Chapter 30: 99 Problems Between Blurred Lines: Part 1/2:

Quick note: This chapter was really supposed to be one part but I didn't want to make it too long and I don't really have much leisure time to write that part. I've written some of it but like I said in the last post I'm pretty busy these days. :/ If you didn't quickly glance over that post  I suggest that you do. http://perfection-sims3.blogspot.com/2015/04/update-hey-guys-i-probably-wont-be.html

"I'm such an idiot!" I yelled in distress, shaking my head back and forth in embarrassment.
    "You're far from an idiot Mel, you just made a silly mistake."  David was looking at me like he was a blind man trying to look across the street.
    "I said 11 squared was 22 for crying out loud...There's no recovering from that!" I snapped. "I'm not good at anything anymore, I'm just completely useless." I pictured the look of all those other students earlier, my cheeks burned like someone had struck a match against them.
     I looked down at the paper in front of us, only becoming more pissed off at myself. "And how many times do you keep explaining this shit to me and I never get it?!?!?" My finger felt weak as I pointed towards problem #99. "You're probably so tired of me."

     David groaned, I knew he was probably annoyed with me whether or not he actually wanted to admit it. "Look, just stop talking. Alright?" He turned the page in the textbook, it smelled like the tears of tortured students.
     "No, I can't stop!" I was fed up with feeling like I couldn't do anything right anymore. "Everything I say, everything I do, everything I think about... is just wrong. I'm a fuck-up."
      His shoulders raised as he let out a sigh. "You don't even know what a fuck-up is."He leaned over, his hand grazing the side of his neck.
    It hurt to know that I wasn't good enough for anything, and I was only going to be reminded when I went home.
      "What's wrong with you?" He asked, as if it was a question that could actually be answered.
      "I don't know what's wrong with me!" I exclaimed, while plummeting my face into my hands. The silky touch of my hair ran along my fingers.

      "There's nothing wrong with you, we all have our moments when we feel like we're not good enough. But the way you bring yourself down all the time is wrong, and kind of annoying." Well damn. He gave me a brief run-down.
      "But you don't understand, I literally fuck everything up, I don't mean to... It just happens." I sounded like a little mouse, just mousing around every word I spoke.
      "See! You're doing it again." He shook his head in disapproval. "You have no idea what a fuck-up is Mel, trust me you will never be one." He reassured me.
      "Oh yeah? I cursed out my uncle last night, told him his wife was a bitch, said my mom was a skank, and my grandmother deserved to get divorced. I fucked up. Now he won't even look at me. I wish I could take it back but I can't, it's too late."
      "You didn't even bother to say sorry?!?!?" Great. Now he was going to make me feel worse than I already did.
    "No! Why would I say sorry?! He's already done with me, he didn't even look at me when I talked to him this morning, he just nodded his head. It's too late to say sorry." I felt the precipitous flush of heat subdue my entire body.

"Do you hear yourself right now?!? You cursed him out yet you're asking why you should say sorry?" Okay, now he was making it seem pretty bad.
 "Well I didn't exactly curse him out, I just said fuck you." I explained.
    "Are you serious?!? Fuck you is still a rude thing to say, everyone knows that, I don't know why you don't. If I said that to my dad I'm almost certain he'd try and kill me. But you're lucky enough to have someone in your life who supports you and ignores your faults... If you really feel that bad about what you did, then you would go and say sorry."
    Oh shit, he was right. What was wrong with me? "I guess I kind of..."
      "Don't even finish your sentence Mel, just don't." He shook his head back and forth, laughing at me.
    I was hypnotized by the witty expression that was on his face. "Why can't I talk?"
    "Because..." His sagacious smirk sickened my stomach. He shrugged, with both of his shoulders looking like two spring boards flexing up and down.
      What the hell was that supposed to mean? "Because what?!?"
    "Because, I know what you're gonna say." The Nadir of his smile dipped even lower.
      "What are you a psychic?!" I laughed at the mere thought of him predicting other people's futures as he glared into a mystic crystal ball.

"Ha! You're funny." His eyebrows jumped up like two grasshoppers. "I'm just used to the things you say. It would be pretty cool if I was a psychic though." He snickered a little bit.
    "This isn't funny, nothing's funny!" I sighed, "Everything is just so difficult and stressful." I fixed my eyes back on the textbook. "I'm so tired of everything, I really am."
      "Me too Mel, me too." It felt like my body was being absorbed by the intense waves drifting from his ocean blue eyes. "It's nice to know I'm not the only one who feels that way."
“You aren't as tired as me. Trust me, you don’t feel the same way I do.” We had finished 99 problems for homework but I had 99 problems of my own to figure out, and they were 99 problems that were far too complex for me to actually solve, I honestly didn't even know if there was a solution to my problems. “Your parent’s aren't getting divorced.”
It felt so weird to say the ‘d-word,’ I knew my parents had issues but it never occurred to me that they would actually consider having a… You know.
“My parents aren't getting divorced but I wish they would.” He stretched his arms out, yawning and groaning like an old man. “My dad’s an ignorant man with anger issues, I don’t know how he ever managed to find someone like my mom, they’re so different, she's a saint and he's a fallen angel.”

“I guess opposites attract?” My response was weak but I didn't really know what to say to him.
“Yeah, I guess they do.” His mouth gaped again, and he yawned some more. “I  was supposed to start looking at colleges, I think I’ll do it tomorrow though, I’m gonna be busy tonight."
He had a game later, I felt kind of bad for holding him up and cutting into his plans. “I’m sorry, I told you we could do this tomorrow.”
“Nah, it’s fine.” He rolled his eyes, and stared off into the distance. “I didn't want to do it anyways. But I have to…”
“Oh.” It was obvious he was annoyed about something. Honestly, he still seemed as annoyed as he was the day before but I didn't want to pry into his personal life, unless he actually wanted to tell me.
“Yeah…” His eyes reached mine again, they seemed brighter and exuberant. “So what are you doing for your birthday?” He remembered.
It may have seemed weird but, I didn't really want to do anything ‘special’ for my birthday, it felt like another day to me… Another day without my parent’s. What did I even want to do to celebrate my birthday? “Oh, umm… Nothing really, probably just hanging out with my family.”

"You're not doing anything with your friends?" Why did he have to ask that? Didn't he know I didn't have any friends?
      I scowled at him, even though it really wasn't his fault. "You know I don't have any friends." I said in a hush.
      "So? What is that supposed to mean? You have Jess, what's the big deal?" He made everything sound so easy.
     The "big deal" was that I didn't really have a friend. You know, a girl friend that I could talk to about girl stuff and paint my nails with, and take shopping with me. Stuff like that.
    "Jess is always busy with that guy now, I'd doubt she'd want to give up her time with him, to hang out with me." I hunched over, staring off into the distance as I imagined what exactly it was that she saw in him. The guy was odd and unsettling, I didn't understand how she couldn't see that.
    "It's your birthday, she'll make time for you." He paused for a second or so, looking like he was solving a riddle. "I could have her plan something for you- a party?"
     My stomach immediately flipped upside down at the thought of a bunch of people and loud music. "I don't do parties." I cringed, fumbling with my fingers. "You really don't need to do anything for me, it's fine."

     "Well it's kind of too late for that now, I already have your gift."
    "A gift?" That was the last thing I would expect him to say. "What gift?"
     He laughed. "I can't tell you, that would ruin the surprise." He was wearing the devil's smile on his lips, it was the look of pure deception.
    "Well, thanks. But you didn't have to get me anything." An awkward ambiance abated any affable feeling that existed in the room before.
"Yeah, well I did." He stared me down as if he was waiting for me to say something. "Maybe we could..." He was beating around the bush so hard that it was painful to watch. "Do something that day? If you're not doing anything."
"Yeah, maybe. I probably won't be doing anything anyways, just text me or something." I didn't want him to feel like he had to hang out with me on my birthday, but he was the one that made the suggestion so I guess I wasn't guilt tripping him.
"Will do." He pushed the textbook to the side, glancing at his phone. "I guess we should wrap this up now."
"Mhmm" I hummed, trying to keep things simple. I was tired, and I just wanted to lay down and be alone.

"I'll get my keys, hold on." He got up and I rose up too, facing him before he walked away.
"Don't bother, I can walk." He only had about 40 minutes before he had to leave, I wasn't going to hold him up any longer.
   "You're being silly Mel, it doesn't take that long for me to drive to your house." He froze, the only thing moving on his body was his eyebrows. "Are you okay?"
     "David! Stop it! I'm fine, I swear." I brushed it off like it was nothing. "I feel like walking, the breeze from the trees relaxes me and I need that right now." He looked at me like I was even more full of it. I shrugged, "It's a safe neighborhood, what's the worst that could happen?"
     "That's not the point. But if you want to walk, I guess you can walk." The look of confusion still covered his face like a bunch of tiny puzzle pieces. "Text me when you get home." He hid his hands in his pockets, slightly shrugging his shoulders.

     Great. This was the most awkward thing ever, how was I supposed to leave? Was hugging okay? Or was it better to just say goodbye and leave? Fuck.
     "Well, thanks again. Good luck on your game tonight, don't get too beat up out there." I smiled the best I could but I knew my smile was somewhat weak because it didn't take that long for it to fade away.
    "Thanks, I appreciate it." He grinned, flashing his million dollar smile-literally. I guess he had a lot to be happy about, it was too bad happiness wasn't some tangible thing he could share with me.
   

      I walked towards the door, feeling his gaze burn along my back as I got closer and closer to the corner of the wall. Something made me slow down as I began to turn slightly to the right, and then I lost my balance.
    David's hand clasped around mine almost perfectly. He tugged me towards him and I followed in his direction, stumbling all over the place like a drunken fool. "Oh!" I muttered.
The space between us vanished as he got closer to me. His silence was making me slightly apprehensive. One step closer, another step closer, the smooth fabric covering my toes poked at the soft cotton socks he was wearing. His hands found their way to my face and he held them there, with his eyes scattering all over my face.
It felt like his face was a high definition television screen, I could see a lot more things I never ceased to notice before. His long eyelashes reminded me of brown spiders, they moved in the most cryptic and creepy way when he blinked.

Everything was so awkward and needed to be fixed. Was he going to kiss me? Did I really want to kiss him? 
The lines of acquaintanceship, friendship, and casual romance were drawn in pencil on an artists canvas; straight, neat, and perfect. But in an instant that artist grabbed a tortillion and blurred the three of them together so they seemed to all run along the same path, seamlessly. It was just as confusing and complicated to look at, as it was to actually be in the situation.

For some reason my face was interesting to him. God only knew what the hell he was looking at. "What?!" I shouted, still bemused as all hell.
"Oh nothing." He started smirking and his voice sounded so devious. "I just wanted to tell you that you should stop beating yourself up all the time..." He grimaced slightly, tilting his head to the side as he leaned in closer. "Judging by the look of your face, you can't take another beating."
"Oh God!" I giggled, pinching the skin just above his elbow and pushing against his chest. "It's only a few scratches, it doesn't look that bad."
"Yeah it doesn't look so bad but you know if I was there, you wouldn't have any marks on your face right now." He could be very cocky sometimes.
I laughed at his sudden sense of macho-ism. "Actions speak louder than words you know. Maybe it's time you put your money where your mouth is." I shrugged my shoulders and gave him a sassy smile. He could comment about my sassiness all he wanted to but deep down, I knew he secretly loved it.

"Maybe it's time for you to come to one of my games and see what I'm all about, instead of making assumptions." He countered.
"Hmm don't you have a game to be getting ready for right now?" I asked, tapping my index finger against my lips.

"Don't you have to be home by 4?" He raised his eyebrows, as if he were trying to make them reach the sky.

"This conversation is over. Okay?" I laughed some more, backing around the corner as I slowly lead my way towards the door, walking backwards. I picked my sneakers up off the floor and slipped them on.
        "I'll see you around." I waved at him, clutching the door handle with my other hand that was behind my back.
He shook his head back and forth, still chuckling. "Bye, Mel."