Convincing You I'm Me

Chapter 14: Flash Back

The day after I got a deadly grilling from Rosie regarding my innocent conversation with her sister, I saw Lily in the hallway at school. She was talking with some shaggy-haired, pot-smoking goth that wore baggy pants and a sweater three times too large for him. Whatever they was speaking about seemed to amuse her that much that she held her stomach as she laughed and tears streamed down her face. 

I was with the gang, but I wasn't paying any attention to the crap they were sprouting. The goth guy wandered off and then Lily opened her locker, grabbing a pile of folders into her arms. A few moments later, I saw a few members of the football team crawl into the hallway and I straightened against the wall. 

I finally saw what Rosie had been warning me about. Lily turned, bumping straight into Trevor McDonald, the biggest jerk to ever exist. He stamped down on her folders and she released her grip on them, they fell to the floor with bits of paper scattering across her feet. The gang and everyone else in the hallway was suddenly watching with me.

Trevor's circle of vultures filled the silent hallway with their laughter and Trevor yelled insults at her as she ducked down to pick up the papers and then he took satisfaction in sliding them away from her with his foot. 

"Freak!" he laughed. 

Anger began to build up in my bloodstream. I clenched my hand into a fist and marched myself through the space between myself and Trevor, with the guys in quick pursuit. 

Trevor didn't notice I was standing in his way until I didn't get out of it. "Hey, Jase, man," he slyly laughed. "How you doing?"

I took a deep, controlled breath of incurable fury that made Trevor's face drop. "Turn around and apologize to her."

"What?" He said, turning around to glimpse Lily, whom was watching us from the corner of her eye as she re-organized her folders. 

"You heard."

Travis, Miles and George flanked me, all of us standing with a stance of seriousness. Trevor swallowed, surrendering his chances of going up against me. The entire hallway fell quiet, with every pair of eyes pointed in this direction.

"Hey, man, it was just a joke," he said. "No harm done."

"A joke?" I said through my teeth, rolling my shoulders back as I got in his face. "In what world is picking on a girl a joke? Does it make you feel tough?" I scanned my eyes to his football buddies that stared at the floor. "Does it make you feel like big men? Does it!" I yelled. 

"No." One of them said quietly. 

"Jesus, chill out," Trevor ushered at me. "What's wrong with you?"

"Apologize to her," I said. "Or so help me you'll be eating through a straw until graduation."

He swallowed again, and he slowly turned. Lily stood in the middle of the hallway, holding her folders with a mask of awe. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"Louder!"

"Sorry!"

"Good," I nodded. "Now you're going to ask for her forgiveness."

He turned back sharply. "What the-"

"Do it." I snarled.

He eyed several amused students across the hall, shame lit up his face like a tomato. "Please forgive me," he said loudly to her.

"Because I'm an impotent moron." I said.

"Because I'm an impotent moron," he repeated.  

Lily shrugged. "I forgive you. You should take some Viagra for that."

The entire hallway laughed and Travis looked close to tears. He scrunched his face up and met my eyes. "There."

I held my hands up and moved out of his way, he moved his feet so quickly past me that it could be debatable that he had ants in his pants. He ran down the hall with his head down, trying to ignore the rightly deserved laughs at his expense. 

I finally looked at Lily and she gave me that familiar smile that turned me into a random statue at her will. I approached her, the confidence lifting like evaporation from my skin. 

"That was odd," she said. "Why did you do that?"

I became tongue-tied, mumbling my words out as her diamond blue eyes glistened. "Just. . . did it."

"Just like that?" she laughed. "Thanks anyway. I think. I'm not totally sure why you did it though."

Rosie was right, she was naive. Very naive. Had she really been bullied that much for that long that she didn't know any different? She couldn't even tell when someone had stood up for her. It saddened me to think about her that way, because she gave off the impression that she was always happy, and perhaps she was, but there was something deeper there. Something she was holding back behind her statue-turning smiles. 

"Do you want to go for a coffee sometime?" I blurted out. 

"With you?" she narrowed her eyes. "Why?"

"I don't know," I said honestly. "Why not?"

"I'm free after school," she said with an adorable shrug. 

"Perfect. Meet me at the steps."

"Of which cafe?" she asked, scanning my eyes.

"Of the school." I laughed.

"Oh!" she almost squealed. "Right, sure."

The bell rang and she gave me a grin. "Well, I've got to go to art."

"I've got to go to French."

She took a deep breath. "Bye, then."

"Bye."

As she left, I was thinking about what she said yesterday. And honestly, I was feeling pretty smug for a guy that apparently didn't have 'it.'

I was smug for a while. 

+ + +

Until our actual date.