H2O | ✔

Chapter Fifteen : Sparks

Xander

7 weeks after Mesi woke up...

It was still there. That ugly yellow and purple stain still slightly swollen around my eye hadn't gone away. It remained tender to the touch, though nothing compared to the first couple days. I told everyone at school—my friends and teachers—that I'd been practicing at home and slipped on the driveway. Believable enough.

My mom woke up the next day and screamed when she saw me. She couldn't remember what happened. I didn't have the heart to tell her, what with her threats to go to the police and catch whoever it was that did that to me. How was I supposed to break it to my mom that she was the one who hit me? That she was the reason I had a black eye? I couldn't.

I knew she needed help, and I was doing everything I could think of to get her some. But she refused to see someone and walked out of every AA meeting I drove her to. It was infuriating. She didn't think she had a problem. No matter how many times she screwed up because of that intoxicating substance, she didn't see it. I wondered if it wasn't that she didn't see it, but didn't care to.

Sighing, I walked out of the bathroom and gave her a peck on the cheek on my way out. She'd been having a good week, after that night, and tended to be up early.

A rush of cool air hit me as I stepped into the outside world. It was November, fully-fledged November: falling leaves and frosty grass and barely being able to see your breath.

Thanksgiving was the next day.

"Hey, Xander!" someone brought me back from my thoughts.

I glanced across the street to see Gabe waving at me and jumping up and down. As soon as the last car in a pack passed, he raced towards me with a grin on his face.

I did that bro-shake thing with him. You know, the one where it kind of turns into a hug? I never really understood it, but there was some sort of unspoken rule that all guys had to act like they got it—even when they didn't.

"You'll never believe it," Gabe shook his head.

He was holding up some sort of flyer and I squinted to see it as he waved it in my face. Finally, I just grabbed it from him.

And instantly wished I could crumple it up and wish it never existed.

"You're kidding, right?" I seethed.

He laughed uncomfortably and scratched the back of his head. "Um..."

I started walking faster, determined to have this resolved before I sat down in my first desk of the day. There was no way they were allowed to do this. It was rude, insensitive, disrespectful. There were so many words running through my head, and none of the all too pretty.

Someone opened the front door for me when they noticed my plow-through-anything attitude. Good idea.

I slammed the flyer down on the front desk and turned to the reception lady.

"Who did this?" I didn't have to see myself to know my eyes were blazing.

Sam told me once that I should use that look on the field, intimidate opponents. We tried a couple times, but there was no way I could get that angry at something like a soccer game. Unless—of course—something outrageous happened.

The woman behind the front desk looked up at me slowly with an unamused expression. Her glasses sat at the end of her nose with one of those glasses-chains at the end. She wasn't even looking in them! She was looking over them!

She must've been subbing for the nice office lady.

She sighed. "I'm sorry, but that's not something the administration deals with. It's entirely up to the student council and the student body."

A spark went off in my brain. "This cannot be allowed! It's disrespectful to him! To his memory!"

Blinking, the lady took the flyer from my hands and gave it a look.

"Hmm. I don't know what to tell you. If you want, you can put in an appointment with the principal."

Spark.

"All right," I managed through a clenched jaw,"when is he free?"

She sifted through some papers until she found the one she was looking for. Then she took a highlighter from the pencil cup on the edge of her desk and started underlining certain parts of what looked like a schedule.

Handing it to me, she said,"He won't be available for the next week, but he's open those days next week."

Spark. Spark. Spark.

My hand formed a fist and I turned on my heel before I said or did something I regretted. The last thing I needed was a trip to the principal's office—one that meant I was in trouble.

...

Jake gave me a weird look from the other side of the table.

"What?"

He looked back at his food.

"What?"

His eyes found mine again, before looking down again.

Finally, he put down his fork and said,"Gabe said you freaked out this morning is all. I was wondering if you were okay."

I laughed at the irony. Of all times, now he cared about whether or not I was okay? Not when my best friend died? Or when his girlfriend, whom I was growing closer to, tried to die? I guess freaking out on the way to school warranted more worry than either of those clearly normal experiences.

I dug the crumpled paper from the deepest darkest depths of my backpack and slid it to him.

"How could I be okay after this?"

Jake gave me that weird look again.

"I really don't see what the problem is."

I was stunned. Stunned.

I stood up so fast that my chair fell over. Every face in the cafeteria tuned in on me. Everyone was watching me with bated breath. One false move, one wrong word, and nobody would shut up about it for ages.

Well damn it. Damn it!

My eyes were practically burning holes in Jake's. "You don't see what the problem is? What about the fact that they're making a mockery of him? Of Sam? Of your friend? Do you really see no problem in them trying to vote him Homecoming King? Do you not see how f^cked up that is? It's...insensitive and rude and I can't believe I have to tell you this!"

Growling, I threw my book bag over my shoulder and stormed out.

A/N: So sorry for the short/UNEDITED chapter! I'm hoping to add more to it later, but I wanted to start to get into the swing of this update-on-a-schedule thing. Bear with me.

I hope you liked it anyway, and there should more to come soon! I'm officially supposed to update again on Friday...*fingers crossed*.

Thanks for being awesome!