it was my last. Sarah was outgoing and aggressive so she took
advantage of everything she could—so my mom didn’t worry about Sarah enjoying
herself. Actually she was worried about Sarah enjoying herself too much. I was
the total opposite. So, if I could make this football thing work then maybe it
would be the spark my life needed to revitalize itself.

T
ony
texted me earlier in all caps, meaning he’d found another object of sexual
affection. All the text read was “OMG!! DUDE IT’S ON!!” Yeah, he’d found
another winner, as he called potential dates. Walking into the lunchroom felt
like walking into a scene from a Black Friday shopping spree. Wow! There really
were a lot of new students this year and they were all scurrying around trying to
look cool. Everyone wanted to be seen. Either because they were proud of their
new gear or because they thought they were attractive. I started gritting my
teeth at the thought of Sarah being right again. This
was
lame. I
scanned over the lunchroom looking for Tony in the crowd and after about five
seconds I located him in the far right corner.

He was surrounded as usual by
a pack of shiny-eyed girls vying for his attention and phone number. I don’t
know how he did it. It was like his pores secreted sex appeal. Like he had this
special gland that just produced sex appeal all day long. Even older women
would approach him. After he’d tell them he was under aged, they would still
give him their number and tell him to call them on his eighteenth birthday and
most of these women would be drop-dead gorgeous.

So there he was doing what he
did best. He looked up and saw me and immediately sent me a text to give him
one more minute. He needed to close on a prospect. I shook my head and laughed.
Tony was out of control. I decided to go to the line and grab me something to
eat. I usually didn’t care for the food here but the pizza was pretty decent.
Before I got into the line Tony appeared behind me.

“Hey bro!”

“What’s up, playa?”

“Playa? No Aiden, I’m not
playing. I’m for real with this,” he replied with a serious look on his face.

“Anyway, so tell me about your
text earlier,” I asked as we started walking towards the food line. “Is she one
of the girls you were talking to over there?”

“Oh no! This girl blows them
out the water. I saw her in my history class. Dude, she’s unbelievable. Clearly
the finest girl in this school ever and that’s saying a lot especially since
Sarah goes here now.”

“What?!” I protested.

“Wait dude, I’m not checking
out your sister like that, but real talk, your sister is beautiful. I know
she’s your baby sister but she is beautiful! But this girl is on a whole other
level. I got the 411 on her too. Her family is from Iraq I think, but she was
born right here in Illinois. Her father owns a lot of real estate across the
country and they are pretty loaded like Bill Gates.”

“Bill Gates?” I asked giving
him a look of disbelief. “For real and she goes to this school? A public
school?”

“Okay, maybe not like big Bill
but they are loaded.
That
is a fact.”

“Are you sure this time Tony?”

“Whatever! Let me finish. Her
name is Jasmine and she’s already got everyone up here talking. The guys are
baiting and the girls are hating!”

“Is that so Tony?” I mocked.
“Because I haven’t heard anything up until now.”

“Dude get real, how many
students up here run to you and start talking about girls and shit besides me?”

“You got a point there.” I
agreed. “Okay, so when are you going to make your move on the Iraqi princess?”

“Me? Hell no, not me…you!”

“What?!”

“Yep, you! Man, you have no
idea how many girls ask about you. But they say you are too reserved and they
mistake you for the conceited type. Plus a lot of them think you are a tad bit
too pretty and girls don’t like their boyfriends looking better than them and
let’s face it, you are waaaay too pretty.”

“Tony, you shouldn’t call me
pretty in public. People may think you want me or something.”

Tony immediately started
faking like he was gagging.

“Okay seriously, dude, that
was gross. Now what I was saying before you interrupted me with that horrible
image? Oh yeah…this girl is right up your alley.”

“And why is this girl right up
my alley? Inquiring minds want to know.”

“Well, for starters she looks
better than any of the girls up here. I mean the girl is so fine she makes
me
nervous and you know your boy isn’t easily spooked by a female. But I could build
up enough nerve to facilitate a meet and greet between you two when you are
ready. I usually charge for that kind of thing but because you’re my bro’ I’ll
do it for you “pro bro-no”.”

Pro bro-no? Sometimes Tony
takes the comedy too far.

“Oh, so now you’re hooking me
up?”

“Naw bro, it’s not like that,
you have to hook yourself up. I’m just making the transition easier for you.
It’s something to consider though.”

“Okay Tony slow down. I just
signed up for football tryouts and—”

“What?! You did what?” Tony
yelled.

“Sssh! Shut up!”

Tony started laughing until
tears began rolling down his face. I could feel the skin on my face warming as
I started to turn red.

“Dude? Come on!”

Tony was trying to control his
laughter but I could see he was losing that battle. He began to lean forward on
me, still laughing.

“Get off!” I whispered as I
pushed him off me. “Dude, is it really that funny?”

“No…wait…let me catch my
breath…I’ll explain. I’m not laughing at you. It’s just when you told me you
signed up for tryouts an image immediately popped in my head of you smacking
Brian around the field yelling, ‘I got your punk-ass brother and now it’s your
turn. Are you trying to beat on the whole family?”

I gave him a real nasty and
angry look.

“Oh come on Aiden, you are my
boy. I wouldn’t laugh at you like that. You got skills on the gridiron. You’re
gonna kill ‘em out there for real. I just can’t wait to see how Brian is going
to react at having you on the field. Oh, I just had another image of Brian
talking smack to you and you punting his ass through the uprights! It’s good!
It’s all good!”

Tony was holding his arms in
the air like the referee in a football game confirming a successful field goal
attempt. Seeing him standing there looking silly made me laugh so hard I
started to tear up.

“Dude you’re slow.”

“Seriously though, that’s
great news you’re getting into sports at school. It’s about time. The NFL is
calling.”

“I don’t know about all that, Tony.”

“Okay, okay, fair enough.”

“But like I was saying, that
was a big step for me and now you are suggesting I go after Helen of Troy? Come
on! I need to take baby steps this year.”

“No, you need to talk to her
seriously because it’s about time for you to…”

Tony suddenly stopped talking
and began staring towards the lunchroom entrance like he was under a trance.

“What is it?” I asked.

“There she is. Look!” Tony
said with excitement, never taking his eyes from the direction of the lunchroom
entrance. I followed his gaze and there she was standing in the lunchroom
doorway looking over the room. Wow, Tony was right, she was absolutely amazing.
She was about five foot seven and possessed a body that shouldn’t be allowed
around anyone under the age of eighteen. Curly and vibrant black hair ran halfway
down her back and her skin…my God her skin…(
hard swallow
) was so radiant
and perfectly tanned. And to complete this amazing physical ensemble was the
most captivating brown eyes I’d ever seen on a girl. Her posture was regal, but
not arrogant and you could immediately tell she was a girl used to a higher standard
of living and expectations. As she stood in the lunchroom’s doorway like a
living monument of the queens of ancient times her gaze slowly moved in our
direction. My mind was telling me to stop staring but I couldn’t stop. She was
so beautiful. It was like I was in a trance, caught in a spell with no antidote
or cure.

As her gaze moved closer to
mine, my heart began to race as my palms started sweating and my temperature
rose to almost feverish levels. Everything around me began to move in slow
motion and sounds became muffled like everyone was talking underwater in a fish
bowl. Tony was saying something behind me but I couldn’t make out what he was
saying. Is this what my mom meant when she said love at first sight? Was this
the feeling of instant attraction? As her gaze got closer the blissful feelings
started to subside and my emotions began to transform to anger and disgust as a
repulsive feeling engulfed my entire body. I felt like my skin was crawling 
with every disgusting critter imaginable.

Was I going to hurl? What’s
happening to me? And then like a chameleon walking across a rainbow, my
emotions changed again and a fire began to burn deep inside of me causing me to
clench my fists so tightly I could feel my fingernails digging inside the flesh
of my palms.

What the hell is wrong with
me? Am I getting sick?

The fire began to burn into a
fiery rage and I noticed that I’ve never been this angry. I felt like I wanted
to destroy everything, even kill. Once her eyes met mine I was shaking and
sweating like crazy as the room morphed into a dark abyss that seemed to be
void of all sound. I started to frantically look around for Tony or anyone. But
no one was there. Everything and everyone was gone besides the darkness and
her. I could see her clearly in the sickening darkness, standing there
beautiful and perfect while my body shook violently from the skin crawling fear
that had taken over me. As frightening as the darkness was, nothing was more
terrifying than her and my body reacted to her like she was a predator and I
the prey.

But I felt she wasn’t just a
threat to me but an evil at the top of the food chain that threatened
everything and everyone. The darkness itself seemed to harbor its own vengeful
malice and she was its master; controlling it to torment me. I was afraid to
move one inch or be consumed by the evil that dwelled in the darkness leaving
behind nothing but bones. Time seemed to stand still and I found myself trapped
in an eternity of terror in this alternate dark reality. She appeared to notice
my fear and smirked while looking into my eyes mockingly. I then discovered she
knew what was happening to me and that she was the cause of my reaction.

Suddenly she broke her gaze
and immediately the room came back into focus and all the sound rushed inside
my ears creating chaos and pain inside my head. When my eyes were able to focus
I noticed that she was walking towards the other side of the lunchroom as if
nothing happened.

“Aiden! Man, where did you go
just now? I know she’s beautiful but you completely lost it man!” Tony yelled
in my ear. I pulled away from his loud mouth trying to avoid my now overly
sensitive ear drums from bursting inside my head.

“I don’t know what just
happened to me.”

I kept my head down, afraid to
look up and catch another glimpse of Jasmine. There was something not right
inside of me, something was definitely off. The rage I felt was something new
for me; even during martial arts tournament I never felt that angry and
aggressive. And I’ve definitely haven’t been teleported into a dark abyss with
a beautiful girl before.

“I need to sit down.” I said.

“Okay, you need my help?”
offered Tony.

“No, I can manage.”

“Cool, I’ll get you something
to drink and eat what you want?”

“Just get me an apple.”

“Just an apple? But, Aiden,
you kinda like this pizza…”

“Tony!” I interrupted.

“Yeah, okay, I’ll get the
apple.”

“Thanks!” I had a seriously
bad attitude at the moment and Tony’s constant questioning was annoying me to
madness.

Sitting there at the table I
couldn’t help wondering what would have happened if she hadn’t broken her gaze.
Where would that have led to? No one else in the lunchroom appeared to be going
through what I just experienced. I looked around to see if she was anywhere
near me, but from what I could see she wasn’t even in the lunchroom anymore.
Why did she trigger that reaction from me? I was expecting some kind of
reaction but nothing like this. I looked up and saw Tony walking towards me with
his lunch tray. As he sat down across from me I noticed he didn’t have my
apple.