chapter nine

Chapter 9
Posing under the heat of the sun, Raymond dries his clothes on the roof while he sips a cup of soup. He seemed unhappy about me pushing him in the water. but yeah, that was just hilarious.
“you’re such a sissy” I said to him. He looked at me and snorted into a loud laugh.
“you’re so mean! Where’d you learn to get so tough huh?” he asked rhetorically. He was sitting on my bed while having a towel over his half naked body.
“i learned from the master…” I said back at him. He jumped over me and tickled my ribs. I was laughing so hard that tears were popping out of my eyes. He and I wrestled under the sheets.
He put his hand on my waist and applied pressure. It was so weird to feel that. He kept going on until his face was an inch away from mine. He paused a little bit and stood straight up.
“uh I need to go. I think my clothes are dry enough now. I’ll see you later.” He said nervously.
“yeah” I replied hoarsely. He handed over the towel and rushed out halfway through the door when he turned around to ask me, “did you want to swim?”
“what?” I asked. I mean, what made him think that way. He could have asked me anything, but why swimming?
“I would, if I knew how to swim.” I replied. He didn’t respond. He only smiled and walked through the door and next thing I heard, his car moaned out the driveway.

Next morning, the mailman came by. I met him on my way down to the swings by the lake. He was wearing a blue shirt with navy blue shorts. He was also wearing a dark black baseball cap.
“fine weather we’re having.” He remarked. I could sense he was starting to have a small talk with me but he handed over the mail. It was a thick bunch of letters held together by a single rubber band. He raised his cap and sped away in his van.
I took off the rubber band and looked around at the sight of birds. One of the letters was a warning for expulsion at my school. I put it underneath the other letters. One of them was a letter of demolition from the city and attached to it were previous accounts of unpaid taxes by my mother.

Not one of the letters came from Andrew. No, not even my parents. It was quite impossible for him not to know where I was since the school found out. I supposed something happened to him. But I left my paranoia for another day.

I opened the letter regarding my expulsion. According to what it said, I was said to be expelled if I do not attend class on Monday and take every quiz I failed to take due to my unexcused absences and unexplained rebellion. I set it on the coffee table while I rested my back on the chair. I was caught between the devil and the blue sea.

Going back to school was not yet a part of my plan, neither was seeing everyone again.