My Unexpected Savior.

Chapter 4

My head pounded from the kid who pushed me into the wall earlier. Even walking down the halls of my school is dangerous for me. The real problem is people don't care. They don't care about other's opinions. They only care about themselves, and my parents are some of those people.

I turned the corner of the hall, heading to my chemistry class when some jerk bumped into me, knocking all my binders out of my hand, crashing loudly on the floor. Causing nothing but stares and humiliation... again. I didn't look him in the eye, just looked down at the floor at my binders scattered everywhere. He didn't take off, which surprised me, they normally take off running, leaving me to clean up the mess they caused. But he didn't.

Instead he bent down and collected all the papers that flew across the hall, and put them back in my dark red binder.

"Here," He said, handing me the binder, instead of walking away, he stayed there, as if waiting for something.

"Thanks.." I looked up at him, in the eye this time, I still hadn't seen his face at all. Now that I looked up, I saw he was pretty cute, not the kind of guy that would go out of his way to help me either.. he looked like one of the football players, one of the guys that all the girls drooled over, one that would not be talking to me right now. His brown hair was spiked up in the front, his green eyes looked at me with interest, not disgust like most people. He gave me a slight smile.

This was the first time at this school that someone has ever smiled at me like that. Teachers don't count because they smile at all of their students when they come in the room.. and for the first time, I smiled back.

People in the hallways were looking at us, confused. I'm known as the freak, the don't associate with type, but he was the first one that didn't seem to care.

"Zeke!" The heavy sound of high heels rung through the hallways. Zeke, I'm guessing, turned around to face an angry blonde, holding her purse out to him as she fixed her shoe, trying to contain her anger.

"Zeke! You told me you were going to be right at the door when at got out of the classroom, instead I find you helping some freak." She stretched out the word freak as if it was some kind of disease.

"Okay, Serenity, I know I told you I would be there, but I had a mix up with.." He trailed off and looked at me, searching for my name.

"Emberlynn.." I whispered, while looking down at my shoes, finding the tips of my hair interesting.

"With Emberlynn." 

"That's no excuse. You still promised."

"Serenity, I'm sorry but I kind of needed to help her. All of her papers fell out of her binder, I wasn't just going to leave her and let her do it."

"Well I would have. Zeke, don't even associate with this freak. Nobody talks so her, she doesn't even have any friends." She looked at me as she said it, like I was a rat in the kitchen.

"Well what if I wanted to talk to her? You're not in control of me, Serenity."  

"Well, you are my boyfriend.." She studied her nails as she stretched out the word 'my' as if she owned him.

"That doesn't change anything!" He took a step forward, towards her.

"You know what Zeke Clemmings? We're through!" She turned around, violently flipping her golden blonde hair over her shoulder as she angrily walked away.

Zeke turned to me, holding out his hand. I looked at him confused and he chuckled slightly at how shy I was.

"Let me take your binder." He grabbed the binder out of my hands without a say from me. "What class do you have next?"

"Chemistry. Down the hall."

"Awesome. That's the room I was attempting to find before I bumped into you."

"Sorry. That was all my fault.." I apologized for something I was actually pretty grateful for. He was someone who actually talked to me.. and didn't look at me like I was some kind of creature. Yeah, maybe my style is different but that doesn't mean anything. Just because I don't want to wear belly shirts or pounds of makeup on my face doesn't make me a freak, it makes me myself.

Zeke walked all the way to my class with me, then chose to sit next to me. I don't think he realizes what he's doing to his reputation by sitting with me.

"You probably shouldn't be sitting here."

"Why not? Is someone else sitting here?"

"Well, no. That's the point. Sitting next to me will ruin your popular reputation."

"What are you talking about?" He turned to me, looking confused.

"You mean you haven't heard of me yet? I'm all people talk about in the hallways." I looked down at the desk. "You might not hear me by my name, but you will here 'freak', 'weirdo', and even 'the girl with scars'.. any of these ringing a bell?"

"Why would they call you that? You're none of them.."

"They call me that because they only see this." I pulled up my jacket sleeve. Revealing the scars on my arm. He grabbed my arm into his hands and studied the scars, like they were the most upsetting thing he's seen. "They don't know my story."

"People judge you for this?" I can't believe he's still here talking to me after seeing the self-harm I do to myself. Any other person would have already been gone.

"Yeah. You're the first one that's actually talked to me. The only person I have is my 9 year old sister, Rosemary."

"Well count me as somebody. If you ever need someone to talk to, I'm here."

Did he really just say that? Did he really just tell me to count him as a friend? I finally found somebody that cares, for the right reasons. The only problem is, he'll probably take off running when I tell him my story.