Opening the main entrance doors, I wasn’t exactly ecstatic to see what was going to happen. Scott spotted us together at Starbucks and I already knew that Austen and Kale were annoyed with the both of us; Austen didn’t call me a fool for nothing. Taking a deep breath, I told myself to just keep my head held high and ignore them. However, I already knew that it wasn’t going to be easy.
Walking inside of the building, I crossed over to my locker and just as I was about to open it, I heard punches, screams, and kicks. Swirling around, I noticed that Austen and Kale were both beating up Dean. Gasping, I dropped my backpack on the floor and ran straight to the scene.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I asked furiously. But, Austen and Kale were too fixated on ruining Dean’s body to answer.
“McKenzie…just leave,” Dean warned softly as he struggled to stop them from hitting him. Ignoring him, I blinked back tears as I saw what they were doing to him. Austen was kicking him in the stomach and Kale was punching his face. Angrily, I stepped in between them careful not to step on Dean.
“I said stop!” I exclaimed angrily as I tried to push them away from him. “Leave him—
I cut myself as I realized Scott was just standing there watching the whole thing and I tossed him a crazy look, was he serious? Suddenly, I felt pain my stomach and I turned back to see that Kale had punched me when he was trying to punch Dean. “McKenzie!”
I wasn’t sure if it was Kale or Dean who had called out my name for I was too shocked to fully pay attention. I put my arm around my stomach and tumbled backwards slamming my head into my locker. The next thing I knew everything went black:
I fluttered open my eyes to see myself in the hallways of the school, I picked myself up and stood up. Looking around, I saw no one in the hallways and I gasped in curiosity. What was happening? “Dean, where are you?”
“He’s not here,” A voice replied and it was coming from behind me. I suddenly felt shivers fall through my spine, but it was strange. It didn’t feel like it was coming from fear, it felt like it was coming from anger.
Turning around, I walked furiously towards my insecurity ghost and crossed my arms. “What did you do to him?”
“I didn’t do anything,” My insecurity ghost responded with an evil laugh. “Kale and Austen did all the dirty work.”
Once I realized she was right, I immediately changed the subject. “You know, I’m almost close to figuring out why you came here and how to get you right out of my life. The ‘human’ you created is going to be found out real soon.”
My insecurity ghost’s eyes suddenly glowed red and what did next was shocking: she screamed. It wasn’t a usual scream; it was high pitched, bloodshot, and furious. It was so frightening that I fell to my feet in fear.
My insecurity ghost sat on top of me causing my skin to turn pale as hers since her skin was so cold. Gripping my shirt she told me, “Things are only going to get worse, you know. You think you got it all figured out but you don’t.”
Pushing her off I retorted, “Nonsense, you just want to taunt me. You want to confuse me so I could give in but that’s never going to happen!”
Suddenly, she was furious and as soon as I stood up, she ran through me. My body felt so pale and so cold that I couldn’t move. She tried to tell me that I was stupid, that I was ugly, and that I should give in while I had the chance, but strangely it didn’t bother me anymore. Even though my body was refusing to move, I refused to let her win.
“SHUT UP!” I hollered so loud that my words sent out fierce winds throughout the hallway and my insecurity ghost screamed in fear and faded before my eyes.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
My eyes suddenly fluttered open and I found myself in the nurse’s office. “Good morning,” The nurse greeted repeating the same thing she said when I was first in here. “How are you feeling?”
As I sat up, I noticed that there was an ice pack on the back of my head and on my stomach. Taking them both off, the numbness briskly fell away and I felt a sharp pain on the back of my head and on my stomach, but the back of my head was far sorer. “I’m doing alright; my head is just a bit sorer than my stomach.”
“That’s because you have a big bump there that’s a bit swollen and if you put some ointment on, I’m sure it’ll go down soon enough,” The nurse explained me. “As for your stomach, it’s just bruised up. You’ll be fine if you just ice them.”
I nodded, “Okay.”
“You can go now if you like,” The nurse informed me. “I already informed all of your teachers, it’s around lunchtime now.”
I nodded again and put the ice packs back down on the cot I was laying on and sighed. Well, on the bright side, I frightened my insecurity ghost and I felt myself grin. At least, I was accomplishing my insecurities and just soon enough she’d be gone. As soon as I walked out of the office, I spotted Dean was there for me. His black eye was going down, but he had all kinds of bruises on his face.
I didn’t even want to think about what was on his stomach. “McKenzie, you’re okay,” He said with relief as he held out his hands. I walked right into them and let out tears. I think they were because I was glad that Dean didn’t get that beaten up as I thought he would be and because he was here waiting for me. “I’m so sorry about everything.”
“It’s okay,” I muttered into his ear. “You tried to warn me. Why were they beating you up anyway?” Dean released me and placed his hands on my shoulders.
“They said that I was stupid for choosing you over their friendship,” He explained, “but I didn’t see what ‘friendship’ we had. I thought they were okay with me leaving, but I should’ve known.”
I placed my hands on top of his and ignoring the weird butterfly feeling in my stomach, I bet it was just the bruise. “Dean, I’m sorry too. I’ll make sure they will never lay a finger on you—
“McKenzie no—
“Dean, I care about you!” I insisted as I stared into his green eyes. “I won’t let you get hurt any longer, I mean it.” And suddenly, I thought of something. Taking my hands off of his and as he pulled away from me I added, “And I’m starting now.” With that, I departed away from him by running straight to my Chemistry classroom.
Looking through the window, I noticed that she was typing away on her computer so I knocked and she looked up signaling that it was okay for me to come on in. I opened the door and walked towards her desk crossing my arms and cleared my throat, “Mrs. Rial, I’d like a word with you.”
“Okay sure,” She replied back with a gentle smile. “What is it?”
“You know how you said you wouldn’t let anyone bully me any longer?” I asked her clarifying.
She nodded as she put a blonde strand behind her ear, “Yes I do, Miss Canton. What’s going on?”
“Well can you do me a favor?”
“Um, sure”
“It’s about Dean,” I said to her.
“Dean? Is he bullying you?”
“No, it’s just…he’s getting bullied and I would like for you to help me do something,” I replied to her boldly.
She leaned back in her chair and crossed her with an understanding smile, “Alright, I will try my best. Who is bullying him?”
“Austen, Kale—
“What?” Mrs. Rial asked her mood suddenly dropped. “Did you say Kale?”
“Yes, I think so” I mumbled deciding to tease her, “Is there something wrong?” Man, that was a bold move! What was up with me? I guess when people hurt the people I care about, I’m not afraid to say what’s on my mind.
Mrs. Rial cleared her throat and tried to hide the annoyance, hurt, and shock in her blue eyes but since I knew what was already going on, I could see right through her. “No Miss Canton, it’s just I-I-I-umm—
“Huh?”
“I can’t help you,” She finished without looking at me in the eyes and returning back to her computer. “I’m sorry.”
“But—
“I SAID I CAN’T HELP!” Mrs. Rial exclaimed suddenly furious and I jumped shockingly. I wasn’t used to seeing her lose her smile and staring at me like I was trying to ruin Kale’s life.
“Okay,” I whispered softly still a bit stunned and walked out of my classroom sighing. As soon as I closed the door, I thought to myself what was I thinking? Of course, this was happen but I had to try at least.