Speak Up

Chapter 1

My stomach twists into knots, making me feel nausea. I keep my head down, watching my feet as I walk through the doors of my high school, refusing to make eye contact with my fellow students. I can feel their eyes on me. As I walk down the corridor to my locker, I pray silently to myself, hoping no one will stare at me. I hear some students whisper and I automatically knew the whispers were about me.

It's not too late to leave and go back home, is it? I would rather be there than here.

I'm nowhere near my locker when someone bumps into me on purpose, knocking the books I had in my hands to the floor. I stand there, staring at my books, trying to blink back my tears. Students laugh at me.

"Look at where you're going next time, Four Eyes," Liam Foley laughs. I have no idea what I have ever done to him, but he has always been out to get me.

I ignore him, and kneel down to pick up my books. I was about to grab my math textbook when someone came and kicked it out of my reach. The person who kicks it pretends not to see me, and then apologies for kicking it. But deep down inside I knew the person wasn't sorry. I heard the laughter in his voice when he apologised.

My book skids across the floor, getting kicked around by more feet by students who didn't see it on the floor, almost tripping over it. They look down at it, and turn towards me, glaring at me before walking off. Someone kicks it and it skids across the floor until it hits the bottom of the lockers. I get to my feet and walk over to grab it.

Before I get the chance to pick up the book, Emily Gosling, the most beautiful girl in the entire school, picks it up. I freeze when I see her, standing about a couple of metres from her. Whenever I catch a glimpse of her, I forget where I am and admire her beauty. But I was forced to snap myself back to reality when her boyfriend comes up behind her after he finished bullying me.

I have never quite understood why a beautiful girl like Emily would want to date some guy like Liam. When I was younger her family lived across the road from me, until the beginning of junior high when her parents divorced and moved away. She was a lovely kind girl and I just couldn't understand what she saw in Liam. Sure, he was the most popular guy and the captain of the basketball team, sucks up to all the teachers. He has one bad ass attitude and I just don't see how people can worship him like he is some god.

Liam grabs the book. Emily tries to hang on it as tight as she could, begging him to leave me alone. But he doesn't listen. He snatches it out of her hands, taking out a black pen from his jean pocket, scribbles on the cover. I feel nausea, wanting to know what that jerk had written. Liam laughs, hands the book back to Emily, kisses her quickly on the lips and then walks over to me.

I should have run, and forget about my book, but I stand there scared to know what Liam might do. Whatever harsh words he will say, I shouldn't worry what he has to say or let him get to me. But ignoring his hurtful words was easy said than done, because those words stay with you for a lifetime and forgetting them wasn't easy.

Liam stands so close to me that I can smell his deodorant. I blink a few times, nervous as he stares straight into my eyes.

"So, you have eyes for my girl?" Liam asks me.

"I-I don't," I stutter, doing my best to lie but it was no use lying because Liam was able to see right through me.

"Yes, you do. I saw the way you were looking at her, Four Eyes. Keep your distance from her or I will do something that will make you regret laying eyes on her."

He chuckles at his own joke before walking off, calling out to one of his friends. Once he is gone, I force myself to look at Emily. She gives me a sympathetic look. Seeing her face, I clench my fists together, wondering why she didn't do anything to stop her boyfriend from treating me the way he did. She has never stopped him from doing any of that. It was like it was okay that he bullied me. But then I realised I shouldn't be mad at Emily. The person I should be mad at is myself. I'm the one who allowed Liam to push me around and call me names.