Secret Crush

Chapter 4 - [Not a Mama's Boy]

I closed my locker and smiled as Val walked up to me in her normal sweatpants, tank top and sweater. It was lunch now and I hated when I didn’t get a chance to see her in the morning.

“Hey babes.” She winked.

“Hey!”

She turned the dial of her lock. “So how was working with d**k head last night?”

“Good!” I said. “Surprisingly.”

She looked at me. “Normal?”

I nodded. “Well, normal as in… two partners working on a project.”

She nodded. “Good.”

Even though she seemed to be being nice, I knew she was still furious with the fact that Gale was my partner in the first place.

I smiled. “The poster’s actually going to look amazing.”

“Because?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but my eyes fell on Gale, who was walking over to me with his hands in his pockets. “Problem.” He said as he approached me.

Val looked at him with an eyebrow raised. She was probably thinking, ‘how the f**k do you have the guts to walk up to her when I’m here?’

Gale tried to give her a casual smile, but she let out a small, annoyed laugh and turned back to her locker.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, pretending not to notice their little drama.

Gale, who was giving Valerie a confused look, looked at me. “There’s a Hockey game tonight.”

I raised both my eyebrows because I couldn’t physically just raise one. “So?”

Gale sighed, almost sounding annoyed. “So, we have to finish quickly so I can watch the game.”

There was definitely something different with his tone. It didn’t seem as kind as it was yesterday.

Maybe it was because people were watching.

Oh my god. King Gale Dallas is talking to the commoner Naomi what’s-her-face. Big deal. Just give it a rest.

Though the thought upset me, I just nodded. “Sure.”

“Oh and, give me your number.” He ordered.

I hesitated. “Why?”

He handed me his iPhone. “Cause I’m meeting with Miss. Sheppard afterschool and I’ll text you when I’m done so I can give you a ride.”

I was going to sigh, but since Miss. Sheppard was his art teacher, I decided to let it go. So I added my number to his contact list and handed the phone back to him.

“Hey!” I heard.

I turned my head and saw Alison Gardner walk over to Gale.

Alison Gardner, Queen Bee of Victoria Anne High. She had everything Gale had except the art skills.

That means she was gorgeous, with her long, dirty blonde hair, pink lips, bright blue eyes, perfect skin, perfect body, perfect everything.

She had the money. She was probably even richer than Gale actually.

And almost all the girls wanted to be like her.

Gale smiled as she walked into his arms and he gave her a quick kiss.

I bit my lip and looked at Val, hoping she would say something that would make Gale and Alison go away.

He then walked off, without even saying bye, hand in hand with Alison.

Valarie slammed her locker shut. “God I wish you didn’t tell me I wasn’t allowed to slap that b***h and his bitch.”

I chuckled as I turned around. But then I wished I didn’t.

I saw Alison looking at me strangely. Almost angrily.

Turning my head, I looked at Val. “I hate Drama Queens.”

Val nodded her head as she started to walk towards the cafeteria. “Me too.” She agreed. “I want to hurt them.”

I laughed. “Can’t you be less violent?”

She smiled. “Nope.”

That afternoon, I closed my locker after packing my bag and was startled by my cellphone ringing.

I never got texts.

When I unlocked my phone, I read the message.

Hey, it’s Gale.

Meet me outside of Sheppard’s classroom.

I threw my bag over my shoulder as I texted back ‘Kay.’ Miss. Sheppard’s class was very close to my locker so I was there in a minute.

I stood outside and heard Gale’s voice.

“I dunno, Miss.” I heard him say.

“Gale, I promise you that this will be an excellent opportunity for your future.” Miss. Sheppard said.

Miss. Sheppard was our schools youngest and most adorable teacher. She was probably about thirty and had short red hair and green eyes and looked a lot like Jayma Mays except much younger and with green eyes.

There was a pause.

“What’s the hesitation, Gale?” Miss. Sheppard asked.

Another pause. “I guess my mom’s been a little against all this.”

I heard Miss. Sheppard scoff. “Really?”

Gale sighed.

“Sweetheart…” Miss. Sheppard cooed. “Listen to me… do you want to do this?”

“Yeah.” Gale said, with confidence.

“Then it’s settled. You’re doing it.”

“But…”

“Gale. This is your life. If you want to do this, do it.” She said. “You’re good at this, Gale. Really good. By next week I want you to tell me what you’re going to be submitting, got it?”

Gale chuckled. “Yes Miss.”

A moment later, after the two said their goodbyes, Gale walked out of the classroom. He smiled at me. “Ready?”

I nodded as I wondered what on earth those two were talking about. But it was none of my business, so I pushed it out of my mind and followed Gale to his car.

When we got to his house, we got straight to work and actually finished the board before Gale’s hockey game.

After cleaning up, Gale told me he was going to get me something to eat.

“I don’t need anything.” I said to him. “You can drop me off at home and then you can get back before your hockey game.” Knowing that if I said I’ll take the bus, he’d argue with me.

Gale hesitated. “I’m going out to get hamburgers.” He said as he walked out of his studio and towards his old bedroom. “Let me get you a burger then I’ll drop you off at home.”

I hesitated. Why was he being so nice now? “But you’ll be late for your hockey game.”

He smiled. “Don’t worry about it.” He said. “Now…” he opened his bedroom door. “You can wait in here I guess.”

“What? You’re not taking me with you?”

Gale shook his head. “I’ll be back in ten minutes.” He said. “Then we’ll eat some burgers and I’ll drop you off.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but Gale left his bedroom door open and started walking down the staircase without me. “I have a Wii in my room, you can turn it on and play Super Smash Brothers if you want.” He said as he disappeared down into his home.

I hesitated, trying to hide the smile that was already forming because he remembered one of my favourite videogame, but then walked into his room.

Gale’s room was huge.

It was the four times the size of my bedroom and that was only half of it. There was a door that led to the part of the room that had a bed, and another that led to his washroom.

The room I was standing in was… I guess his lobby. He had a huge flat screen TV on the wall across from where the entrance was with two huge speakers on either side of it. In front of it were two black wing chairs and in between those was a love seat. There was also a nice little coffee table in front of the love seat and a stand that was covered with game systems.

The walls were a neutral, beigish-brown colour, just like the rest of his house, and all the doors and furniture were either white or black… making the room look a little boring.

He had a couple bookshelves next to the door that led to his bedroom.

And that was about it for this room.

Of course, I couldn’t forget all of his paintings that were hung up in this room.

I walked towards his bedroom, which had its door wide open and gasped. It was totally different from what I had last seen, and it looked so lively compared to the rest of his house.

The walls were painted a dark blue and the huge window on the left wall from the door had dark brown curtains that matched the dark brown hardwood floor.

His king sized bed, which was right across from the door, had brown and blue covers and pillows to match the theme of room.

He had a bookshelf to the right of the door and to the left of it, next to the window, was a small, grey loveseat. And right in front of the window was an L shaped desk.

Next to the bed was a set of drawers, some of them open too.

And right in the center of his room was a lovely bright, white chandelier.

I looked around his room without actually stepping into it. I was so tempted to step inside to see if he still had any of the things I made him or gave him years ago, but I felt that it’d be a violation of his privacy.

And if he caught me searching his room, he’d probably get upset.

So instead, I closed the door and walked over to his loveseat and sat down. I picked up the Wii remote, turned on his Wii and got up again to search the shelf that was next to the TV for a game to play. I guess I had nothing better to do other than play Super Smash Bro’s.

I had only gotten to play for like, five minutes, when I heard him walk back into his room.

I could smell the McDonalds burgers and it made my stomach grumble.

“Back.” Gale said. “Let’s go downstairs and eat.”

I nodded my head. “Sure.” I said as I turned off the Wii and then followed him back down the stairs.

He took me to his home theater and placed our bags on the small table in front of the couch.

When I saw the bag that was most likely mine, I couldn’t hold back my chuckle. “A Happy Meal?”

Gale, who was looking down at the remote and turning on his TV that was the size of the wall itself, looked at me. “I thought you liked that.”

“I do.” I said as I sat down on the couch, opening up the bag. “I’m just surprised you remembered.”

He smiled. “People used to make fun of you for that.”

“Yeah. And you used to defend me.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, I remember.” He said as he walked over to one of the two shelves in the room, covered with DVD’s and Blu-ray’s. “Any movie you wanna watch?”

I looked at him, taking a bite out of a couple fries. “I thought you had a hockey game to watch?” I asked, covering my mouth cause it was full of food.

Gale shrugged. “Don’t feel like watching it anymore.”

I narrowed my eyes at him and watched as he pulled out a movie.

“Have you seen Mama?” He asked. “It’s new.”

I shook my head and leaned back into the couch. “I heard it was super scary.”

He grinned a childish grin, which surprised me. “It is.”

I tilted my head a bit. “Okay…”

“Let’s watch it.” He said as he opened the DVD cover, took out the CD and put it into the DVD player.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I was a fan of scary movies… but I heard this one was really, really scary.

Gale put the DVD cover aside and walked over to the couch, sitting next to me, but not that close. “You’ll like it.” He said, pulling out his burger. “I think you’ll like it a lot.”

***

I shook my head as the doctor walked into the cabin. “He is so stupid.” I said, trying to ignore the creepy music in the background. Gale had turned the volume up so loud that it was echoing through the whole house.

Gale, who had his legs crossed on the sofa, grinned. “Shh, this is a good part.”

I swallowed hard, knowing something horrible was going to happen. And suddenly, after a short dialogue with nothing, he started taking pictures and the creepy music got louder.

And I screamed, seeing the photos of the disfigured Mama.

Then the movie paused, making my scream sound so loud because there was no other sound covering it.

I slapped my hand over my mouth, feeling sweat drip down my face.

“Gale?” I heard Gale’s mother call.

We both turned around.

Gale’s mother stood there, holding a remote in her hands.

She was a beautiful woman, with gorgeous green eyes, like the ones that Gale and Gina had. She was tall, and thin and had short, brown hair that was as straight as straight could be. Though she was beautiful, she always wore a lot of makeup, making her lips look very red and her eyes stand out. And she always had some dressy outfit on. Like now, she was wearing an expensive looking black pencil skirt that went to her knees, a white blouse, a black blazer and high heels.

I never spoke with her much, even when we were kids. So she was always the mysterious mother of Gale in my eyes.

And for some strange reason, when his mother’s eyes fell on me, her smile disappeared. “Naomi.”

“Hi Ms. Dallas.” I smiled. “It’s been a while!”

She forced a smile, which surprised me. I always thought she liked me. “I thought you two weren’t friends anymore.

“Mom.” Gale said, in an annoyed voice. He turned around to face the TV again.

“Well, what do you expect me to think?” She asked, raising one of her perfectly manicured hands. “Miss. Valentine here disappeared from your life for quite a while.”

Miss. Valentine?

Gale ignored her and took a bite out of his third hamburger.

For a second, I wondered how he could be so fit even though he ate so many of these unhealthy hamburgers.

Gales mother shook her head and walked off, without even saying bye.

I turned back around to face the T.V. and frowned.

I then heard her heels clacking against the tiled floor as she walked back. “Naomi… it’s very late, should you not be going home?”

I turned and looked at her. “Um… yeah, I guess.”

“You don’t want to make your mom and dad wait.”

Gale turned around and looked at his mother, giving her an angry look.

Ms. Dallas looked confused. “It’s true. I remember your father would always be waiting for you, am I right?”

“Well…” I hesitated. “My dad doesn’t live with us anymore-”

“Ah…” Ms. Dallas said. “That’s right. They’re divorced.”

Gale got up. “Alright. Maybe we can finish the movie another day.”

“Are they doing okay?” Ms. Dallas asked, almost kindly. “It’s so sad to think that they aren’t together anymore. I remember that your father loved your mother a lot, did he not?”

I opened my mouth to agree, feeling my heart sink because of the topic in general, but I was startled by Gale’s hand taking mine. “You don’t need to answer that.” Gale said before he turned to his mom. “Mom, you’re ridiculous.” He hissed before he walked off towards the exit, dragging me behind him.

“I was just asking!” Ms. Dallas called behind us.

But before I could say bye to be polite, Gale had shut the door to the theater room and walked me to where my shoes were.

I put them on. “That wasn’t very nice.”

“My mom can be really upfront sometimes. And I’ve heard you don’t like talking about it, so that’s why I was being like that.”

“Oh, okay.” I simply said, shrugging it off. He was right about one thing, I didn’t like to talk about it.

He opened the door and walked out to his car, it beeped when he pressed the button on his little remote as he walked over to the driver’s side.

I followed him and got into the passenger side.

We were quiet for most of the ride, and I could tell that he didn’t like this awkwardness almost as much as I didn’t.

So he spoke first.

“You don’t like talking about it, right?”

“If by it you mean my parents, then yeah.” I said, looking out the window. “I don’t like talking about it.”

I saw him nod his head as he pressed his lips into a thin line.

And then we were silent.

When he pulled into my driveway, I opened the door and stepped out. “Thanks again.” I said as I went to close the door.

“Hold on.” He said, leaning over so that he could see me.

I looked into the car. “Yeah?”

He looked at me for a moment but then shook his head. “Never mind.” He said before rolling up his window and reversing out of my parking.

He didn’t even say bye.

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PS. The picture is a picture of how Maria would look!