Sunshine and lollipops

Words hurt, Jacky.

Leon's POV

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I look over to see that Sandy has tears in his eyes. I walk slowly towards him.

"Sandy?" I try to get his attention. He gets up suddenly and then runs out of the room.

"Sandy!" I cry. I feel someone grab my shoulder, I turn around and see it's Jacky. "What do you want?" I ask. I'm really not in the mood for her. She just made Sandy cry, not once but twice. how am I supposed to just let this slide?

"Leave him alone, he obviously needs some alone time, so be a good friend and give it to him," she whispers sternly. I look around the room and see everyone is staring at us.

"Don't make more of a scene than what's already happened," she says forcefully.

"I have to make sure he's okay! And I don't know why I should take advice from you, since you're the one who made him cry!" I whisper shout.

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yes! Of course I am!" She raises her eyebrows at me and doesn't continue the conversation. I hear the bell ring and Ms. Rosa dismisses us and something else. I'm not paying attention, I just need to go and find Sandy.

I grab my stuff and run down the hallway to find Sandy.

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"Sandy!" I see him running down the hallway to the boy's bathroom on the second floor. I've never been so happy to be a boy in my life. I run faster than I ever have in my life. I'm like Sonic.

I'm running and I'm not even paying attention to who is around me. Or who I run into. And guess who that happens to be? My least favorite person right now. Jacky.

"Jacky, get the hell away from me. I want nothing to do with you! Leave me alone, get out of my face."

"Look, Leon, we need to talk."

"Yeah, to a therapist."

"I'm not even gonna correct you on that attempt of a burn. Come on, over here. I really need to talk."

"Jacky, I don't care about you and your problems. You've been mean to me and Sandy for what feels like forever. You don't care about me, Sandy, Bibi, or anyone else for that matter. You only care about getting your digs in and being a jerk to everyone. You think you're so tough but you're not. You aren't cool. You aren't anything. Understand? Or do I have to spell it out for you?"

"Leon, I..."

"Fine, I guess I have to spell it out to you. NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOU."

Jacky looks crushed. Like someone has dropped weights on her. She looks... sad. Hopeless. Like...

Like how she treats Sandy and me.

I won't say she deserves it, but she does. She needs to learn to control her mouth. She underestimates what she can do. What her words can mean. Now she gets a taste of her own medicine.

"You have no idea what I've been through. No fricken clue. You will never, ever have to go through the horror that I've faced. Never. And no matter what I say, or do I would never wish that upon you. Do you understand?"

I'm curious. Even though she's a jerk, I kinda wanna know.

"Jacky, what happened?"

"None of your business," she states and tries to walk off. I run up to her and grab her arm.

"No, you set yourself for this. And now you have to explain." She looks at me and I notice that tears are starting to pool at the corner of her eyes. "What's wrong, Jacky?" I ask softly.

"At least let's go somewhere private, like the band room. No one's in there," I follow her to the band room. And sure enough, no one was there.

"Now explain." She takes a deep breath and then on the exhale, she starts to explain.