tw//bullying
Harley
I was pushed on to the ground.
I felt the skin on my knee get scratched and then the pain kicked in. I immediately knew that it was bleeding when I felt the wetness on my leg. Tears spilled from my eyes. My pigtails are messy now.
I saw that my new dress that Daddy bought me just two days before tore at the ends. He's gonna be so sad when he finds out. I really liked it. It was green and had little coloured squares at the sleeves. Green is my favourite.
"You're ugly and fat!" she shouted. "You suck, Harley!"
I stayed on the ground out of fear of being attacked again. My head hurt.
"What did I d-do, Norah?" I sobbed.
"Lucas likes you and not me! And it's your fault! Yours!" she shouted. She looked scary like that. Her eyebrows were furrowed. And her cheeks were red.
My ears were ringing from the slap she gave me minutes ago.
All the kids stood around and watched. I saw some boys making fun of me. I saw girls snickering.
Some kids were cheering for her and chanting,"Norah! Norah!"
The shame had formed a painful knot in my stomach that wouldn't go away.
"Stay away from him! And stay away from my friends!" she growled and walked away as the bell rang.
Everybody followed. I sat there on the ground. I can't go back inside like this. They'll just make fun of me again. And Ms. Brown will ask me questions and send me to the nurse's office.
I started crying harder. I was embarrassed. And tired.
That's when I noticed two feet with bright blue shoes on in front me. I looked up and was met with pale blue eyes and golden blonde hair. It was a boy I'd never seen before. I guessed he was eight like me or maybe a year older since he was tall.
He held out a hand to me. I hesitated.
Jared Goldman had done that once, but as I was getting up, he let go and I had fallen back down on to the ground. His friends laughed at me that day and called me Fat Harley.
"I'm not gonna bite," he said, offended, his nose scrunched up.
"Who are you?" I asked, confused.
"Take my hand and I'll tell you."
I took his hand and he pulled me up to my feet. He waited for me to stop stumbling on my aching legs, holding on to my hand.
"I think you should say thank you," he said.
"Thank you." I smiled.
"You're welcome." He smiled back.
His face was a little funny looking. I liked his eyes and hair. But he had a splash of freckles on his face and his face was flushed red. He had a dimple on his left cheek and a small, red birthmark next to his collar bone. And he was way too skinny.
"What's your name?"
"Wyatt. What's yours?"
"Harley."
"That's pretty."
I blushed.
He looked down at my bleeding knee and his eyebrows were suddenly furrowed.
"You need to see the nurse," he said.
"I don't want to. She's gonna ask questions."
"I will answer them for you if you're nervous."
"You will?"
"Yeah."
"You're nice, Wyatt," I said, chuckling.
"I'm new here and I think you're my first friend. C'mon, Harley!"
He took my hand and we walked out of the playground together.
I woke up to see Samantha's soft face, her body facing me. She was still sleeping. We were sharing one pillow. I could feel her warm breath hit my face.
For some reason, I felt peaceful at the sight and I just kept staring. I was partly in awe at the fact that, despite not knowing me that well, she was willing to stay the night for me. I didn't ask for it, sure, but I really did appreciate it deep down.
And I would rather die before I admit it to her face, thereby boosting her big ego.
I wanted to see her eyes. I wanted to see the blue, the green, the specks of yellow and my reflection in between. My arm, which was limply around her waist, involuntarily tightened around her. She let out a little exhale and placed her hand on my arm, moving closer to me so that our waists touched and so did our chests.
I kept staring at her for quite a while. I felt that I'd have to confront things I didn't want to at the moment if I looked away. I felt. . . safe. Why do I feel so safe?
I stared at her lips. They were soft and naturally quite red. It wasn't too thick or too thin. It was perfectly in between. Her cheeks were slightly pink. The sunlight highlighted her features.
It felt nice to be inside the bed, the sheets covering us, warmth radiating off of each others' bodies. I didn't feel like getting up for atleast a few hours.
That's when her eyes slowly opened, one at a time. I locked eyes with her and she immediately smiled.
"Like what you see, Harley?" she teased.
"No, if anything, you look ugly in the morning and I was just wondering how you transform into the opposite during the day," I said, defending myself a little too quickly.
"Oh, so that's why we're cuddling right now?" She smirked.
"Oh, please." I rolled my eyes at her.
I let go of her waist and got up, stretching. I immediately missed the warmth.
"You can sleep in if you want. I'm going for a run."
"Hey, I wanna be fit, too!"
I looked back at her impassively.
"Come with me, then."
"But I'm too lazy," she said, and turned her back towards me.
"Come with me," I said, slightly smiling now.
"I wanna sleep!"
I smirked inwardly.
I pulled the sheets off of her and walked over to the other side of the bed. She groaned and buried her face in my pillow.
"Leave me alone!"
"Get the hell up!"
I grabbed her by the waist and pulled her onto me, so that her back was pressed up against my chest and one of my knees were bent at the edge of the bed. She was on her feet now. I wrapped my arms around her like I did last night.
"Come with me," I whispered into her ear.
I could feel her shiver at that.
I moved her messy, braided hair to one side and pressed a kiss to the back of her neck, soon bringing my hand back to her stomach. She leaned against me, her head resting against my left shoulder.
"So, are you coming?" I whispered against the skin on her neck.
"Y-yeah," she said, closing her eyes and breathing deeply. Her hands were holding onto my lower arms, holding them there. I placed another kiss to the side of her neck and let go of her slowly. She walked over to my closet in silence and I watched her.
She picked out a pair of grey track pants, a black T-shirt and some socks.
"What's your shoe size?" she suddenly asked me.
"Seven and a half," I said.
"Perfect."
Giving me a playful smile, she took out a pair of black sneakers and walked out.
I kept thinking back to when my lips were on her skin as I took a shower, brushed my teeth and changed into a yellow sweatshirt and leggings.
My mom was still asleep when we got downstairs. I placed a note beside her bed, letting her know that we were going outside. We helped ourselves to some water and sandwiches in the kitchen before walking out into the cool winter morning.
We ran for a bit and then we were just walking around town, talking about the most random things and laughing our butts off.
The streets weren't very busy since it was 6:00 on a Sunday morning.
"When did you know you're into girls?" she suddenly asked me.
I took a few moments to answer that. Honestly, I didn't know how. I couldn't tell her that I didn't truly know until I was in a full-blown relationship with one. And the details would lead to certain other questions that would eventually lead us both to a place I didn't want. Hence, I decided to go way back. Back to when I first thought of a girl in more ways than just as a friend.
"I was in the sixth grade," I said.
"You had a crush on somebody?"
"Yeah. I'm not telling you who it was."
"Oh, come on!"
"You're gonna gossip about it."
She laughed at that.
"Why? Do I know her?"
"I guess. I mean, you know pretty much everybody."
"I guess that's true," she said, chuckling.
"Did something happen?"
"Nope. She didn't ever know."
"Aw. Too shy?"
"Yep."
"Look at you now!"
"Puberty has that effect."
She laughed again and said, "Harley, I came here in junior year. There are still people I kind of don't know, unlike you and pretty much everybody else at school."
"Of course."
All except one, Samantha. All except one. But even that one is accounted for.
We walked in companiable silence for a while before we saw a guy seated on a bench, reading a book. He was definitely around our age. And I've seen him around in school. I looked closer and my eyes widened.
Samantha suddenly started walking closer to me and whispered, "You know that guy?"
I did.
"No, not really. Why?"
"That's Alex Goldman, Jared's twin brother. I don't think they're identical, though."
"Oh."
Oh indeed.
"I've had a crush on him for, like, forever. I couldn't ask him out for the dance because he'd already got a date with Sara Morgan. You think now's the time to make a move?"
I looked over at her. We'd kind of stopped walking at this point. My eyes moved over to her lips for a quick second and I looked back at the guy to distract myself.
"I-uh, sure," I stuttered.
"Yeah?"
". . . yeah."
"Okay, okay! Let's do this. C'mon," she said excitedly, grabbing my hand and speed-walking over to the bench he was on.
"Hey, Alex!" she said.
Alex looked up at her and smiled. I felt ignored.
"Hey! I didn't see you at the dance last night. Jared said you were coming."
"Oh, I did actually. I just didn't spend a lot of time there."
"Busy as always?" he said, grinning.
"You know it," she said, chuckling lightly.
"Who was with you last night, anyway? Or did you come alone?"
"Oh, no, I was Harley's date. I literally asked her out in front of the whole cafeteria," she said, gesturing to me. "I think you weren't at school that day or something."
He looked over at me and made an 'o' with his mouth, like he just realized that I was there.
"Hi, Harley," he said, in a tone of mockery that I think only I could pick up. Like a secret message.
I nodded at him slowly and said, "Hi. . .uhm, I'm sorry, what's your name again?"
He gave me a glare that lasted briefly a second as he realized that Samantha was watching us. The temperature dropped by about ten degrees.
"A-Alex."
"Right. Alex. Good morning!" I said, cheerfully.
"Good morning," he mumbled, trying to smile but failing miserably.
I guess Samantha realized that we were now immersed in a staring contest and cut in.
Thankfully.
"Hey, Alex?"
He turned to her and suddenly smiled again.
"Yeah, Sam?"
Sam?
"Would you like to hang out some time? Maybe a dinner, or a movie. . ."
Damn, she's quick. Like me.
"Sure! I'd love that. Tomorrow night maybe? A movie?"
"For sure, for sure," she said, nodding and smiling.
"Great."
Samantha bravely walked forward and, wrapping her arms around his neck, standing on her toes, she pulled him into a hug.
I couldn't help but shake my head.
He smirked at me and gave me the finger behind her back. I gladly returned it, smiling sweetly.
She released him and he went back into his house, which was right behind the bench.
"That went great!" she exclaimed as we began walking again.
"Sure it did," I deadpanned.
"Hey, be excited!" she whined.
"Why?"
"'Cause you're my friend! That's what friends do. I just got myself a date!"
"Oh. Right."
"Wow, grumpy," she said, smiling.
"Race you back!" I suddenly said, and began running in the other direction.
"Hey!" she yelled and began running after me.
As I was running, I kept imagining punching Alex in the face. I wondered why. And then I realized it's because he touched her.
I stopped running as we neared my house and the reality of the situation hit me in the face. Sam ran past me. She stopped running at my front yard and looked back at me, smiling triumphantly.
"I won! I won!" she yelled, jumping up and down, laughing.
Fuck.
***
Hey guys!
Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Let me know what you think :)
Love you,
queenred