James Swatt

Dear diary,

One thing about me.

I like my peace.

Don’t rock my boat, don’t disturb me more than is necessary.

Just don’t.

Shy and withdrawn but with a sassy tongue and a hyperactive imagination, I still drew people to myself by some form of miracle.

Yes I had friends. They saw my awkwardness to be cuteness and I had no point in letting them know the difference.

Then drama club happened.

Yes, Drama club.

One would think someone like me would shy away from something as interactive, as loud as drama club. But it’s all in the name. Nobody called me dramatic Delilah for nothing.

Well nobody ever called me dramatic Delilah.

But they would, soon, when they saw what lay behind my closed mouth.

X

It started like every other normal drama club rehearsal. 30 minutes after school closed, they all gathered in the auditorium . Some munching on snacks, some with heads stuck in books, some trying to do their homework.

The drama team of the school. A rag tag bunch of different teenagers with different preferences and interests, coming together to create. For that week they were working on Shakespeare’s Othello. It was my 3rd day there when he approached me.

James Swatt.

Now now, dear reader, please relax. This isn’t a case of a shy girl and bad boy or popular boy scenario. James swatt was an average boy in the drama Club. A few people liked him, a few didn’t. Nothing particularly striking about him.

But then again, I didn’t know anyone. It had just been three days. He approached me. Told me about a particular show that some of the drama club members were going to attend then left me with a location and time and promised that he would come pick me up.

It was an hour past the stated 7pm and here I sat On a chair in my room. A purple dress on, my hair nicely combed. I was wondering if all this was worth it.

Remember what I said about peace? Yes, this was totally disturbing my peace. I didn’t know this James guy, I didn’t totally know these drama people and I didn’t really like going out in the evening. But yet again. Here I was, waiting. For some reason I trusted these people and they looked like such a tight knit family.

Something I didn’t have.

Something I wanted to have.

And if taking James swatt at his word was what it took for me to be accepted as one of the inside crew. Then that was what I would do.

I received a message on my phone. He had taken my number earlier. He was asking me if I could make my way to the park close to my house. I could take a bus from there and meet him at the next bus stop.

I….was silent for a while…. There was no mention of walking or taking buses when we were planning earlier.

And slowly I could feel a throbbing rhythm make its way right at the side of my head where it usually appeared when I was super stressed.

Mom already knew I was going out. She wasn’t even home.

I walked to the bus stop, muttering cruel words every step of the way. I don’t know why I still moved on. I boarded the bus and sat fuming the whole time. By the time I got down, I was less upset about the whole situation. It could have been wrong timing on his part. Anything could have happened to him. At least I would meet him and we would both head towards the cinema or movie house or wherever they were going to watch the production.

I reached the bus stop and there he stood, in a plaid shirt and sneakers, with a half sheepish smile on his face. He started moving even before i had gotten down from the bus and i had to jog a little bit to catch up with his pace.

I was not enthused. Not one bit. How. Dare you make me engage in extra physical action!

“Can you at least slow down your pace a bit!? “

I hissed at him, hoping the venom from my words would bite him in the back but no such luck!!

And get this, James didn’t speak to me, barely turned to see if I was still following and stopped abruptly at a point to enter a shop and buy himself some candy.

What stopped me from going back home, you ask?

Shock!

I couldn’t believe this was happening to me.

It had to be some elaborate initiation prank or something because I refused to believe that I, Delilah was being moved around like this.

Soon we reached the mall. It was around 9pm now and I was raging mad. “James Swart!! “ I screeched.

He stopped short and turned to face me. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but you’re a horrible host. You’re bad at directions and you have zero to no social skills. It’s appalling. “

James was silent. Looking at me with a look that gave away nothing. “ You brought me on this wild goose chase and looking at the time, the show is probably going to be over by now. What do you have to say for yourself!!? “

James looked at me quietly, with a peculiar smile on his face when my phone beeped again. It was a message from Tammy, one other girl in drama club who was in almost all of my classes with me. We had never really spoken except a few times about homework.

“Stay away from the James guy. He’s not safe”.

My throat went dry as I examined James from under my eyelashes. I was beyond stressed out.

He still hadn’t answered any of my questions. I don’t know what was going on and I didn’t like it.

I was going to do what I had done in the first place.

“James swatt. I’m going home and there’s nothing you can say that’ll make me stay. “

He barely batted an eyelash.

A bus rounded the corner and I rushed inside at sat near the window even though I didn’t know exactly where it could take me.

As he stood there, watching me silently, the bus started to move and I called out. “Hey James"

He blinked.

“I’m never going out with you again”