Chapter Two

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That afternoon, Donnie walked me to the bus stop. "I don't go home by bus.. I have to go somewhere," he told me, not looking into my eyes.

"Where do you have to go?" I asked, hoping I didn't sound nosey. Donnie shook his head as if the topic would erase itself. "Is it embarrassing? C'mon, you can tell me."

"I go to my therapist," he caved. There was a defeated look in his eyes. "My parents didn't think I could get better on my own. So now I have to take medication." I didn't know how to respond to that, so I wrapped my arms around him.

"I'm sorry," I whispered into his chest. He returned the hug and chuckled.

"Don't be, you're not the messed up one," he found it amusing but I didn't. If he had problems, so what? Doesn't mean he's messed up.

"Donnie, you're not messed up. You're just struggling and need help with things. It's ok to need help sometimes."

"Thanks for that," he said. A car pulled up, presumeably for him since he slowly broke the hug. "Bye, April." His ride, which I assumed was his mother, waved to me as Donnie got in the car. He waved as his mom drove off. I felt a little empty when he left. I wish I knew how to help him.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

"I don't know, I just felt pretty sad after he left," I told Bayley as we did our homework.

"You like him, don't you?" She leaned over, inches from my face, grinning at me in suspicion.

"So far, yea. I feel attracted to him in some way that I can't explain but he seems so perfect," I rambled. "It's probably just a phase and I'll soon only think of him as a friend."

"If you wait a little, maybe you can tell him how you feel. Who knows, maybe he feels the same."

I told her how he had held my hand on the bus and asked me to tell him about my life. Bayley squealed.

"That sounds romantic. Damn I wish that would happen to me," she sighed. "He's a dreamboat." We both laughed.

"He lives around here," I implied. "We're both the first stop. Could we go ride our bikes and see if he's out?"

"Of course, you hopeless romantic. Didn't you say he had errands to run with his mom or something?" She asked.

"Yea but I just want to see if he's back or not," I responded absentmindedly. I put away my assignments and trudged to the garage. "I'm still going. I just gotta write a note for my mom when she comes home with Dylan from his drum lesson."

"Ok fine, you sucked me in April. Let's go search for this dream boy of yours," she huffed, following me to the garage.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

At that point in the afteroon, the sunshine wasn't blocked by very many clouds so everything had a pretty light to it. If you stood completely still for a second, you could feel a little breeze. "Fall's coming soon," I said in a singsong voice. Bayley laughed.

We sped up around a corner and rode down the next block. I looked at each house, wondering which could possibly be Donnie's. Halfway down the block, I saw a tall boy in his backyard on a trampoline.

"It's Donnie," I whispered to Bayley excitedly. We pulled over in the grass and waved, trying to be subtle. We caught his attention and he walked over to us.

"Hey April, hi Bayley," he greeted. "Going for a bike ride, huh?" I nodded, putting down the kickstand.

"We decided to ride around and then that's when I spotted you.." I told him. "How was your errands?" I asked, hinting to his therapy session.

"My errands?" He caught my wink. "Oh just fine, got everything done."

I didn't want to blab his private life to everyone so I had decided not to tell Bayley, I would keep it between Donnie and I.

"That's good." I looked at him with a smile. A little girl who had been bouncing on the trampoline walked over.

"Ooo!" she cooed. "Donnie's talking to girls." She grinned up at the both of us, remaining by Donnie's side.

"Hush, Samantha. Go back on the trampoline or something," he snapped. Samantha skipped away. "She's like that sometimes, sorry."

"It's fine," Bayley laughed. "Kids can be cute sometimes."

"Well hey it was cool catching you out," I began. "Maybe we could all hang out at my house one day and then you'll know where I live."

"Ok sure," Donnie smirked, running a hand through his hair.

"See you tommorrow, Donnie." I waved before putting my kickstand down and following Bayley on the road back home.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

"Are you happy now?" Bayley demanded, looking me right in the eyes with her hands on her hips. "You owe me," she joked.

"Yea I guess I do," I said with a smirk. She nodded as a matter of fact. This is why she was my best friend, because she was always doing stuff for me and she wasn't selfish about it at all. I honestly owe her for a lot of things. I think that she's holding all that against me.

"Don't worry, I guess that's payback for when I had that crush on that senior a few years ago and I dragged you everywhere so I could see him." We both laughed at the memory. She was literally crazy about the boy, I kid you not.

"Can't ever forget that, can we?" I asked, trying to get a grip and stop laughing.

"Probably not," Bayley recovered, taking a deep breath.

"Wow, we are the best," I declaired. "No doubt there."

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

"Hi Donnie!" I said cheerfully as I met him at the bustop. He smiled and waved back. "Are you alright?" I asked, sensing something could possibly be wrong.

"Yea... I'm fine." He lowered his voice and stepped back from the few other people. "Therapy just didn't go well like I had told you."

"Why what happened?" I wondered, linking his arm in mine.

"I've been seeing things the past two nights and so that's mainly what the session was about," he whispered. "The first night I was doing my homework almost until midnight. It was stressing me so I rode around the neighborhood."

"You went bike riding at midnight?" I asked in disbelief. Donnie nodded.

"My parents don't care if I'm unconciously wondering so why would they care if I did it conciously? They tell me I'm fully responsible for myself now except for my own house... but anyway." He took a deep breath. "I was riding and then I heard a voice. It told me to look down and when I did, I saw by the light of the lamposts that my shoe was untied. I pulled over to the side and tied it and then one of those big ass truck trailers came rushing through the intersection.

It was detached and I don't know how it got there, but it did. The most haunting thought though was that the lampost it crashed into could've been me."

"I'm so glad you're ok," I managed to respond. "How can you keep all that contained so well?"

"I just kept thinking about you and I remembered to be happy," he told me. I smiled up at him and pressed my hand to his cheek.

"That must've scared you more than you've ever been in your life. Donnie, I'm so sorry," I said sincerely. It didn't seem at all like he was making it up. He didn't seem at all like the type to make up things to get attention. That wasn't his reputation at school, people might've viewed him as a mysterious person but mostly thought highly of him. He had enough attention already so I didn't see why he'd make anything up. Getting a girl wouldn't be a good excuse.

"Thanks for letting me ramble on about this. I don't think anyone else would understand, or at least not think I'm crazy. You don't judge me. When I talk to you, I forget that there's even something wrong." My heart fluttered at his words.

The bus came around and instead of breaking grip, he slipped his hand through mine. My heart pounded faster in my chest, probably loud enough for the whole bus stop to hear.

As usual, we headed to the back of the bus to carry on our conversations. "Hey buddie where've ya been?" I turned towards the front to see Donnie's two friends.

"Not now Ronald, I'm kinda busy," Donnie said, turning back to me.

"You've been starting to hang out with her more than us lately," his other friend piped up. "I'm Sean by the way," he added, looking at me with troubled eyes.

"She's helping me with something," Donnie stated blankly.

"Oh, you mean you're confiding in her about your problems? Like how my dad found you sleeping on the golf course with some nonsense written on your arm?" Ronald began to raise his voice.

"You shouldn't be shouting out his personal life to the high heavens," I told him stiffly.

"Well he's telling it to you, isn't he?" he snapped.

"I care about him, too. It's not just you two. As shortly as I've known Donnie, I see how comfortable I can be around him."

"Yea," Sean scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Comfortable." He began making vulgar motions.

"That's not why I'm hanging out with Donnie, you sicko!" My cheeks felt warm and I began hiding in my jacket.

"Cut it out you guys. She actually listens and tries to understand. That's more than you've done in a lifetime." Donnie pulled me close to him and hummed softly in my ear.

"Alright, Darko. Fine. If that's the way you want it then. If she makes you happy," Ronald concluded.

"Just make sure you don't choose a girl over your friends next time," Sean warned. "We've had your back for a long time, that's all." They both walked to the front of the bus.

"I'm sorry, April." Donnie pulled me to his chest. I felt him press his lips against the top of my head. "I'm so sorry," he whispered. I drifted off in his arms as the bus stopped again.

°°°°°°°°°°°

"April, wake up. We're at school now." Donnie shook me gently. He held me up by the arm and down the steps. "You awake enough to go to class by yourself?"

Wanting him to stay longer, I told him a cheeky no. He smiled and continued to hold me by the arm. He opened his mouth to say something, but he stopped.

"What?" I asked, grinning stupidly. Donnie shook his head, something he must do commonly when trying to avoid a topic. "Fine then," I caved.

"It's nothing, don't worry. Don't worry about anything. Especially Ronald and Sean. I'm really sorry about that." I heard deepened sorrow in his soothing voice.

"It's fine," I assured him. "I only care what you think of me." Donnie broke into a heart-melting smile.

"Really?" He sounded surprised. I didn't know why, I had given him most of my attention since I had started talking to him.

"Yes, really," I mocked his tone. He playfully nudged my arm as we stopped at my homeroom door. "See you later, Donnie."

I thought he would wave and leave, but he pulled me into a long, tight hug. "You're wonderful, ok?" The heat of his breath tickled my ear. My heart leapt in my chest and I knew Donnie could feel it. He had me as close to him as possible and I could feel his heartbeat, too.

°°°°°°°°°°°

My mind was preoccupied by thoughts of Donnie leading up to lunch. I fantasized a relationship with him; holding his hand everywhere we walked, kissing him goodbye, laying beside him in a field of grass and watching the sky. I was glad none of my teachers were going over anything that day; if they had chosen to call on me I probably would've managed to humiliate myself.

In film production class, our teacher-Mr. Dean- assigned us to begin a semester script. "You may partner up or work alone," he instructed. I had chosen the route of working alone, that way I didn't have arguments to deal with.

"At the end of the first semester, you should have at least a 10-20 minute scene with full costume and set. You will need a completed script with a thorough plot and well developed characters, not just some people slapped in there. I'd start writing as soon as possible if I were you; this is a major grade."

Murmurs of discontent rippled through the class room. "No pressure there," a kid commented behind me. Mr. Dean rolled his eyes before dismissing us as the bell rang shrilly.

Like every other day, I rushed down to the cafeteria to get a good place in line. Donnie had gotten there before me this time. "I need to talk to you," he told me as soon as I was within earshot.

"About...?" I inquired. My heartbeat increasing a little at my peak of curiosity.

He didn't answer and ignored the topic as we got our food. Even as we finished eating, he didn't say a word.

I didn't care if anyone else at the table wasn't supposed to know, I was hanging on by a thread.

"Ah c'mon, Donnie. You say you gotta talk to me and that's it? You leave me hanging and wondering what the hell you're talking about."

"You ok, April?" Bayley asked. I nodded and patted her hand, but diverting my attention back to Donnie. His furrowed brow told me he was worried and in thought.

"Come with me and I'll talk to you about it," he ushered. I followed behind him as we went in the empty hallway. Everyone was either at lunch or in class so the halls looked like a ghost town.

Donnie stopped by the stairway, where no one ever came down at that time. He had a soft grip on both of my arms, facing me and looking me dead in the eyes. His blue eyes were mesmerizing. "April I like you."

My heart leapt in my throat and my stomach felt like there was a stampede of butterflies. Ever so slightly, my hands shook and my knees wobbled.

"Are you alright?" he asked, noticing how much my nerves were getting to me. I nodded. "I really like you, ok? I don't care if it seems like too short of a time but I feel funny... but so happy around you."

"Oh Donnie..." I murmured, biting my lip. "I feel the same way. I'm so glad."

"Me too, April. Will you go with me?" The question set my heart into a beating frenzy.

"Yes, of course," I responded without hesitation.

"Can I kiss you?" I nodded. He leaned in, closing his beautiful eyes. I leaned into him, snaking my arms around his neck. He kissed me slowly but firmly, making my knees weak. My heart was melting for him.

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