Complex - Part 2
#2 of Complex
C omplex 2
D efinition : Psychological problem
S ynonyms : anxiety, exaggerated reaction, fear , fixation, fixed idea, hang-up, idéefixe, insanity, mania, neurosis, obsession, phobia, preoccupation, repression
2
I had a weird dream last night. For an unknown reason, people couldn't see me, hear me, talk to me, or acknowledge me in any way shape or form. I tried to get some attention but it always failed. I could touch people and they would just ignore it. I could try to get in their way but they would just weave around me like they knew I was there, but still not knowing at the same time.
I went to school like every day on a natural accord. I looked all over the school and couldn't find Josh or Alex. I didn't know Alex's first period but I had remembered Josh's from that time we looked at each other's schedule to see if we had any classes together. We didn't have any even close to each other. I began my walk down a quiet lonesome hallway of red and yellow alternating lockers. Some of them had some writing on it that looked like it was done in permanent marker and some had dents in them from who knows what, a kid being beaten up by the school bully perhaps? I brushed the thought off of my shoulder and continued to walk.
The school was big. High Peaks High School, it was called. I took a left down another corridor and saw the stairs up ahead I needed to take to get to Mrs. Jefferies room, Josh's English teacher. She was an old woman with graying hair, wrinkles that made her skin look like it was melting off of her, once a face, and butt bigger than a normal chair could support. She would sit on a black padded stool in front of the class with her pen in her teeth watching over the silent students to make sure nobody was talking or cheating on today's test. It was the same expression and same routine for her every week.
I made it to the stairs "like it was hard?" and began to head up when I heard a door crash behind me. It was just the Janitor exiting his overstocked supply closet. We called him Mark because he wouldn't tell anyone his real name. He always had five o' clock shadow and seemed kind of like a creeper. But he was always considerate and never seemed like he resented cleaning up after a bunch of kid's messes. He, like everyone else, ignored my presence in the hallway.
I was at the top of the stairs when I realized that the upstairs section of the school seemed different. It looked the same, but in a way, gave an odd presence. I took an immediate right past the kitchen for Foods A. class and proceeded down the hallway. It was a little skinnier than the other hallways and was located in kind of a desolate part of the school. A luminescent light fixture above be was blinking every so often to give it an eerie chill. Mrs. Jefferies room was just up ahead. I peeked into the slit window of the door check if Josh was in there. I couldn't see his seat at the angle I was looking in through.
Maybe they won't see me like everyone else. I thought for a second. I pulled the door handle and pushed gently so not to alarm Mrs. Jefferies if she did happen to see me. Most of the kids in class looked away from their papers and fixed their eyes on my confused face at the door. "Yes? What do you want" Mrs. Jefferies exclaimed at me in an unsettling tone. "Uh, is Josh, I mean William Parks here today?" I said looking around the room to find him. "No, I don't believe he is. Now can you leave so I can continue teaching?" "Yeah, sure thing Mrs. Jefferies" I replied without hesitation. I closed the door and continued on my way.
I just stood in front of door wondering what was going on. Why could they see me and the others couldn't? I stood in silence for about 5 seconds but it seemed like a minute, and then turned around to get to class. I was surprised to see Alex a little further down the hall. I could barely make out his face but I was sure it was him. He wore that same red shirt with a hotdog on it pretty much once a week. Underneath the hotdog was a phrase saying "I'd eat that". I didn't really understand what it meant but whatever. "Hey Alex! Have you seen Josh anywhere? He isn't in his first period class." He didn't answer. It looked as if he was just standing there with his head down. "Yo Alex, can ya hear me?" I asked again. There was still no response. I walked over cautiously to see what was up with him. The walk seemed longer than it really was. "Hey, Alex, what's wrong buddy?" He still just stood there with his head down. Then almost as soon as the period started, it ended with a loud bell. It startled me enough to wake me up, in my house, on my bed in my dirty teenage room and the alarm clock going off at such a loud volume that I placed my head under my pillow instead of rationally thinking to just turn off the alarm.
I felt sweat on the pillow. Not a lot, but enough to notice. I reached out my hand to the nightstand on the right where my lamp, alarm clock and Stephen King's "The Shining" laid and smacked the alarm clock with a closed fist hoping it would turn off. I had managed to hit the snooze button and gotten out of bed like every morning. I took my shower, forgot to shampoo and dried my regular brown hair. I picked up some clothes off of the bottom of the floor and proceeded to the kitchen for some breakfast. My random pick of clothes were some blue jeans, a dark blue shirt with a white X pattern on it and a plain gray jacket that was open in the front and could be zipped up if I got too cold.
I was surprised that my dad was still gone from last night. Maybe he slept in. My dog Bones was just chilling by the living room couch waiting for some breakfast himself.
I opened the pantry that squeaked if you opened it too slow and pulled out the big bag of dog chow. I filled up his bowl with the dry brown spheres that he called food and grabbed his water bowl to fill that up too. It still had some water left in it but I dumped that out for some new cold water. I placed it on the ground and got an ice cube from the fridge. I popped the ice cube into his water because Bones liked to chew on it. The cold made his gums feel good or something.
Inside the fridge were an empty box of frozen quesadilla's and an untouched box of breakfast burritos. The box was plain and bland with a white background and red lettering saying "good deal: breakfast burritos." I popped one into the microwave and set the cook time to a minute and a half. I waited as the countdown begun and the burrito in the loud cube rotated on a circular plate inside. I opened the door at forty five seconds, flipped the burrito and continued to cook it. I looked in the fridge to find some milk and was lucky enough to find a little bit left in a fourth gallon carton in the back. It was just enough to fill up a small cup. I thought. I opened a different pantry and pulled out a small pink plastic cup that had chew marks on the top edges. Those were probably made from my brother when he was little. We reused a lot of things in the house and preserved certain stuff for as long as we could to save a little bit more money.
I placed the carton of milk on the counter alongside my pink chewed cup and began to pour. The milk was thick and chunky. There was a horrible sour odor expelling from the white thick liquid. "Great! The milk is bad. I should have checked the stupid expiration date."
The microwave beeped and I pulled out the burrito to place it on a paper plate. I took a bite that burnt the inside of my mouth. I chewed it as fast as I could before I swallowed. I was a little more cautious on the next bite and blew on it a little to make sure it wasn't too hot. I took my second bite and the egg inside was freezing cold. "Again, the microwave doesn't cook it evenly. Boy this is a good start to a great day."
It wasn't till then that I remembered I fell asleep on the couch in the living room last night and not in my bedroom. It was also Saturday. I keep my alarm clock off on Saturday so I can sleep in. how did I get to my room? Why was my alarm set? These questions put me into a pondering state of wonder for the next five minutes. I looked over at Bones who had yet to move from the spot he was in before. I threw away the rest of my burrito along with the jug of sour milk, grabbed a bag of chips and left out the front door.
"Maybe josh can hang out today. I should text Alex and let him know I'm heading over there. He would want to come with me." I continued to walk down the sidewalk with those two strange questions pounding in my head like an Indian tribe's ceremonial drum. What happened last night? And what was with that weird dream. I discarded the thought and kept walking barely noticing the lack of cars, or people for that matter on the road.
letting me know of anything i need to edit would be appreciated. thank you for reading.