fragile

11

"Hey, you alright?"

Mira turned her gaze away from the view of the town and to the person behind her. Colton stood near the door, one hand on his backpack as he watched her, carefully.

She smiled. "Yeah, I'll be okay."

Though she wasn't okay at all, it was comforting to know that he cared about her wellbeing.

Even if they didn't know each other.

It restored the tiny sense of hope in humanity she had begun to lose.

"Don't let those idiots get to you. High school is just a messed up place for people to try and feel better about themselves by pretending to be someone they're not."

Mira was very well aware of that, now that she had gone through a situation she had never anticipated.

"I know."

A silence settled between them. Mira turned back around to look out at the view.

"Thanks," she spoke up, quietly. "For coming to check up on me. It means a lot to me."

He shrugged with indifference. "You don't need to thank me. Just thought you could use the company."

"After what I've been through, I think I do."

They stood there like that, silently. None of them said a word to each other — not about what happened or the video or why the school's hot-head was talking to the school's now-loner.

Two combinations that didn't really work, yet both having one thing in common

They were both misunderstood.

Though they didn't speak, the silence was comfortable and it was enough to calm Mira's aching heart down. Maybe his presence wasn't enough to forget, but it was enough to give her the strength to keep fighting.

The strength that she didn't think she would have found if he hadn't have been there that day. A tiny part of her hoped he could have shown up earlier and punched Willow in the face.

It would have been satisfying to see. But, at the same time, Willow and everything else in her life was her battle to fight.

Not anyone else's and certainly not Colton. Even though he had a reputation to lash out at people who deserved it, she suddenly found herself thankful to him for not intervening.

Him getting involved would only make things worse and the teachers would get further involved, more so than they already had.

Even if Colton didn't know it or intend for it to happen, he had helped her in a way she didn't think anyone could have.

***

Colton found himself watching her more frequently.

He didn't mean to. It just sort of happened.

His eyes were on her even in classes he didn't know she was even in before. Now that her presence had been made firmly known, he couldn't stop thinking about her.

Not that he was interested in her in any way.

She was intriguing, and he felt bad for her.

He would watch as she smiled to herself as she read a good book.

He watched as she sat in her seat, head bent down, her charcoal coloured hair falling over her face like a wall to guard herself against others.

He watched as she reluctantly raised her hand to answer a question, ignoring the soft snickers and nasty stares she was getting.

Colton would pointedly glare at the people that were doing that around the area he was sitting. He would wait after class and taunt anyone with threats who tried to make snarky comments.

He was helping from the sidelines, wanting to at least ease the situation in some way.

But that was all he could do without getting involved too much.

He felt like a pussy for doing that, but he didn't know what else to do because the situation never did get better.

It only got worse.

Every morning, he found his gaze lingering on those double doors, waiting for her. It was only when she would walk through them at exactly 8:15 AM every day would his shoulders relax.

He even stopped paying attention to Sammy's daily jokes to make sure she was okay. They followed her every morning as if he was afraid she would do something stupid and stop coming through those doors one day.

As if she would disappear at any moment.

He wasn't interested in her but he would always watch to make sure she was okay.

He didn't know why, and he didn't want to think about it because he himself had no explanation for it.

Mira didn't know it, but he was always there though not as much as he should have and could have been.

Colton knew what he did was never enough. No one got the hint from just his angry threats because it wasn't made clear enough. It went from one ear and out the other and he didn't bother to fix it.

No one did.

Not even the useless teachers.

He had the power to make it clear, albeit in a rather semi-violent way -- he would get in a heck of a lot of trouble too but it would have been worth it.

He should have been the one to stop it.

But he was selfish. Using Casey's name and wanting to get better for her, himself and his family, he didn't do anything.

And so he remained a bystander, just like everyone else.