"Oh, c'mon Annie, he was cute!"
"So?"
"And he was totally hitting on you."
"I'm not in the mood Lauren."
"Seems like your never in the mood," she remarks.
I roll my eyes. Seems like no one in my town gets me. At all. We lived in a small beach town in California. Lauren and I had just gone to the beach, and had met some cute boys, but I wasn't feeling it.
"I'm sorry Lauren, I guess my minds just been on school," I reply shoving my flip flops into my bag.
"Every time you mention it, a part of me wants to rip you up," she replies as she catches up to me. We had begun to walk home.
I laugh. "I can't wait. Junior year!" I jump up in the air and laugh.
"Yes but don't ruin the last day of Summer talking about it!" She replied back.
I smile, as I look down.
"Annie."
I look up at Lauren and see her eyeing my right shoulder. I immediatley know what she's looking at and I cover it up with my towel.
"Annie you've got to tell someone, an adult! That looks really bad."
I remove my towel carefully and inspect my shoulder myself. It still has the red mark from last night. "It doesn't matter now Lauren, he's gone."
"Yeah, but that is not right he can just get away with it, just because you broke up with him yesterday!" she yells.
I sigh. "Can we please not talk about Daniel, of all days?"
She gives me a faint smile, but I search her eyes for agreement. Nothing was there.
*****
"Annie Layne."
I hear my name as my new Science teacher says it. Everyone turns to look at me. "Here," I reply with the most confident voice I could. But it came out like a dying cat. Daniel smirks at me from across the room.
I shudder. What did I ever like about him? He was very kind when we were alone. It must've been his friends, that's it. And when he got mad. You wouldn't want to see him when he got mad. It was scary. I have scars all over my body to prove it. And now, I'm just afraid he'll get me back for dumping him.
The door to the classroom opens and it brings me back to reality. In comes a boy. But not just any boy. He was taller than me, had brown black hair, bright blue eyes. He was like the twin of the hottest celebrity.
"Class we have a new student here at our school, his name is Brandon. Brandon Sole." The class stares at him, and I turn to see the girls in the back row already eyeing him. "You can sit next to Annie."
I hear my name at once and look up as Mr. Bay leads the new boy to the seat next to me. Score, I think as I smile at him.
Mr. Bay keeps on talking, and Brandon started talking to me."So, any parties going on yet?" he asks.
I thought it was weird he was asking this, but I went along. "No, not yet."
"Do you get invited to many?" I nod which is true.
He smirks and murmers something to himself.
"Excuse me?" I whisper.
He turns and I look into his bright blue eyes. They were amazing. "Well I just thought a girl like you would probably get invited by a guy every time, and you would probably go."
"What is that suppose to mean?" I replied.
"I'm just guessing. Do you get with a lot of guys? Because that guy over there is smirking at you." I look up to see Daniel looking at me, as if he wanted to get back together.
I was confused about what he meant, but once it hit me, my soul became bitter. "Are you saying I'm a slut?" I say through gritted teeth.
"Do you call what your wearing shorts?" he asks.
I may have lost my mind at this point, I really don't remember. "Of course."
"What?" he asked as the bell rang.
"It must be all guys I meet are dicks," I yell at him as I grab my bag and walk out of the class.
"Hey whats up?" Lauren walks up to me as people rush passed us.
"I don't want to talk," I clench my teeth instead of murdering all the people around me.
"Um, okay," I could feel her rolling her eyes just by the silence between us. I felt bad as I realized I sounded like a bitch.
"It's just everything really, look I'm sorry," I say frustrated.
"It's fine, I'll find you at lunch," she gives me a faint smile, and walks off towards her next class. I suddenly feel terrible at what I had done. I'm a terrible friend.
*****
I hear the ring of the bell as I stand up from my last class and walk out of the door. I was very self-conscious now of what I was wearing. Was this slutty? It's Southern California though, I mean come on.
I was too busy trying to make my shorts look longer that I didn't realize someone had grabbed my arm. hard. I was about to slap them in the face but I looked over at who it was and my anger turned into fear. I was now being led to an empty hallway by Daniel. We get there and he throws me onto the wall. I look down at my arm that now has a dark red mark.
"What do you want?" I try to say courageously.
"No talking," he growls. "Or I'll bring this out." He points to his pocket and I can see the shape of a knife. I close my mouth tight, and tears start to come out of my eyes. I was ready for the worst.
"We could've been something!" He yelled at me. I realized he was sobbing.
Daniel punches me right in the cheek, and suddenly I feel the hot sting of blood now dripping off my face. I am on the floor now screaming. Daniel takes out the knife and holds it over my head.
"Say. Nothing," he whispers loudly. "Or my hand might just slip." I'm in tears now, trying not to make a sound, afraid this will cost me my life. He shoves the knife back into his pocket and lifts me up by my hair. I have to bite my lip not to scream. He pulls back his arm for another hit, and I'm ready for it, closing my eyes. But something interferes.
I open my eyes to see Daniel sprawled on the floor and another boy panting with his arm extended out. It was Brandon. I pick up my bag, and he looks at my face. He grabs my hand and starts to run.
*****
"Who was he?" Brandon asks as we now sit in an ally.
"I'm not suppose to say," I whisper faintly.
"Why-"
"You don't understand," I say a little too loud. "He'll kill me, and he'll kill you too just to stay out of jail.
"Well I'm not gonna tell anyone, I don't even know anyone here."
"I could see why," I murmur. I'm still ticked off about what he said in class.
"Okay I may have come off as a-"
"Jerk, dick, idiot, ass?" I reply.
"Yeah, but I'm not how you think I am. This morning I just had a fight with my dad okay?" He replies. I don't answer partly because I don't know what to say. He looks up at my face and into my eyes. He had pure blue eyes that were to die for. He stretched out his hand and touched the mark on my cheek. I wince and pull back, a little alarmed.
"You need to tell someone," he says urgently.
"Fine, I'll just tell you," I say leaning my head back onto the wall.
"Yeah tell me, but you need to tell a parent too."
"I'm not telling my parents. You can tell yours or whatever," I mumble.
He looks down. "I can't, just tell me."
I breath out and share what had happened. "I broke up with him yesterday, he's always been abusive anyway, I just have never told anyone, because I'm afraid they will get hurt too. Well I have told my best friend. But that's it."
We sit in silence for a minute. "Well it's good you broke up with him," he says.
I give him a faint smile. It was weird I was telling these things to a complete stranger. Part of me wanted to tell him more, but the better of me told me to play it safe. I did not plan my first day to be like this at all. The silence was broken by my phone ringing.
"Hello?" I say a little startled.
"Hey it's me, aren't we going to get yogurt today?" Lauren says a little annoyed.
"Oh yeah, I'm really sorry, just meet me there I'm coming," I hang up and look to Brandon. "Thank you for caring, really," I put my hand on his shoulder and he winces. I look at him confused.
"It's nothing," he replies moving away. "And yeah," he stands up and so do I, "I still owe you from this morning, are you free tomorrow? Maybe we could get some smoothies or something," he smiles at me.
"Okay, I would like to get to know you anyway," I smile back and head to my car.
*****
"ANNIE!" Lauren yells. A couple looks over at us obviously annoyed.
"It's nothing Lauren relax, it could have gotten worse if Brandon never showed up," I say sitting down. She eyes my face.
"Wait Brandon- the new kid?" She asks. I nod. Suddenly there's a hint of happiness in her face. "Oh my gosh he's so cute! Does he know?"
"Yeah he does now."
"Wow, I can't believe you told him, you took forever to tell me!" She replies.
"Yeah, there was some sort of connection between us, it felt like I new him for ages," I reply. I couldn't believe this, I was already falling head over heals for someone I barely knew. I was wondering what was going to come of all this tomorrow.