Breaking Free from Everyday

Chapter 6: Can't Hold Me Back

Chapter 6: Can't Hold Me Back

Parker

I pulled into the school parking lot after a very unsatisfying weekend spent avoiding Melanie and hating my life. It's been a week since I got to this dumpy town, my second official day at school, and I already wanted to leave. One year, then I am done.

This place was even worse than where I was before, my evil grandmother's place. At least there, they didn't have Melanie.

That girl.

I kicked my leg over the bike and took off my helmet, shaking out my hair. The fact that I would have to see her every day at school and then on top of that, during her shifts at the diner if we shared them, made everything about every day that much worse. I wanted to crush her.

Day 2. Too many more to go.

I righted the straps of my backpack on my shoulders, and set off towards the front of the school building, passing girls that either hated me or wanted to take me. I ignored everything. I kept my head straight and face emotionless as I entered the damned building, trying to convince myself that I had nothing to lose. It wasn't really working.

I shifted my hands from my sides down and pushed them deep into my pockets as I passed by people I didn't know, and didn't try to know. I had no reason to, not anymore.

I headed down the hallway at my right and passed more unfamiliar faces. I tried not to smile to myself at the total stereotypes of the school. It was not like this back in North Carolina, back at home. I saw the druggies sniffing something that looked a lot like glue in the corner and the football guys scattered across the hallway. They all were wearing those stupid letterman jackets that made them think they owned the place, and flirting with the cheerleaders. I purposely avoided those ones. One guy, with creepy gold and brown eyes that people were calling Phillips up and down the hallway as he walked by full out glared at me, probably for stealing his attention, like I actually wanted it. What new kid ever really wants the attention of the entire student body at their disposal?

I got to the opposite side of the hallway and turned into the physics classroom, sitting down at an empty table near the window and looked outside, blocking out the nerd talk in front of me and avoided the people looking at me as they filed into the classroom. I kept looking out the window, at the trees and grass. I even watched the parking lot, seeing the late comers getting out of their cars as I heard the bell faintly sound. I smiled, feeling a sense of déjà vu looking at those people. I was always late to school, everywhere really, until I had a reason to want to be somewhere on time. I tried, and failed, to stop the thoughts of her from awakening inside my head after their long time buried in the recesses of my mind.

My eyes never left the window until I heard a slight thud next to me and heard a chair move and eventually a body hit against the plastic back of the chair. I turned to the side of me to see a guy I haven't seen before. He had tattoos all up his left arm and was wearing a white t-shirt that hid some of the tattoos that kept going up his arm. He looked kind of skinny, especially for a guy that would normally be covered in tattoos, and seemed to be a few inches shorter than me, even though he was sitting. He was weird looking, his green eyes slightly popped out.

"Who the hell are you?" I ask.

He gave me a smile that showed a few crooked teeth, like they had been hit one too many times in a fight or something. "Benjamin Woodson, at your service," he says, and puts his hand out as if I'm supposed to shake it or something.

"What is wrong with you?"

He smiles again. Why is this guy happy? "Nothing that I know of."

"Then why are you here?"