English Project

*Tessa*

"Can they be any longer?" Spencer groaned as we waited in the lobby of the little kid building. The bell still hadn't rung and we were waiting for Mason and Lena to come out."

"Guess so." I said. I felt kinda awkward. Spencer and I had a complicated relationship that I was still trying to figure out. We weren't enemies, we were more than acquaintances but we weren't exactly friends. What were we? I feel like we were those people that have mutual friends that are just kinda forced to hand out with each other and they are some what close but not that close.

The bell finally rang though, interrupting my thoughts and after the devil children ran out, we saw Mason and Lena casually making their way towards us.

"You know, I'm surprised this is actually gonna happen. I thought it would be a straight up no." Mason said as he neared us. Spencer glared at him. "Just saying."

"It almost was. I swear, everyone in the cafeteria was looking at us." I glared at Spencer. He just rolled his eyes.

"Let's go. Lena's with me, Mason's with you." Spencer told me and began walking.

"Jerk." I grumbled and walked behind me. I already knew he was rolling his eyes. "You know, if you roll your eyes too much, they could get stuck in the back of your head." I said, merely trying to piss him off.

"Shut up Tessa."

"I'm just saying. You also might wanna try smiling for a change before your face is stuck in a permanent glare." Spencer stopped to look at me, a glare on his face. I copied his facial expression and he smirked. "That's a start." Spencer turned back around and continued walking to his car. I got in mine with Mason and began following him to his house.

"Why were you doing that?" Mason asked me.

"Teasing Spencer?" I asked. Mason nodded. "To piss him off. It's fun."

"I swear you like him. I mean, you claim to hate him but then you are coming to his house voluntarily."

"I don't hate him. I just don't like him. And I'm coming cause you already are and I have no homework so I might as well do the assignment we are supposed to do together."

"Okay..." I glared at my brother, knowing what he was doing. Like Spencer? Please. I'd rather die single, thanks.

I continued following Spencer and we soon arrived at his house. It was bigger than mine, but he had more people in his family. It was nice and modern with stone on the exterior. I parked and got out of my car as well as everyone else. Spencer walked to the door and held the door open for us.

"Welcome to the Garcia household." He said in a monotone voice. I chuckled a bit and looked around. All in all, it was a pretty nice house. "The two kids will be in the living room and we'll be in the kitchen. It is an open floor plan so we will be able to see you two." Spencer directed that last statement at Mason and Lena and I just rolled my eyes.

"They'll be fine. Do you have food?" I asked. Spencer nodded and we walked into the kitchen while Mason and Lena started their homework in the living room.

"Do chips work for you?" He asked. I nodded, and he got out a bag of chips and two coke cans. He handed a can to me and I took a big swig after opening it. "So how do you wanna start out with this project?"

"Well, I could ask about your talent and just write stuff down. We can do my talent some other time." Spencer nodded and I took out my notebook. "So what are you good at?"

"Everything." I gave him a bored expression. Spencer chuckled and took a chip. "Kidding. I can't sing without someone running away with their ears bleeding. Answer would be basketball. I was on varsity freshmen year and have been since. I got to be a captain last year and hopefully I will be one again this year." I nodded and wrote things down.

"When did you start playing?"

"Second grade. That's when I joined my first team, but I played in my backyard where the hoop is and did camps prior to second grade." I continued writing what he said and I could tell he was happy talking about it. I completely understood. It feels good when someone recognizes your talent. I just get uncomfortable with the attention.

"Favorite memory?"

"Easy. Freshmen year winning state and playing in the game. I scored during it."

"Do you have college scouts watching you?" I asked, curious.

"Um, yeah. They were at the state game freshmen year and took interest in me sophomore year." I nodded.

"That's pretty cool. When did you realize that you were actually super committed to playing?"

"Sixth grade. I began doing conditioning stuff whenever I could and got super into it. I got even more committed when I visited the high school in eighth grade and learned all about the program."

"Will I be able to go to a game?"

"Yeah, the gang normally goes to my first the way we go to Rocky's first game. You can go to others, but everyone goes to the first game." We sat in awkward silence since I had no more questions. "So why can't I learn about your talent now?"

"Because." I said, smirking. Truth was, I didn't want him knowing. I didn't want anyone knowing about my talent in music. It was just personal. I didn't want to talk about it since I wasn't sure if I would come across as bragging.

"Come on. We have nothing better to do. You asked everything you need for the project and your brother and Lena are still working. Plus, you have no homework and neither do I."

"Why do you wanna know so badly?"

"Can't a guy be curious?" When I didn't say anything, he smirked. "Is it because you don't have one?" I threw my pencil at him. "What is it with you and throwing things? Are you into baseball or something?"

"No. You just piss me off." Spencer rolled his eyes and took a sip of his drink.

"Okay, so clearly you won't tell me what you are good at, so tell me what you're bad at."

"Sports. I've never really been good at them. Cross country, whatever. That is just running for awhile. Basketball, I can granny it but that is it. Soccer never worked. Just no. And I could go on. So sports is no."

"Damn, that's pathetic." I gasped and threw a chip at him. "Really?" I shrugged.

"I might suck ass at sports, but didn't I hear something about your terrible singing?" Spencer chuckled at that.

"Okay, like you could do better."

"She can." I whipped my head back to Mason who spoke. The two were watching us with smirks. I looked back at Spencer who had the same face.

"Really? So would you mind singing a little something for us?" I glared at him.

"No. My singing is mediocre. From what you said, it is better than yours, but I am no Ariana Grande." I snuck a glace at Mason who gave me a look. I shook my head and Spencer gave me a weird look. "What?"

"Are you and Mason one of those people that can like speak with their eyes?" I nodded. Mason and I have always been close besides me being much older than him. The divorce brought us even closer. I was about to say something else when I heard the door open.

"I don't care what you think of him!" Was a shout. The door then slammed and my whole body tensed. Fuck. This couldn't be happening. Not now.

"Well you're gonna start! I don't want you seeing that boy!" This shout was from a man. It was deeper than Spencer's making me think it was his dad. The first voice that spoke was a girl's.

"This isn't your life! I can make my own decisions!" My breaths were getting shorting as I heard a hand slam against the wall. My panic attack was coming.

See, my parents began fighting after Mason was born, but he was still a baby. I was only four when their fighting began, and it left a big impact on me. I remember huddled in my room under my bed, covering my ears. Every night they would fight and I would just cry. When Mason got older, he joined me. We grew up like that. I could always hear doors slamming, angry voices, cuss words, and hands slamming against tables and bottle being broken. It was awful. Eventually, I began getting nightmares. I would dream about it and I would wake up crying or in a cold sweat. My parents decided to send me to a therapist, but it didn't help. Not when they still fought. Later, when people got into bad fights, I would think of my parents and I would have an panix attack. Just like this one.

"I am your father and you will listen to me!" It was getting harder to breathe and I felt tears coming to my eyes. Mason saw this and he got up instantly. Spencer looked at me, concerned, but not knowing what to do.

"Come on. We gotta get you outside." I shook my head. I wouldn't go outside. Not with Spencer in the room.

"I'm not listening to you! You can't control me!"

"Like hell I can't." I heard a something crash to the floor and everything got worse. The two people continued shouting and I fell to the floor. Tears streamed down my face and all I could think of was sitting under my bed while my parents thought.

Mason was hugging me, urging for me to go outside. I saw Spencer's feet walking out of the room and then I heard him shouting.

"Dad! Emma! Shut up! We have people over!" The shouts instantly stopped and my body was shaking. Mason helped me up and took me outside. I instantly felt relief and Mason was still hugging me. I heard the door we walked out of open and I turned to see Spencer running towards me. "What happened?" He asked.

"Nothing." I said. "It was nothing."

"Don't give me that bullshit Tessa. You were on the ground crying."

"Dude. Stop." Mason said. Spencer was quiet and I calmed down. "We should go home." I nodded and wiped my eyes and cheeks.

"Yeah We should. Can you go get our stuff?" Mason nodded and left.

"Sorry I yelled. Are you gonna tell me what happened or..." I shook my head.

"Don't worry about me. I'm fine." I could tell Spencer was suspicious, but I couldn't just be like 'Oh yeah my parents are divorced and I get panic attacks when people get into big fights.' No thank you.

Mason came out and I motioned for him to get in the car. Spencer still looked stuck between letting everything go and pushing me to tell him what happened.

"See you tomorrow, Spencer." He nodded and walked back to his house I got in my car and drove away.

"Are you gonna tell mom?" Mason asked me.

"No. And neither are you. She has enough to deal with, and I don't want her to turn this into anything big. If Lena asks you anything about it, just shake your head. She doesn't need to know."

"You should tell mom. You just had a panic attack."

"I've had them for awhile. Those people fighting just triggered it, but I'll be fine. It will pass. I don't want to hear anything else about what happened. It doesn't matter anymore. It's over."

"Fine."

The car ride was silent after that, but I did nothing to change that. I was content not talking about what happened back there. To be honest, there was more to why I didn't want to talk about it. I knew I was going to have a nightmare tonight. That would always happen. I knew I was going to wake up crying or sweating. I really didn't want to think about it any more than I had to. I already had Spencer and Lena on my case and I didn't need to be reminded of the past or that I had problems. Thanks, but I'm good.

We arrived home and the rest of the evening was normal and all I could think was the nightmare I would have. Turns out, it was going to be worse than I thought.