You bit down on your lip so you didn’t cry out when you were once again, slammed across the locker.
“Fuck-up.” The girl murmured as she walked past.
You refuse to cry. Not in front of them. Not now.
You pressed ahead through the hallways, avoiding everyone’s eyes, keeping your goal in mind. Just get to your locker. Then you can go home. Then you can go home. You can see Liam. He’s waiting for you at home. You can see him. Just get to your locker.
But it wasn’t that easy. It never is.
You made the mistake of walking down the middle of the hallway. Two girls walked on either side of you one sticking out her foot making you fall and the other kicking you while you were down. You let out a little gasp at that, feeling the air leave your windpipe.
They walked on, not wanting to get caught by a teacher, but you knew they would strike again. You ran to your locker, dumping the contents of it into your backpack, getting slammed into it, three times, before racing out the door. You ran all the way home. You knew they weren’t following, but you thought maybe running would stop the tears. You were wrong.
When you threw your door open finally, slamming it shut behind you, you were already full on sobbing. You couldn’t help it you had had enough. You angrily threw your pack down on the ground before sliding down the door and putting your face in your hands.
“Baby?”
You whipped your head up. The sight of Liam made relief flood your system like you’ve never felt before, as well as bring a entire new round of sobs from your mouth. You stood up and rushed towards him just has he rushed to you, meeting in the middle. You slammed into him, hugging him as tight as you could and sobbing into his shoulder. His strong arms wrapped around you immediately, but you could tell he wasn’t quite sure what was happening.
“Sweetheart? What’s wrong? What happened?”
“They hate me Li. They hate me and I don’t know why.” You sobbed out. “I don’t know what I did but they just push me into lockers all day long and trip me and call me names and I hate it there, I hate it!”
“Shh babe.. C’mon lets get to the couch for a proper cuddle.”
I felt him scoop me up and bring me to the couch, sitting down himself and settling me into his lap. He started running his fingers through my hair, making my sobbing slow down some.
“They don’t hate you. They just don’t know you. You’re so amazing don’t listen to a word they say.”
“How can you be so sure?” You hiccuped.
You felt him sigh deeply before continuing. “Because I went through the exact same thing.”
You looked up at him shocked. How did he, Liam, go through this? Your handsome, funny, caring, kind, loving, perfect Liam.
“How?” You whispered.
He shrugged, “Like you said. I don’t know. But love, it get’s better. It get’s so much better. Right when I left high school it stopped. It will stop for you too. You’ve only got one year to go.”
“It will be torture..” You feel your lip tremble at the thought.
He shakes his head and cups the side of your face, pulling you in for a kiss. Your body instantly relaxes into his touch and you feel all your worries dim. When he pulls away, you meet his warm brown eyes.
“But I’ll always be there. To hold you when you get home, to protect you when I can. I’ll always be here for you love. Always.”
You smiled for the first time that day, a watery one, but a smile all the same.
“Always sounds pretty good to me.”
