The Broken Girl and The Golden Boy

Playing the Knight in Shining Armor

Chapter 4: Justin

For a while after Piper stormed off - again - I was too stunned to move. Piper Breen - art fanatic - thought that I had problems? I snorted at the ridiculousness of it. I shrugged it off and went to grab my gym clothes for conditioning next period. I mean, really, her opinion didn't matter to me anyway.

Or at least that's what I kept telling myself. In reality, Piper's disapproval really hurt me. All of the compliments from my friends, family, and classmates were completely outweighed by one negative word from her pretty little mouth. Wait, pretty? What the hell was wrong with me today?

"Ugh," I grumbled to myself, hiking my bag over my shoulder and slamming the door to my locker. When I started down the hallway I saw Maddie, Becca, and Rina come out of the girls' bathroom giggling and chattering. It's not that unusual, and I probably would've ignored it - if they didn't go silent  the second I walked past.

"Hi, girls," I greeted them politely. The three of them untensed and smiled at me and I kept walking down the hall. Once I reached the end of the corridor, I looked over my shoulder to make sure they were gone. Then I looped back around and went to the bathroom door. I waited just outside, listening, for a few minutes, but I didn't hear any crying or screaming or anything, really.

Just as I was about to give up and leave, I heard a muffled moan of pain. "Are you okay?" I asked, then slapped my forehead. What a stupid question, of course they weren't okay.

"Help me..." a weak voice whimpered.

"Um..." I glanced down the corridor, but there were no teachers nearby. "All right, I'm coming in. Can you get away from the door?" I heard a little scraping sound and I eased the door open.

"Woah, shit," the girl on the floor had bruises covering nearly every visible inch of skin and there was a pretty big bump on the back of her head, but at least there was no blood. Dropping my duffel bag on the ground, I kneeled down beside her and looked at her face. I gasped; her cheek was marred by four bright red scratches, but that's not what shocked me. I was shocked because the girl was Piper Breen.

"Can't leave you alone for five minutes," I muttered, not that she heard me. She was unconcious, and from the size of the lump on her head, she might have a concussion. She definitely need some medical attention. With a sigh, I slung my bag over my shoulder, then I bent down again to pick her up.

With her cradled against my chest, I scooted through the open doorway and walked down the hallway to the nurse's office.

"Good afternoon, Jus-" Nurse Ella started to say, but she cut off when she spotted Piper in my arms, "My goodness, what happened to this poor thing?"

"She got attacked," I answered, "Her name's Piper Breen. Uh, where should I...?"

"Oh, set her on one of the cots in the other room, would you?" She pointed to the archway connecting the two parts of the nurses office, "I'll just put her in the database and check on her in a minute."

"Right," I nodded and slipped through the door. I picked the nearest bed and went to set her down, but the second I tried to, Piper started mumbling nonsense and snuggled deeper into my chest.

"Never would've taken you for an affectionate one," I chuckled. Then I quickly placed her on the cot as she whined in protest. With a small smile I leaned down and kissed her forehead.

"Ahem," Nurse Ella cleared her throat from the doorway. I felt my face reddening in embarrassment.

"I, uh, she was just, um..." I stuttered, "I mean, um, she was... and I... That wasn't what it looked like." The nurse's mouth turned up at the corners as I tried to stammer out an explanation.