Teenage Dream

11

            The next morning, Charlie missed the bus, and had to wait 20 minutes for the next one.  She was running late, and didn’t have time to meet up with her friends; she just went straight to her locker. 

She had on black skinny jeans, black, low heel, half calf boots with a strap, a white tee shirt, and her gray leather jacket.  She had put on make up to cover her bruise, and mascara to make herself look less sleepy.  She again, attempted to conceal the mark on her neck, and then pulled her hair into a pony tail over her shoulder to cover it. 

She was about to close her locker, when it slammed shut.  She spun around coming face to face, with Jackson. 

“You ran off on me the other night, you tease” He said, smirking at her, leaning towards her, she took a step back, causing her to run into the lockers. 

He put his other hand on the locker next to hers, blocking her escape in both directions.

  “Leave me alone Jackson” she said, feeling anger starting to boil up inside her as she looked at the man who had violently marked her. 

“You covered up my mark, how will the others know you’re mine?” he asked, reaching up to push her hair over her shoulder, but she slapped his hand. 

“I’m NOT your property.”: she said through her teeth, but he just smiled,

“feisty and hot, no wonder he likes you so much” he said. 

“What are you talking about?” she demanded,

“And you taste good too, but I bet he doesn’t’ know that” he said with a smirk, leaning towards her to kiss her.  She shoved him, he barely moved. 

“If you don’t’ want to show off that one, I’ll just have to put one on this side.  So everyone will know you’re mine, and I don’t share” he said, leaning in again, this time, heading for her neck. 

A mixture of panic and anger filled Charlie and she smacked him, the full force of her weight slamming across his face, causing his head to turn.  He looked at her, pure anger filling his face, he lifted his arm to touch his cheek and she ran.

  Kayla, who had been a few lockers down, and watching the whole encounter in shock, closed her locker and took off after her. 

            Charlie dropped her books before the stall door even swung closed and started throwing up violently into the toilet. 

 “Charlie?!” Kayla called, running into the bathroom after her friend.  She heard her throwing up,

“Charlie? What just happened? What happened Saturday night?” she asked, setting her books on the sink, and going to the only closed stall door, where she knew her friend was. 

“He attacked me” Charlie said through her tears, flushing the toilet.  Still shaking from anger, and from the sudden sickness brought on by her fear.  She came out of the stall, going over to the sink, to drink some water, and wipe the tears from her face. 

“He followed me into the bathroom, and he marked me.  He says it’s so other guys would know that I belonged to him.  He didn’t’ like that I was covering it up, and said he’d have to do the other side, so I couldn’t hide it.” She said, still shaking with anger. 

“What do you mean he marked you?” Kayla asked.  Charlie squeezed her eyes shut for a second, then she reached up, and moved her hair so that her best friend could see the nasty bruised mess.  Kayla gasped, “Oh my god! Charlie!”

            They skipped first period, staying in the bathroom talking until Charlie had calmed down, and Kayla had cried it out.

Logan noticed that Charlie wasn’t in Math.  He’d seen her this morning, walking towards her locker.  His phone vibrated.  He waited until the teacher turned to the board and pulled his phone out of the pocket of his jeans. 

“Dude, you need to see this” It was a video from Ben.  He couldn’t watch it now, obviously, so he put it back in his pocket and kept writing. 

Between first and second, Ben came up to his locker.  He looked at Logan, so Logan looked back. 

“You haven’t watched it.” He said. 

“no, I haven’t watched it.  I was in class.” He said, shoving his math book in his locker. 

“Was Charlie there?” he asked.  Logan paused, then he closed his locker more forcefully than he meant to,

“Why?” he demanded, turning to his friend.  Ben shook his head, “Go watch the video, I’ll cover for you” and he walked away.  Logan’s mind raced, wondering for the best place to hide and watch this video.  He took off as quickly as he could without calling attention to himself, to the bathrooms in the back of the library.  No one ever goes in there, because no one uses the library.

  He waited till the librarian was facing the other direction and he bolted past her and into an aisle, where she couldn’t see him, and made his way to the bathroom.  It was empty, he knew it would be. 

He leaned against the door, turning up the volume on his phone, and clicking on the link to a YouTube video titled “Finally, a girl that’s not in love with Jackson Kole” the person recording wasn’t far from Jackson and Charlie, and the video picked up every word loud and clear.  She was glaring at him,

“You covered my mark, how will the others know you’re mine?” He asked… “No wonder he likes you so much.. and you taste good too, but I bet he doesn’t know that” Logan thought he was going to throw up. 

This was his fault. 

This whole mess was his fault. 

He loves her, and she’s being punished for it.

  He punched the closest thing to him, the first stall door, denting it significantly.  He hadn’t watched the whole thing, and he needed to know what happened.  He pressed play again. 

“I’ll just have to put one on this side” Jackson’s voice came through the phones speakers.  Logan was breathing heavy, anger pulsed through him.  The palm of Charlie’s hand knocked his teeth around, and Logan had never been so proud.

Logan stayed in the bathroom, until he’d calmed down.  He still wanted to knock Jackson to the ground until he passed out, but he wasn’t irrational enough to do it. 

He went to third, getting notes from Ben from the class he’d skipped.

            After lunch he went to Chemistry.  She was already there.  She looked fine, obviously not obsessing over this morning.