…a storm of shit that I won’t like is coming.
Six
“Not so big now bitch.”
I knew the voice. It was my death.
“You got hit once Jenna!” I yelled behind me still walking but increasing the pace slowly.
“Well, you’re about to get hit a million more times…bitch!”
“Favorite word isn’t it?” I shot. I was freaking. My eyes searched for an escape. Streets littered
with houses begun to surround me as the city disappeared behind my back.
I slipped my keys from my pocket and squeezed my sweaty palm around them. My hands were shaking.
“I think someone’s scared.” I didn’t respond. I just turned around and flicked them all two fingers with a shady grin. Then I turned and took off as fast as I could. My legs pumped me around the corner away from the direction of the inner city which was more stupid then beneficial because I was being chased in neighborhoods and no one ever heard anything from inside their homes. I raced around the corner considering ditching my book bag but then I also considered that I’d have to get my stuff from them sooner or later. They’d collect it of course and use it against me.
“Hey bitch, why you running!” Jenna’s boyfriend yelled. I could hear them gaining on me as I cut through a yard and hopped a low fence hopping it would slow them down. I could hear it clank and jiggle but I still heard footsteps after me.
“Jenna! Bitch boy!” I stopped and turned around. I saw a fist and ducked as Jenna’s boyfriend stumbled on top of me since the force of the missed punch threw him forward.
“Shit, shit, shit!” The words flew out of my mouth weirdly. It was as if on instinct. I scrambled from the ground and started back away. He was gonna knock my lights out.
“Come ‘er!” I heard her scream. Her and some other girl with dark hair ran after me. I still had no clue who distracted her boyfriend but the voice was rather familiar. In a state of panic in my world, I can barely remember my name.
“Jenna, leave her alone!” I heard someone get hit and Jenna yelled something at her boyfriend as I took the opportunity to get away. I glanced while looking out of the corner of my eye and noticed Jenna’s boyfriend was fighting Howard. I was stunned. They were rolling on the ground.
Jenna’s eyes connected with mine and I ran away.
I felt like shit. For all I knew, Jenna and her gang would help her boyfriend beat the crap out of him. I opened my book bag and took out a book after I stuffed my keys deep in my pocket. There was no way I was going in unarmed and tossed my book bag under a bush. I ran back and swung the book as hard as I could at the dark-haired girl. She caught it and snatched it away.
“What the fuck!“ she yelled and I saw a bright light. I didn’t even have time to put my hands up. My face exploded with more pain as I fell to the ground. I felt someone pulling my hair and kicking me in the side. I moved a bit scratching and punching before we heard sirens. I stopped when I felt something slam
into my stomach hard and pain flew up my body to every limb. Howard pulled me up. He already had his things and he pulled me around the corner to where my book bag sat.
“I can’t.” I wheezed.
“You have to. They’ll be on us Jenna.” he whispered and he grabbed my things and we jogged around another corner and down a street. We didn’t stop until we were in my back yard after I made sure my grandparents’ car was gone. I collapsed in the yard, my lungs on fire, my body drenched with sweat and covered in forming bruises and dirt. I don’t know how long I laid in the yard with Howard but we laid in silence for at least 30 minutes and my heart pumped and I had closed my eyes trying to ignore the throbbing pain of my body.
“Oh God.” I whispered what seemed an eternity later. I heard him sigh softly and then grunt. I let my head fall to the side so I could see him.
“Why?” Something intrigued me about him, scared me actually. He barely knew me except that I was extremely rude to everyone and I had this habit of pissing off all the wrong people despite my efforts to stay invisible. The year had just begun and I already had Jenna ready to rip me apart.
“What do you mean why?” he asked pushing himself up. I sucked in air and pushed myself up quickly. I groaned. I slowly lifted my shirt to see how bad the bruise on my stomach was.
“That’s what friends do.”
“I do not want to hear that shit.” I rolled my eyes. Either he was an excellent friend or I was just a bad person.
“What do you mean?” he asked. “I just-”
“I want the real reason.” I said standing. He stopped slowly.
“That is the real reason.” he cracked his neck and I steadied myself on the side of the house. I felt sick to my stomach.
“No it’s not.” I said kneeling and leaning against the house. I just wanted to wake up so bad. I
wanted this to be a dream. I couldn’t believe it had actually happened. How would I explain the bruises and pain to my grandparents. To everyone at school. I wanted to die, just right then and there.
“No you don’t. It’ll scare you.”
“What is it?”
“I think you’re beautiful.”
“You still think I’m beautiful?” I asked standing.
“You’re absolutely beautiful. You’re even more beautiful because you came back for me even though you knew they were going to beat you up.”
“I’m an idiot. I went down so fast.” I stopped myself after that sentence. I wanted to go on: How am I going to explain this to my grandparents? What are they going to do? That was too far, I was opening up and I stopped myself. I couldn’t do that, I wouldn’t allow myself. I had already said too much.
“You went down fast?” he chuckled, “I don’t even think he let me get a punch to his face.”
“Look, I’m going to clean up and go to bed.” I said and I began limping inside. He smiled and nodded.
“See you tomorrow.” he said. I unlocked the door and walked in. The house was quiet and the sun was beginning to set so the house was increasingly becoming darker. I turned on the light for the living room, dropped my things on the floor and went upstairs. An hour later, I decided to take a shower. The soap and water burned my cuts and my skin was tender around the bruised areas. I washed my hair too. I watched as the dirt ran from my body and spun down the drain as brown water mixed with blood. I finally wrapped a towel around my body and looked at my face in the mirror. I had a bruise forming at the bottom of my jaw where the dark-haired girl had used my own weapon against me.
I dried myself off feeling angry and weak. I slipped on my pajamas and laid in my bed trying not to hope for anything because for me, hope destroys more than it helps. I closed my eyes trying to ignore a newly formed throbbing headache but it was hard when I felt the tears slid down my face and fall into my ear. I wrapped the blanket around my body and let the tears fall without moving. I laid there with closed eyes and listened to my grandparents talking down stairs about me not going to counseling. I knew they’d come up here and literally break down the door.
The door opened minutes later and my grand ma walked in turning the light on. The blanket was already over my head and face so I knew she/they couldn’t see me.
“We were out looking for you Lucca.” So. “I was very concerned at first. And then it made me angry.” Oh. I’ll remember to cry when I care. “You know you have counseling and yet you just ignore that like you practically ignore everything else in your life.” She was trying not yell. I know that. But at this point, I just really could care less what she wanted. She acted as if I ever cared what she wanted.
“I know you’re awake child. We knew you were home because your things were all over the floor downstairs.”
Silence.
“Lucca!” she yelled toward the lump that she assumed looked most like my head.
“I’m trying to go to sleep.” I mumbled through the blanket. She ripped the blanket down in an unexpected move. Her face went from angry to concerned. The kids faces wouldn’t do that tomorrow.
“Lucca, what happened? Who did this?” she demanded the last sentence like someone was about to die. I’d tell her, but since nothing was going to come out of it (she wasn’t going to call the police or go beat the shit outta anyone) I kept quiet.
“I slammed into a door.”
“Lucca!”
“Everyone uses that excuse.” I sighed.
“Lucca, what happened?” she begged. My grandfather walked in.
“I’m fine.”
“What happened to your face Lucca?” he asked.
“Don’t worry about it. I think it looks good on me.” I muttered snatching the blanket from her and
pulling it up around my shoulders, “Could you please turn the light off, I’m trying to sleep.”
“Lucca, look at me!”
“What will you do! Nothing. So why the fuck do you need to know?!” I yelled and I pulled the blanket over my head. I waited for the reaction but probably the worse one came. I heard them both walk out of my room. Silence. I hated when that was their reaction. That meant a storm of shit that I won’t like is coming.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Howie's back.
