What Do You Want?

    She watched crimson drip into white porcelin sink, she could hear her parents screaming at each other from downstairs. Her father has been traveling a lot for work lately and wants to move, but her mother refuses. She lifted her head and looked in the mirror, her eye liner was running and her tears washed away the cover up she applied a few moments ago. She heard a door slam follwed by squealing tires, he was gone, again. If I hadn't  been such a needy child, none of this would ever happen she thought. She ripped off a few sheets of toilet paper and began to wipe off her face and reapplied her make up. She grabbed a cool wash rag and wiped off her shoulder. "Shit!" she shouted, noticing she grabbed a white rag rather than a black one. "Nikkole Lynn, if you don't get down here you're going to be late!" her mother's voice traveled up the steps. Nikkole quickly tossed  the rag under sink and pushed her make up box in front of it.
    She opened the bathroom door and walked over to her dresser, looking around and cursing all the trophies on the way there. She came to an abrupt hault at the biggest one. It was nearly five feet tall, had a crown at the top and a pink sash covered it. She starred at it for a few seconds and then threw it to the ground, shattering the girl at the top. "This is all your fault" she  whispered fighting back her tears.
    Nikkole was a pagent queen, for nearly every pagent she entered. Her and her mother traveled the country every summer in search of them. Nikkole knew it was expensive, very expensive, that's why she told her mother that she wanted to quit, but her mother insisted. Sure, there were monitary prizes, but never  once did Nikkole see a penny of any of it. She was told it was being put back for  her college education.
    "Well let's go, I have a ton of things to do today and not one of them is to wait for you missy, now get in the car." her mother's voice made her cringe, when she  spoke, it was like nails on a chalk bored. Nikkole grabbed her pink back pack and reluctantly opened the passenger door, she would much rather sit in the back, as far away from her mother as she could get. She knew if did that her mother would have a fit. "I'm going to pick up your after I drop you off, so as soon as you get home, you change, and get to the garage,  we've got a lot of rehersing to  do." Nikkole rolled her eyes shook her head. Nikkole saw the school and thought she was saved, "Look here" her mother sighed in disapproval and pulled into a parking space. She parted Nikkole's hair, reapplied her make up, to her likings and took the over sized sweat shirt from her. "You won't be needing this"  she said as she tossed the sweat shirt into the back seat, "But mom I've got to-" "No buts' Nikkole, now get out, I've got stuff to do." Nikkole let out a deep frushstrated breath and got out. "Did she have to park in the very last spot of the lot?" she said as she trudged through the seniors' cars.
    "Hey, you're Nikkole right?" she heard a voice from a car behind her.
    "Umm, yeah, do I know you?"
    "No, I've got a spot close to the door, want a ride?"
She looked down at her pink rhinestone flip flops and looked back up at the building and the little dots that were people.
    "Yeah, sure." She climbed into the front seat of his car and shut the door.
    "So, how do you me again?"
    "I'm Gil, a senior. A lot of people know who you are, you're quite popular."
    "Oh I am?" She acted as if she didn't know people were constantly watching and faunting over her.
    "You were the only nonsenior at the seniors' only last year bash, you know you are."
    "Yeah,I guess you're right" she giggled.
She got out of the car and shut the door behind her.
    "Thanks for the ride, Gil" she gave a little smile and walked away.
      She saw her friends waiting for her at entrance and the all walked in together. As they made their way to their lockers guys jaws dropped and girls gave envious looks, nothing out of the ordinary. When she got to her locker there was a blue post it note on it that said "Your welcome" and had a smiley face on it.
"So, did you guys hear about Shane's party this Friday?" her friend Ashley asked with a giddy grin.
  "Yes! We are SO there!" Maggie, the other of the three girls said.
    "What do you say Kole, you in?"
    "I can't guys, it's pagent weekend, you know that" she hated not being able to spend time with her friends. It was okay when she was younger but she was in high school now and having a social life is important.
    "Right, Adolf Abby is back" that's what they called Nikkole's mother when she was in pagent mode.
    "Well let us know if you can go, we'd hate going without you."
      "Yeah, well I've got to get to history, I've gotta seduce that dorky kid ummm Randy? I think to let me cheat off him for our test today!" Ashley giggled and ran off and Maggie followed.
"I can never do anything I want to do. It's always about what Adolf Abby wants,  she doesn't care what princess Kole wants not even what my dad wants" she thought to herself. She got to her first class, and plopped her books down on her usual desk in the back corner, away from the teacher and away from the nerdy kids and beside all of the jocks, girls and guys included. She opened her notebook to pretend like she was paying attention and saw the blue post it. He was so, so, so cute she thought. "His hazel eyes were so dreamy and his messy dark hair did nothing else but make him look better. He was gorgeous, but, how could I not know him? If he's such a good looking guy, I've had to have met him at some point, but I'd remember a face like his, it was perfect. Perfectly proportioned,his nose fit his face perfectly, his cheek bones were high and defined his face perfectly, his lips were perfectly sized and his smile, oh his smile.." "Ms. Marker, Ms. Marker!" her thoughts were interupted by her math teacher, who was incredibly old. "How is he even still alive?" she said quietly.
    "What's that Ms. Marker?"
    "Nothing sir" she responded  quickly as the kids aroung her chuckled because they had heard what she said.
    "Good, now answer the question."
    "Ummm, I don't know." she said not caring.
    "Well then, maybe this time around you'll pay attention, hmmm?"
    "Yes sir" she just gave him the response he wanted to hear so he'd shut up and leave her alone. He was constantly attacking that corner of the room, as if they'd had a reputation for not caring or something.
    The bell rang and she gathered her things and walked out of the room first, as everyone parted like the Red Sea when she made her way to the door. She was walking down the hall, in a daze. She just couldn't seem to get this Gil guy off of her mind. She was drawing a mental picture of him with his shirt off and she walked right into what felt like a stone wall. She quickly snapped out of her day dream in time to see some guy picking her things up from the ground.
      "Sorry, I wasn't really paying attention" he said as he help pick her up from the ground. Nikkole was still trying to figure out what happened.
    "Are you alright?" he noticed she was holding her head.
      "Yeah, I'm fine, I just uh-yeah, I'm good" she said trying to figure out how any human body could be so solid.
    "Nikkole?"
      "That would be me" she picked her head up, it was Gil. She was so thrilled to see him.
    "Gil?"
    "Yeah, listen, I'm so sorry, are you okay?" he asked rather concerned.
    "Let me walk you to your next class, I just have a study period so it won't matter if I'm late."
    "No, I'm good thanks" she couldn't believe she had just said those words. "What are you doing" she was yelling at herself silently.
    "Oh,alright, well I guess, I'll see you around then.." his voice faded. Nikkole walked to her class kicking herself the entire time:
    What were you thinking! You obviously weren't you just spent your entire math class thinking about  him and he throws himself at you and you say no!
    She sat down and starred at the blue post it in her notebook. She couldn't stop thinking about him, there was something about him, but she didn't know what. She felt her phone buzz and took it out of her pocket. She hid behind her text book and slid it open it was from Adolf Abby: Sorry honey, I've got a meeting that I have to go to this afternoon, you'll have to find a way home, and yes we are still rehersing, so DON'T be late.
Nikkole hated when her mother did this to her, she lived farther than walking distance away and had no idea what bus to catch.
    After class she went to the office to find a bus listing so she could get home.
    "What do you mean my address isn't on a route?!" she shouted at the secretary.
    "Your mother sent in a note that said her daughter wouldn't ever be caught on a school bus and not even bother with putting it on a route."
    "I rode the bus last year! My address has to be on some route!"
    "I can give you a pass to ride one that's a few miles from your home?" Nikkole could tell the secretary was beginning to feel threatened.
    "That's fine" she was extremely frustrated.
    "Well you'll have to come back during your lunch period I don't have time to find you one now."
    "You have got to be kidding me, that's a joke right? You know what, forget it, I'll walk." She left slamming the door behind her. She convinced her friends to skip the rest of their casses for the day they hung out in the auditorium, where they spent all day gossiping and making plans for the weekend. Well, she listened to Ashley and Maggie make plans for the weekend. She thought about telling them about Gil, but she couldn't trust them, and she knew if they had something like this they wouldn't tell ether, they didn't trust each other.
    The final bell rang and made their way back to their lockers, Nikkole was dreading the day's end, not only because she had to walk home, but because she had to reherse, all night for a stupid pagent that she didn't even want to do. She went to the bathroom to get ahold of herself. She looked in the mirror, blonde hair, tan skin, diamond earrings, she was disgusted. All of these things were expensive, and were tearing her family apart. When she composed herself, and finally made her way to her locker the halls had already emptied. She put her books back into her locker, and shut it, the slam echoing through the building.
    She was trying to mentally prepare herself for this dredded walk home, most of the cars left in the parking lot were faculty, except for a few that belonged to girl basketball players, who had practice directly after school. She made her made to the bottom of the steps and through the first row of cars and she saw a familiar car, and an even more familiar face.
    "Need a ride? It's the  least I can do, I mean after giving you a concussion and all" Gil said with a slight smirk.
    "Well, you do owe me" Nikkole smiled and got into the car.
    "Rough day huh?"
    "What?"
      "I heard you, in the office arguing with the secretary about the bus, and the note your mom wrote."
    "Yeah, ha, that, my mother does things like that. She always-" Nikkole could feel herself getting heated and frustrated.
    "Wunna grab some coffee? Maybe some dinner or something? Just to get your mind off of school, I mean if you don't want to, I understand, we did just meet and I did crunch your head and-"
    "Coffee sounds good, I could really use some" Nikkole said interupting Gil's nervous rant. She thought he was cute, his nervous rant, waiting for her to take her home, and wanting to make sure she was alright after wiping out in the hall.
    "Adolf Abby is going to kill me" she whispered as they were pulling into a local cafe's parking lot.
    "What's that?"
    "Nothing" Nikkole wanted to forget all about Adolf Abby and her stupid rules and her stupid pagents and stupid rehersals and stupid everything. This kept her away from the hell hole she called home for a little while longer.
    The cafe was cozy. It had a red carpetting, a fire ring, brick walls, a little stage and couches and chairs spiractily throughout the room. Gil led the way to the counter that was covered in baked goods and orange flyers about upcoming events.
    "I'll have a blueberry muffn and a black coffee please"
    "Okay that'll be-"
    "Actually this will be together" Gil interupted the cashier as he pulled out his wallet
    "Gil, it's alright, I can get it."
    "I owe you, remember" he said with that goofy smirk.
    "I'll have the same thing"
    "For here to go" the cashier asked impaitently. Gil looked at Nikkole waiting for her response.
    "For here" she replied, not caring about Adolf Abby and what the consequences would be.