almost the weekend and that’s two whole days that you can spend alone in your room doing whatever it is that you do!” I was successfully ignoring him up until the point when the doorknob twisted.
I jumped out of bed and grabbed at the doorknob. I tried yanking it open, but I realized that I had locked it last night, like I did every night. I let out a shaky breath, trying to control my body’s response. I wasn’t going to have an attack. I wasn’t going to freak out. This was my house. This was my room. It was only David, and the door was locked.
When I had mastered my emotions and bodily reactions enough, I unlocked the door and pulled it open. David was standing there with a smug look.
“D-d-don’t d-d-do thaaat again.” His smirk widened. I was sure I didn’t sound the least bit intimidating, especially since I couldn’t even get out four words without sounding like a loser.
He gave me a mischievous look. “Got you out of bed, didn’t it?”
I huffed, moving out into the hall and closing the door behind me. I sulked down to the free bathroom, listening to David resume his pounding.
When we got to school, just like every other day, David told me not to let Anderson bother me, but of course I did. I was happy to see that this time he wasn’t accompanied by Sophie Young, but the rest of his followers were tagging along and thought his stuttering jokes were just the funniest thing they’d ever heard. When Chris knocked the books out of my hands, in what he said was “payback” for accidentally knocking into Sophie yesterday, they just roared with laughter. Then he did his signature move of shoving me into the locker with his shoulder as he pushed past me.
I bent down to retrieve my books before David could come around the corner and see his loser of a brother picking up his things.
“Hey,” I heard above me. I looked up and there was Sophie Young, giving me a smile that clearly said she was high. I could feel my face contort as I tried to force a greeting from my mouth, but I couldn’t say hello for anything. My mind and body refused to work in unison, making me feel like a complete idiot in front of her…again.
To my horror, she crouched down next to me and started pulling papers and books toward her and stacking them on her knee. “I’ll kick his ass,” she said with a smile. My eyes closed as I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me again. She had seen the entire thing.
When I opened my eyes she was staring at me. I needed to say something. I needed to prove to her that I wasn’t a complete idiot-freak-loser, but my tongue seemed to stick to the roof of my mouth. She smiled at me again, pushing the papers into my arms before standing up.
My body finally did something my mind told it to, which was to stand up. She looked up at me with her big, intensely blue eyes and I realized she was much shorter than I was. She should’ve been taller with all that confidence. “See you in the greenhouse,” she said before brushing past me, her shoulder making contact with my bicep.
Letting out an unconsciously-held breath, I looked up at the ceiling. I was an idiot!
I didn’t see her again until study hall. She did very little studying while Anderson and his friends gathered around her as if she were the second coming. The bored look on her face made me entirely too happy. Then, when there was fifteen minutes left until lunch, she got up and walked out. It wasn’t hard to notice that Jason Fox had left just five minutes before she did.
She was ten minutes late to Horticulture when she smiled at Mr. Reese and said “I got a little lost.”
The school wasn’t that big. It would have been hard to get lost, but when she sat down next to me, I could smell that she’d been smoking again. As she stared glassily up to where the soil samples were, I could see a small red-purplish bruise forming on the side of her neck.
Why it bothered me so much that Sophie had a hickey, I didn’t know, but
I jumped out of bed and grabbed at the doorknob. I tried yanking it open, but I realized that I had locked it last night, like I did every night. I let out a shaky breath, trying to control my body’s response. I wasn’t going to have an attack. I wasn’t going to freak out. This was my house. This was my room. It was only David, and the door was locked.
When I had mastered my emotions and bodily reactions enough, I unlocked the door and pulled it open. David was standing there with a smug look.
“D-d-don’t d-d-do thaaat again.” His smirk widened. I was sure I didn’t sound the least bit intimidating, especially since I couldn’t even get out four words without sounding like a loser.
He gave me a mischievous look. “Got you out of bed, didn’t it?”
I huffed, moving out into the hall and closing the door behind me. I sulked down to the free bathroom, listening to David resume his pounding.
When we got to school, just like every other day, David told me not to let Anderson bother me, but of course I did. I was happy to see that this time he wasn’t accompanied by Sophie Young, but the rest of his followers were tagging along and thought his stuttering jokes were just the funniest thing they’d ever heard. When Chris knocked the books out of my hands, in what he said was “payback” for accidentally knocking into Sophie yesterday, they just roared with laughter. Then he did his signature move of shoving me into the locker with his shoulder as he pushed past me.
I bent down to retrieve my books before David could come around the corner and see his loser of a brother picking up his things.
“Hey,” I heard above me. I looked up and there was Sophie Young, giving me a smile that clearly said she was high. I could feel my face contort as I tried to force a greeting from my mouth, but I couldn’t say hello for anything. My mind and body refused to work in unison, making me feel like a complete idiot in front of her…again.
To my horror, she crouched down next to me and started pulling papers and books toward her and stacking them on her knee. “I’ll kick his ass,” she said with a smile. My eyes closed as I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me again. She had seen the entire thing.
When I opened my eyes she was staring at me. I needed to say something. I needed to prove to her that I wasn’t a complete idiot-freak-loser, but my tongue seemed to stick to the roof of my mouth. She smiled at me again, pushing the papers into my arms before standing up.
My body finally did something my mind told it to, which was to stand up. She looked up at me with her big, intensely blue eyes and I realized she was much shorter than I was. She should’ve been taller with all that confidence. “See you in the greenhouse,” she said before brushing past me, her shoulder making contact with my bicep.
Letting out an unconsciously-held breath, I looked up at the ceiling. I was an idiot!
I didn’t see her again until study hall. She did very little studying while Anderson and his friends gathered around her as if she were the second coming. The bored look on her face made me entirely too happy. Then, when there was fifteen minutes left until lunch, she got up and walked out. It wasn’t hard to notice that Jason Fox had left just five minutes before she did.
She was ten minutes late to Horticulture when she smiled at Mr. Reese and said “I got a little lost.”
The school wasn’t that big. It would have been hard to get lost, but when she sat down next to me, I could smell that she’d been smoking again. As she stared glassily up to where the soil samples were, I could see a small red-purplish bruise forming on the side of her neck.
Why it bothered me so much that Sophie had a hickey, I didn’t know, but
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