Existence 03 - Ceaseless

pillow. “I’m awake . You can stop now.”
    “It’s about time. I tried everything else. I’ve been awake for over an hour. Your stupid alarm clock made sure I woke up. How you slept through that annoying beeping is beyond me.”
    “I slept through the alarm clock?” I asked sit t ing up and squinting my eyes from the sun ’ s rays. It was after eight o’clock . I wasn’t going to make it to my Literature class on time. Crap. Great first impression.
    “Yeah , you did. That’s like happened, never. What did you do , take a sleeping pill?”
    I stood up and stretched. “No I just slept really good,” I paused and thought about the strange darkness and the music. The voice and the song… “There was this song,” I said then stopped. Miranda would think I’d lost my mind.
    “No time to talk about song s right now. Here , throw this on and go brush your stinky teeth. We gotta go. Good thing you look hot without makeup.”
    Miranda shoved a pair of shorts and a shirt into my arms a nd pushed me into the bathroom. I guess I wouldn’t tell her about my song. Although , I wanted to tell someone.

    Dank wasn’t in literature class. I was disappointed he hadn’t shown up and carried my book s, but relieved because I could focus on my work. Being able to listen and focus would insure I passed this course . Day one and we already had an assignment. We also ha d to work in groups. Not my thing. Three girls and three guys per group. We had to read three different works of literature about self-destructive men. Then we had to write a female point - of - view paper and a male point - of - view paper on exactly how the males in the assigned stories were self - destructive. W e also had to identify w ho we could relate them to today and describe how this self-destruction affected politics.
    I shoved my books into my bag and headed to the board to read the group assignments . Each person in our group had an email address beside their name so that we could contact each other once we’d read the first book , Ethan Frome . I was a step ahead. I’d already read it. The line was dwindling because several people left without looking. I walked up and scanned the list for my name.
    Keith Fromer
    Pagan Moore
    Jessi Gilheart
    Jackson Driver
    Maddy McGowin
    Dank Walker
    I stopped reading the names and glanced behind me. How was Dank’s name on here? He wasn’t in this class. Was he? The girl behind me cleared her throat in an irritate d manner. I took a quick picture of the people in my group and their email addresses with my iPhone and moved out of the way.
    Had Dank skipped class?

    Dank
    By the time I was finished with souls, I was too late to go to literature class with Pagan. I hated I’d missed an opportunity to sit by her but I’d stayed late last night to s i ng her to sleep. That was something I missed. I couldn’t bring myself to leave until I knew she was sleeping peacefully.
    The doors to the English building opened and Pagan came walking out with a frown on her face. I didn’t like for her to be unhappy. I walked out of my hiding spot and into her path.
    “Oh! Dank. You’re here. ” She seemed surprised.
    “Yeah. Were you hoping I’d dropped out?” I asked teasingly.
    Her frown faded and she beamed up at me. That was better. “I was curious as to why you missed your first day of literature.”
    She’d seen th e list. We’d be spending study time together too. The more time I could get with her the better. Now that I knew she wasn’t real ly impressed with Jay I could breathe a little easier.
    “I was out late. I’ll catch up.”
    “I’ve got notes. I have some time before I meet Miranda . If you want to go get some coffee or just go over to a picnic table I could give you everything that you missed,” she offered.
    I would prefer we go somewhere more private but that wasn’t a possibility. I’d never be able to explain how it was I could sneak into her room so easily and I didn’t have a room for her to sneak into.
    That was s omething I really needed to rectify . I needed a place to at least appear as if I lived there . She was going to be curious and until I knew she loved me I couldn’t tell her who I really was. I didn’t think she’d accept me if I explained my existence any sooner.
    The library. It could be secluded if you went to the right places. “What about the library?” I asked. Her eyes lit up.
    “Perfect. We need to get you a copy of Ethan Frome if you haven’t