The Right Swan: Edward LS

Chapter 6

FIVE YEARS AGO - Third P.O.V.

"Hi, I'm Toni. What's your name?"

A 12-year-old girl with long, black hair and big, blue eyes was standing beside a blue, rounded cafeteria table. The table had only one occupant; a boy about thirteen years old with curly, auburn hair and deep brown eyes. He had a set of glasses upon his face that was black and rounded, and light freckles dusted his cheeks. He was on the thin side and wore an orange and white striped shirt with dark-washed jeans and sneakers.

He looked up and met her gaze but immediately diverted his eyes. He wasn't comfortable enough to keep constant eye contact with people, so he often talked to people while looking down.

"M-My name i-is Nathan," he stuttered softly; so softly that Toni could barely hear it.

"May I sit with you?" Toni asked. She had seen Nathan around the school in the hallways. He was a shy kid and very self-conscious, but he was smart, the smartest of the class, and seemed to be very nice. The only problem was that most of the school picked on him. Toni would always saw him getting thrown into lockers or being insulted by other kids their age. On multiple occasions, Toni had wanted to step in, but she was afraid of what people would say or do to her. She supposed it was quite selfish, but that's what you would expect from a 12-year-old. The teachers barely did anything about it, though they witnessed it quite often. The only thing they did was tell the students to "move along."

It made Toni sad to see Nathan sitting by himself at lunch all the time. A few times, she had wanted to go over there and sit with him, even mentioned it the table of people she sat with; she wouldn't call them friends because she didn't trust anyone and they tended to be mean to others. The only person she did trust was Amanda and her sister, but they had separate lunches and her sister, Bella, never wanted to sit by Toni. The first lunch of the school year had made Toni nervous, as she didn't have anyone to talk to, and she didn't want to sit by herself, so she opted to sit with a random group of people, whom of which didn't even care if she sat there or not.

The day she mentioned sitting with Nathan, they immediately started making a big fuss about it. They told Toni that she would be put out as an outcast; that she would be the female version of Nathan and would most likely be bullied, too. She didn't count that as something bad, but she didn't want to be as lonely as Nathan seemed to be. As each day went by, though, Toni found it harder and harder to watch people bully Nathan and watch him wallow in his self-pity. About a month later, she'd seen enough, and no amount of complaint from her daily table and her fear could stop her.

"U-Umm, s-sure," Nathan stuttered out. To his dismay, she took the seat beside him on his left. Nathan had been bullied by people his whole life. It wasn't just at school, but at home as well. His mother was a drunk who always came home late at night and made enough noise to wake the neighbors. She would get mad in her drunken stupor and lash out at Nathan. When it was verbal, it consisted of stories about his failure of a dad and how Nathan was going to end up just like his father, which led Nathan to curl up in a ball and cry the rest of the night. The few times that it was physical, his mother would hit him and create bruises all over his face and cuts on his arms when he would protect his face from the flying debris that came from her bottle. This led to Nathan spending the whole night cowering and shaking in fear.

His older brother, Josh, was mean to him, as well. He would always pick on his size; always said he was too scrawny and compared him to a toothpick most of the time. Nathan was a small kid. He was shorter than most of the kids at school, including the girls, and he looked like a walking stick figure. Josh, who was the quarterback for their high school football team, would tell Nathan that the only way he would make it in life was if he was a star athlete. Nathan thought that that was dumb advice because you wouldn't always have a hot, sculpted body. Besides, Nathan was very smart and relied on his brain for most things, so more often than not, he ignored his brother's advice. It still ate at his conscience to know that he had no support from his family, though.

He grew up with a lot of negative interactions and emotions, so imagine his discomfort when a girl walked up to him and asked to sit with him. He was nervous, especially so because of their proximity.

"So....." he heard the girl, Toni, say. He looked up at her and saw she was contemplating something. When her eyes met his, he blushed and looked down again.

"Why does no one like you?" he heard Toni ask. He looked up surprised and astonished that she would ask that question.

It had been bugging Toni while she sat there. Why would someone not like Nathan? He was too shy and timid to be mean, and he wasn't annoyingly talkative.

"I-I don't know," she heard Nathan reply.

"I mean, you seem nice, and you're really smart in class. You don't pick on people or say anything nasty about anyone. I don't get it," Toni finished with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Oh. Well, I-thank you," Nathan said. He wasn't used to compliments, so he was a bit befuddled and didn't know how to continue. They sat in silence for a while, neither knowing how to talk to the other.

Toni looked up at Nathan and saw he was looking down at his lap. Even though most of his face was hidden, she could still see the emotion in his eyes.

Even though Nathan had his head hung down, he could still feel the scrutiny of Toni's eyes. He couldn't lie to himself and say he wasn't a bit hopeful and happy that someone came over to talk to him. He was hoping they would become friends, though he would never admit that in fear of rejection. The bell rang signaling the end of lunch. With a sigh, he started gathering his things and shoved them in his bookbag. He looked up and saw that Toni was still seated and wasn't sure how to proceed next. He was going to say something but immediately rejected the idea. He turned around to head to math class but stopped when she spoke.

"Do you want to be friends, Nathan?"

He couldn't believe his ears! Did someone want to be his friend? He met her gaze and studied her, looking for any dangerous intentions. Her hand was stretching outwards, waiting for him to shake it and her face was expressionless. The only emotion he could see was in her eyes, and it was all genuine. He silently debated it with himself for a few seconds before giving her an answer.

If he did accept her offer and it went well, he could finally have a friend, but if it ended badly, he wouldn't know if he could take it. If he rejected the offer, he would probably beat himself up about it later.

He met her gaze again and hesitantly smiled, which earned him a big smile in return.

"Friends," he agreed and shook her hand.