The next day, I do everything that I'd always do. Wake up and go to school. The only difference:
I'm actually a somebody now. People know my name. People talk to me and I'm considered a cool kid. It's exciting.
First period of the day, I have a free period and now that I'm not being bullied anymore, I can go to the gym and not be picked on for watching the boys play basketball. So I go to the gym to support my new found friend, Steve. I feel like it can be fun.
When I walk into the gym, Steve and Billy are head to head. Billy has the ball, and Steve is all in.
I sit down at the bleachers and wave back to some of the girls that wave at me then put my attention back to the game.
"Alright alright alright! King Steve! King Steve everyone!" Billy shouts. I roll my eyes at his cockiness.
"Do you ever stop talking man?! Come on." Steve fights back. I smile at Steve's come back but then my smile goes away just as quickly when Billy charges at Steve and knocks him on his ass. Billy shoots the hoop and I sink down into the bleachers.
Billy looks around the gym and makes eye contact with me before giving someone a high five.
Billy holds out his hand to Steve and I furrow my brows. Is Billy Hargrove really about to help someone else other then himself. Billy says something to Steve quietly so that I couldn't hear then throws Steve's hand away and runs across the court.
When gym is over, I step off of the bleachers and meet Steve half way through the court.
"You okay?" I ask him as he ties his shoe.
"Yeah. Just Billy being Billy. Which is a complete dick, might I add." He says with frustration.
"Sorry." I apologize. "But if it makes you feel better, your hair is better then his." I comfort and he laughs.
"Thanks, One. Meet me outside?" He asks and I nod before he disappears into the locker rooms.
Steve and I are about to walk out to our cars together but before I can make my way out the door, I see Billy walking by.
"Steve. I'll catch up." I tell him. He looks in the direction I'm looking in and then shakes his head with disapproval.
"No."
"Steve."
"No no no. He's an asshole, One. A literal asshole. Don't waist your time."
"I'm not waisting my time. This is important. I'll catch up with you later. Okay?!" I scold. I walk to Billy's car and call out his name to get his attention. Why am I doing this? Because I have a bad feeling that he knows something he's not supposed to know.
"Look who came back." He taunts. I roll my eyes at him then change the subject.
"What the hell was that yesterday?!" I ask furiously. He looks down at his feet the looks back at me with a smile
"I don't recall what you're talking about."
"You know." I state and he laughs.
"Know what? Mind refreshing my memory."
"Billy. This isn't a game. If you know something, you have to tell me." I scold. He stares into my eyes for two seconds.
"Why do you care? If I know something," He says while bending down to my level. "It's my business and not..." before he finishes his sentence, I push him against his car grab a fish full of his shirt.
"Look, Hargrove. I don't know what your problem is but I'm trying to help you out." I say with closed teeth. "So I'm going to say this one last time." I bring my face closer to his and speak quietly but assertively. "If you know something, you tell me. Am I clear?"
As I look Billy in his eyes, I can see fear. He's intimidated by me and if it were any other day, I'd be happy but right now, I don't think that my fear striking is something to be proud of.
"Crystal." He mumbles.
"Good." I let go of shirt then dust his chest where the shirt had crumbled to smooth it out. As I dust his shirt, I can feel my fingers dip into the dent where his pecks meet. It's hard. Really hard. I notice that I've been touching his chest for longer the 3 seconds so I quickly remove my hand. "Sorry for being aggressive." I apologize. I start to walk towards my car when I hear Billy call out my name.
"I don't know anything." He says. I nod. When I'm walking back to my car, the same red headed girl walks towards me.
"Looks like you showed my brother who's boss." She says as she keeps walking towards his car.
I wonder what goes in their family. There both so angry and most times, the girl is terrified of Billy. But their family business is non of my business.
When I get home, the first thing I do is kick back, chill out and watch my favorite movie of all time. Grease. Why is this movie my favorite? I'm a hopeless romantic. Danny and Sandy loving each other then hating each other to loving each other again. It's a match made in heaven.
I end up watching the movie one last time, because I have nothing better to do, and singing into my remote as Sandy and Danny sing You're the One That I Want. As I'm singing my heart out, my land line starts to ring. I huff then go to the phone.
"Hello?" I ask out of breath.
"Hey. It's Steve."
"Hi! What's up?"
"So I want to say sorry to Nancy and I... are you watching Grease?" He asks with a hint of disapproval.
"What?!" I say as I pause the movie. "No. But that's besides the point. You're gonna apologize to Nancy?" I change the subject.
"Oh yeah. Can you come to the store and help me pick out a bouquet. I'm not good at this stuff." He sighs and I laugh.
"Yeah. I'll be there in a bit." Steve and I say our goodbyes and I go to my car.
I pull up to the store and see Steve up against the wall, twirling around his keys on his finger. "Steve!" I call out. He smiles and greets me back with a hug.
"Thanks for coming."
"No problem." I smile. Steve and I walk into the store.
"How did talking to Billy go?" Steve asks. I sigh heavily and run my finger along one of the tulip pedals.
"It's was fine I guess. I ended up grabbing his shirt and making him scared."
"Holy shit. You made him scared? You're officially the baddest chick I know. Other then Nancy." He compliments and I laugh.
"Yeah. Thanks. Let's focus on these flowers Yeah?" I laugh out.
After a long night of Steve being decisive about roses or tulips, I'm finally driving home, blasting music on the radio, and tapping my steering wheel like a mad man. As I'm jamming out, I look in my rear view mirror and notice that there's a car trailing behind mine. Usually that would happen if someone was driving home but there's nothing for miles down this road, except for my house.
In hopes to throw the people off track, I make a left turn on a four way street but they turn their car left as well. I turn left again and so do they. I turn right them make a U turn and they copy that too.
"Okay, car. Time to go Street Racing." I pull my stick from neutral to drive and stomp on the gas. The car that's following me picks up speed and rams in my bumper. My body jerks forward and my head hits my steering wheel but I keep going. If these person are who I think they are, I can't afford to stop. They'll kill me if I do.
