You've got Problems?

Chapter 4: What Girl?


Myer awoke to the dream shattering beeping of his alarm clock. Grumbling, he slowly pulled himself out of bed. Monday was about the only other day of the week that he dreaded, mostly just because of the fact that he really didn’t like looking forward to an entire week of school. He took a quick shower and finished getting himself ready. As he collected up his books, Myer found that he was in a much better mood than he had expected. Glancing out his window, he knew exactly why that was.

Some part of him was still very freaked out by that strange girl named Lilly. But another part of him he found was far more curious than anything else. Sure, she seemed very odd, and if anything that intrigued him even more. With a smile spread on his face, Myer left his house for what would be the most liked Monday that he experienced in a long time. As he climbed into his car, Myer looked over at the house. He would have been a complete liar to himself if he said that he wasn’t disappointed that he didn’t see Lilly outside. She seemed to be close to his age, so he doubted that she owned a car. And Myer could certainly attest to how terrible rides on the bus were before he got his own set of wheels. Much to his great disappointment, he didn’t see Lilly anywhere. Giving her a lift to school would have been a great step in getting to know her better.

Myer decided to chance a few minutes in his driveway, just to see if she would show herself. But as the window of getting to school on time dwindled, Myer was forced to leave. He thought of himself as being some what silly that he was giving so much thought to just one girl. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized that he had never seen someone like her. The drive to the school wasn’t much of anything. He parked in the lot to the side of the small drug store behind the school and briskly walked to the main entrance. As Myer slipped into the seething mass of bodies beginning to swell inside the buildings, he kept looking around for Lilly. A girl with pure white hair was not a common thing in his school. In fact, Myer couldn’t recall having ever seen anyone with a hair color like that.

When he walked through the crowds of chattering students, he kept his ears open as well. Much to his own disbelief, there wasn’t any talk about a girl with white hair. Not one single mentioning of the such. Myer couldn’t believe what was happening. How could the entire school miss a girl like Lilly? Concern began to build up inside Myer, and he decided to wait out the last few minutes of the morning on the steps to the main hall. If there was anywhere that she would show up, it would be at that place. Myer waited until the very moment when the bell rang for first morning, and still there was no sign of Lilly.

His mind racked with questions, Myer went off to his first class. The first four classes of the day just seemed to breeze by him. All the lectures and notes that each teacher presented to him fell on deaf ears, he might as well have not even been there. All he could think about was why he hadn’t seen Lilly, and wonder why no one else had as well. It wasn’t until the lunch bell rang that he finally started to get his wits together again.

Myer kept an eye out, around the cafeteria, just in case by some bizarre chance that he had missed Lilly in the morning. Still, the mystery girl from last night appeared to be just as much of a phantom here as she had been then. Disappointed, he took his meal and trudged out to his usual place of solitude. Halfway through the doors, Myer was hit in the shoulder hard. He stumbled back into the brick wall of the cafeteria. In trudged Tylor and three of his teammates. As was the hierarchy of the wild kingdom of high school, Tylor was one of the top predators. Though was wasn’t ridiculously bigger than Myer, the football player still easily had the edge in size and weight.

Tylor glared at Myer. “Hey tough guy, trying to start something?”

A fight, especially one that he had no hope of winning, was the very last thing that Myer needed to deal with at the moment. He cast his eyes to the floor and hurried outside. “That’s right. You better run, you little shit.” Tylor called after him.

Myer hurried over to a secluded spot under an oak tree that was just behind the cafeteria. It was a nice, peaceful spot. He guess that no one wanted to go their because of the trash heaps in the back. The smell wasn’t as bad as everyone thought, if you knew where to be at the right time. And Myer certainly did. Enjoying a small breeze washing over him, he ate his meal in relative peace. However, thoughts of Lilly continued to plague his mind. Myer didn’t understand it, but he just couldn’t get her out of his head.

All types of reasons and excuses for Lilly not being in school popped into his head. The most likely prospect was that she hadn’t been completely registered with the school system yet. She did say that her family had come all the way over from the east coast. That was a fair bit of distance to move. Myer suddenly thought of how he could find out if Lilly was going to be in school tomorrow, for it was without a doubt that she wasn’t in today. But what he had to do to find out didn’t seem all that appeasing to him. As much as he didn’t want to do it, Myer just had to find out more about Lilly. He was going to have to go to Cynthia. Her aunt worked in the school office, and she sometimes needed Cynthia’s help in sorting through the mountain of documents that tended to pile up every now and then.

Myer thought about just how he was going to do that. He hadn’t spoken to Cynthia in almost two years. That was a damn long time to not associate with someone, even more so in high school. He saw her every now and then passing through the halls. Occasionally, they would acknowledge each other’s presence. Maybe once or twice, Myer was sure that he had seen her smile at him. Childhood friendships were not so easily tossed aside, nor forgotten.

He decided to try and get Cynthia at her locker right after the final bell. If he was lucky, she would have to pick up a few books before leaving. Like he had in the morning, Myer paid little attention to any of the classes after lunch. When the final bell rang, Myer quickly scooped up all of his books and rushed to Cynthia’s locker. When he got there, he saw that she was just finishing getting a few of her things together. As Myer approached her, he wondered why he had been such an idiot.

Cynthia wasn’t the most beautiful girl in the whole school, but she had become a real head turner. Her strawberry blonde hair seemed to glisten from the light in the hallways, and her light green eyes were just as nurturing as he remembered when they were younger. If nothing else, Myer felt wretched that he had pushed her away. And now he found himself going to her for something completely different. When he neared her, Cynthia noticed him out of the corner of her eye.

She didn’t say anything to him, which he felt was justified. It took a lot of courage and humility for Myer to clear his throat and speak to her. “Cynthia.” He said.

A casual grumble hummed from behind her closed lips, and then she went back to her things. Myer rubbed the back of his head. “Can we talk?”

“Now you want to talk?” she repeated the question for him, still keeping her eyes fixed on the inside of the locker. “It’s been almost two years without so much as a hello, now you want to talk?”

“Look….I’m sorry about all that, but I need your help.” He said.

“And what makes you think that I’ll help an asshole like you?” she replied.

Myer was taken back by her question. In all the years he had known her, she never really talked like that. He suddenly realized just how much she had changed, and he hadn’t been there when it happened. Guilt boiled up in him. “You’re right.” He told her. “I have been an ass. Sorry I bothered you.” Myer turned to go.

From behind him, he heard Cynthia sigh. “Alright Myer, what is it?”

Myer looked over his shoulder. “Are you serious? You’ll help me?”

“That depends on what it is.” She said, slamming her locker shut. “And where I fall into it all.”

“Well….” Myer began, not sure how to word what he was going to say, or how Cynthia would take it. “It’s about a girl…”

“Look, if you want to ask someone out, that’s your problem.” Cynthia growled.

Myer’s eyes went wide. “No, no, no. It’s not like that at all.”

“Then what is it?” she asked, folding her arms.

“Well,” Myer said, looking down at his shoes, “this girl moved in next door to me. I thought she would be here today, but she wasn’t. I was wondering if you could see if she was registered to this school.”

Cynthia didn’t look the least bit pleased at his request. “And what do I get out of it?”

“My gratitude.” He told her.

Cynthia rolled her eyes. “Alright Myer, I’ll see if I can find out. What’s her name?”

“Lilly.”

“Last name would help too.”

“I don’t know it.”

Cynthia couldn’t suppress a laugh that rolled out of her throat. “Damn Myer, you’re still just as clueless as ever. No deal.” She started to walk away. Myer rushed after her.

“Wait.” He said, jumping in front of Cynthia. Before she could say anything to him, Myer dug into his pockets and pulled out a rumpled ten dollar bill. “Look, that’s all I have. Would you please help me?”

Cynthia stared down at the money. “That’s pathetic Myer. Paying me to help you.” Myer felt dejected and went to put the bill back into his pocket. Before he could, Cynthia snatched it from his hand and stuffed it into the pocket of her jeans. “But I suppose ten dollars can make the favor worthwhile. Alright, I’ll check it out. I’m going to the office right now.”

“Thank you.” Myer said.

Cynthia gave him a very stern look. “Don’t get any ideas Myer. I may be doing this for you, but that doesn’t mean that we are friends. You kicked that out the door long ago.” Myer chose to stay silent after that. He quietly followed Cynthia to the office and waited patiently in the waiting room while she disappeared inside. Myer had little to do other than twiddle his thumbs while he stared blankly at the wall.

After what seemed close to an eternity, Cynthia came back into the waiting room. Myer leapt to his feet and stared at her. “Well?” he asked.

Cynthia shook her head. “Sorry Myer, but there’s no record of anyone registering at this school in the last three months. I talked to my aunt, and she said that the office has gotten no call of any new students registering. The call has to be made at least a week prior to anyone starting classes here.”

Myer was shocked. “But…but that’s impossible. She’s right next door to me. She should be here today.”

For the first time since he approached her, Cynthia looked at Myer with concern. “Myer, if the school was supposed to have a new student, the office would have heard about it by now. Myer, are alright?”

“I’m not crazy.” He said. “I saw the girl, I talked to her last night. She’s not an imagination.”

Before Cynthia managed to respond, Myer darted out of the room. Anger and confusion consumed him as he briskly walked back to his car and drove home. There was nothing but a string of unanswered questions, and he needed answers. Thinking of little else on the entire drive home, Myer nearly ran a red light. It was only after a car horn blared and a jeep zoomed just feet in front of his car that he regained his senses. Fear of a wreck was always in his mind every time he got behind the wheel of his car. After the near miss, he took it more slowly going back to his house.

As he pulled into the driveway, Myer noticed that neither of the two cars that he saw that morning were at the house next door. Wondering just what the hell was going on, Myer walked over to the front door and gave the bell a ring without much thought. On the steps he waited for an answer. After several minutes and a few more tries, he finally gave up on trying to get someone to come to the door.

Feeling even worse than when he had left the school, Myer took his bag and rushed up to his room. Once safely nestled away in the seclusion of his lair, he threw himself on the bed and began pondering over everything. He was sure that they had new neighbors, his dad had even mentioned it. But did they really have a daughter? Was that girl he had met last night even real? Myer refused to believe that he had dreamed it all, but at the same time, he wasn’t entirely sure. There had been several times when he had been almost positive that a dream had been real.

Rubbing his hand through his hair several times, Myer looked out the window at the house on the other side of the fence. “Was it all real?” he asked himself. “Am I really going crazy?”