Inches Away - Chapter Eleven

It was only the first day of school and Cathryn already couldn’t wait till the last day of school. Great…just another two years, including this school year, to go until she graduates out of high school. She had no idea why preppy girls even talk about waiting till high school to meet “hot” guys. News flash people, there aren’t a lot of hot guys here at McKay High! There are, but not many. Most are jocks and are taken by the cheerleading squad and other whores from different cliques. People just got to get the idea that the guys in high school are most likely to be the same guys from their previous schools: middle school, elementary school, and maybe even preschool!

The first day was pretty much like the last two years. The same old speech from teachers to wanting to get to know us all and learn our names. Until it was brunch time Cathryn exited second period with Blake, colliding with the already-crowded hallway.
“Gosh, why are hallways always so crowded?” Cathryn complained as they shoved their ways to their lockers.
“You know how freshmen are, they huddle in groups because they don’t want to get lost or get picked on by the upper and all that jazz,” Blake said before grabbing Cathryn’s hand, “just so that we won’t get separated.”

Cathryn’s heartbeat increased when she looked down at their hands clasped to one another. Her cheek colors changed a bit pink as she let some of her light brown hair fall down and cover her face. They soon reached their lockers and were able to dump most of the heavy loads off their backs.
“Cathryn!” Matty’s voice could be heard from the other side of the hallway.

She stuck her head out of her locker as she saw a redhead making its way towards her. Cathryn saw Bliss with her and waved. Bliss’ expression lightened and responded back with a smile.
Even without her knowing, she makes Bliss’ day so bright. He averted his eyes a bit towards the left and saw Blake staring at her like he was in a daze. His green eyes bore into the side of Cathryn’s face as the two waited for Matty and Bliss to walk over. Bliss couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous. The words “stop looking at her like that,” kept echoing throughout his mind. He shook his head as he stopped in front of his own locker.
“How were your first two classes?” Cathryn asked as she emptied out her backpack.
“BORING! ‘I want to get to know each and everyone of you’ speech gets irritating real easily,” Matty spoke as she started unwinding the combination to her locker next door.

The day went by even slower in Cathryn's point of view. It was like the man upstairs was purposely slowing the second hand after each 'tick' and 'tock' it made.
It was finally the last ten minutes of class for her and the gang. Yep for once they had a class where it was all three of them together. Blake however was in the next room beside them suffering alone.
"This is going so slow, is he trying to talk slow on purpose? I can't tell," Bliss complained as Dr. T was explaining more Trig problems, even on the first day.
“Beats me,” Matty sighed with her head on her hand, having her elbow on her desk.
“He’s talking slow…never mind I lied…okay that was a lie too, I think he’s talking slow on purpose,” Cathryn gave up.

During one of Dr. T’s explanation, the bell interrupted him with more than half the class out the door.
“Homework tonight will be problems from 1-28 on page 359, students!” Dr. T yelled out before the entire class was gone.

Five bucks says that barely half of the class actually heard it, and about one fourth will actually do it. They all packed their items and visited their lockers once more before heading home. It was rather difficult since many people kept walking back, hitting each other with their shoulders or backpacks. Cathryn closed her locker and locked it before turning to her right. Shifting her notebook and textbook to her other arm, she peered into Bliss’ locker. Pictures of himself with herself and Matty were hung up on one side, the opposite side had some pictures of his painting artwork, and the other side contained a few magnets here and there with movie tickets clipped into them.
Cathryn smiled as she spotted a Toys Story movie ticket. It was the first time the trio got to go to the movies at night, but they still had a parent to accompany them. She remembered how excited they were, and how the night breeze felt. She giggled to herself when Matty asked her mom, who was the one that took them, why a boy was squishing a girl between himself and a wall with their arms wrapped around one another. Her mom didn’t know how to reply except to cover our innocent eyes and push us towards the snack area.
Bliss closed his locker, blocking the site to the movie ticket and turned around to see Cathryn standing there. His eyebrows rose in a “what’s up?” way. Cathryn smiled and shook her head saying “nothing.” She walked over to the left side of her locker to see Matty placing her last un-used notebook inside.

Cathryn peeked in and saw one similar to Bliss’. She saw a photo of them three all muddy with smiling expressions with peace-sign poses. In the background was Cathryn’s old house, before she moved into Bliss’ next door, with downstairs lights on. It was a rainy afternoon and the trio decided to create “mud pies” together. With each of their other hands, they held their mud pies. Matty’s hand held the biggest one, Cathryn’s looked like it was about to slide apart, while Bliss’ was more tall than wide. Before the camera got ruined, Cathryn’s dad quickly took the picture and ushered them all inside before any of them caught a cold.

The common noise of a slamming locker door occurred and snapped Cathryn back from the past to reality once more. She jumped and accidentally knocked into Bliss, who startled her even more, not knowing he was standing so close behind her. Everything went by in a flash; Cathryn felt herself trip on her own feet, loosening her grip on her textbook and notebooks. More sounds of books hitting the floor came seconds later, and Cathryn felt two arms wrap around her arm and waist, but one extra hand was holding on to her extended right arm’s wrist.
She didn’t notice until now that she had closed her eyes, waiting for the impact. When Cathryn realized nothing had happened she opened her eyes to see her in the oddest position. She was completely leaning on Bliss who had been holding her, and to see another hand, belonging to the one and only…Blake. He had a surprised look as he was in a stepping forward position. Cathryn behind her and had to tilt her head up to see Bliss’ face completely red. She could feel the beating motion against Bliss’ chest; almost matching her own fast-beating heart.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” Cathryn quickly stood up and backed away from Bliss a few feet.
“Are you ok Cathryn?” Blake asked as he slowly drew back his arm and adjusts his messenger bag.
“Y-yeah fine. Bliss just scared me a bit. Heh…” Cathryn scrunched down and picked up her dropped items as Bliss did the same for his.

“Being a klutz as always eh Cat?” Lisa spoke as Becca gave Cathryn a snicker while walking by.

Cathryn stuck her tongue out at them as she stood back up once more with her notebook and textbook. How dare Lisa call her “Cat!” That was the one nickname she hated the most out of all nicknames people came up with for ‘Cathryn.’ Sure, she can deal with ‘Cathy’ or even ‘Cath’ but she just can’t stand ‘Cat.’ It always came with a meow sound in the end.
“Real mature there,” Cathryn spun around and saw Matty smirking at her.
Cathryn put one of her hands to her hip and leaned onto one foot, and stuck out her tongue at her best friend as well in response. Blake let out a small laugh before they all started to head towards the cafeteria.

Taking their time, the gang walked down the hallway that was slowly thinning out. Most students have already headed out to the basketball courts, the fields for football, or the cafeteria where all tables were probably taken. The lunch line wasn’t too long as Cathryn reached the end of the line first.

By the time it was time for everyone to head back home, Cathryn’s backpack increased by…a lot. Textbooks and packets filled with forms were stuffed into her backpacks. Notebooks that were filled with important notes from classes were taken home, and yet to be used were forgotten in the locker overnight.
It was a Tuesday night as the second day of school passed the day. Cathryn was in the kitchen of the diner. Trays were placed across a metal shelf right above the stoves, where the cooks and assistants would put the dishes. Pans were spread across the separate stoves around the kitchen. Rags lay in the most random sections. Everything was set for the opening. Bliss and Cathryn waited in the front for the familiar ring of a clock on the far end of the diner. 7:00pm. The clock sounded like a doorbell as it kept on ringing. With a sigh, Bliss walked to the front and flipped the sign from Closed to Open, unlocking the door for their customers.
Knowing that more people won’t come till later, the two didn’t rush going from the front to the kitchen and back to the front to see if anyone had come. Back in the kitchen, the chiefs were heating up their pans as they turned on the gas to set the fire. Assistants were filling up the sink, ready to wash any dishes to re-use once more. A familiar alarm activated, giving them a sign that a customer had finally come.

Cathryn peeked through the kitchen doors and noticed that Bliss was already guiding a couple on a date to their table. She was glad to know that she had more time before she had to get out there. Cathryn quickly walked over to another room that had lockers for the staff members. She opened the cold metal door and spotted a few binders sticking out of her bag. Taking it out, she grabbed a pencil and started on the one of the million other homework assignments her teacher handed over to them to work on tonight, expecting it to be finished by tomorrow.
After finishing more than half of her essay for English, she placed everything back. Checking the clock in the locker room, 7:43pm. Crap, there were probably a lot of customers now. Fast-walking out of the room, quickly hit by the different cooking smells, Cathryn grabbed a notepad with a pen laid on it and walked out of the swinging double doors. To her surprise, there wasn’t too many, but a nice decent amount of customers. Bliss and Beth, who shouldn’t come by till later, was pacing around the room.
“Hey Cathryn, where have you been?” Beth walked by her with a tray of fresh cooked meals.
“In the back, sorry about that,” Cathryn responded as she guided a new group of customers to a large table to fit the number of people.

Giving them menus, taking their orders for drinks and walking away to give them time to think, Cathryn ended up walking with Beth back into the kitchen.
“I thought you had a later shift,”
“I need the extra cash to pay the rent,” Beth spoke with a sigh.
“Ah time of the month? Well if you need any help—”
“What? No way. Its fine, you and Bliss helped me enough last month. Which by the way, I swear I will pay you two back as soon as I can,” Beth said as she gathered a few cups to fill up with ice.
“All right, if you’re sure…” Cathryn said as she too started to copy Beth’s actions.

Half their shift went by and Cathryn was leaning against the wall outside, staring at the stars on her break. Bliss soon joined her a couple of minutes after, dressed up now in his assistant uniform.
“It’s a good thing tonight isn’t so busy huh?” Cathryn broke the silence as she moved her hands on top of each other moving them behind her and leaning on them.
“Yeah, hey you busy this Saturday?” Bliss spoke casually but kept fidgeting and kept shifting from one foot to the other.
“Nothing is coming up. Yeah that day seems free, why you ask?” Her pair of green eyes moved from the stars above to Bliss’ pair of icy blue eyes.
“I was—I um. Er a uh…” Bliss’ attempted was interrupted with a sigh, “There’s a…a new movie coming out. Was wondering if you wanted t-to go with m-me.”

The stuttering didn’t even bring any notice to Cathryn. She just figured it was getting cold to Bliss that he was stuttering.
Bliss was nervous at first because Cathryn had paused to look back up at the stars. He didn’t know what she would say to his suggestion of going to the movies. In spite of the fact that they were best friends. Bliss wasn’t even sure when the right time to even ask Cathryn to the movies was. He saw the two of them alone a chance and he took it. Waiting for Cathryn’s reply, he shifted his body weight a lot, and in his pockets his fingers became sweaty while curling in and out. Finally, relief hit him when he heard the word “sure” come out of her mouth. Seeing that smile come from her face was a beautiful scene in his eyes. But before the two knew it, their break had ended and it was time to head back in.

Bliss headed back to his station in the kitchen while Cathryn walked further until she reached the swinging double doors. The bell near the door made a ding noise, indicating more customers had arrived. Cathryn looked up and saw a group of girls from school. The group of girls from school…that hate her uberly. The group of girls from school that hate her uberly much that they would do almost anything to make Cathryn’s high school experience a living hell. Even if it means screwing up her life outside of school as well.

“Hey Diner girl.”