Write on me

Chapter 7| You broke your promise!

“I saw you and the new boy talking last week.” Lilly whispered beside me, she was one of the girls in my English class that I had been paired with for a project.

Despite my greatest attempts for no social interaction I couldn’t protest against the concept of group work that they believed would benefit us.

We were supposed to be preparing a plan but instead she had been texting her boyfriend underneath the table while I read through the worksheet and now decided to speak.

“So?” I vaguely questioned even though I was surprised as I hadn’t thought that anyone paid attention to me, so they wouldn’t have picked up on it.

“Aren’t you afraid? My mom says I should stay away from him, she saw him with the gang in town.” She spoke softly so we didn’t get into trouble but her facial expressions emphasized the ‘fear’ she had.

I knew I probably wasn’t the only one that had seen him but I believed that maybe everyone’s interest in him had died down, but it didn’t seem that way.

He didn’t just draw the attention of the students but everyone else in town as well and I couldn’t imagine having people whisper about you everywhere you went. I had dealt with that in school before Melissa stood up for me and it was annoying enough but having older people speak in hushed tones and stare at you just because you wore a leather jacket and had tattoos…

“Just because he is seen with a gang doesn’t make him dangerous, you saw me speaking to him and I certainly am not” I reasoned, not showing much conviction behind it because that would raise suspicion.

She seemed to consider what I said before she shrugged, “I guess. But I am sure its better to be safe and steer clear of mysterious, shady people; especially when we don’t know where he lived before this. Or maybe he was a part of the gang all this time and they sent him to our school to do some undercover work.”

I rolled my eyes as all it took was one person having that thought to let it be travelling around the school by lunch break. “He is just a student like the rest of us”

“No, despite your weirdness you are just a student like the rest of us. He is a random out of towner that just blew up on us and makes it very known that he thinks he is above us”

“How does he do that?” I sighed and rest my head in my hand as I focused on her while she tied up her blonde hair.

“He thinks his face is too precious to be revealed so he wears that hood all day like he is a vampire or something. I even tried greeting him once and he just ignored me” The disgust on her face because he had the audacity to ignore her was almost comical.

Did they even dislike him because he was different or because he refused to acknowledge them at all?

“Girls, I hope you are discussing your assignment!” I heard our English teacher upfront and honestly wished she wasn’t lying when she immediately stated that we were.

It's why I liked working alone because most of the paired projects consisted of procrastinating together and me waiting on my partner’s work until I would decided to just do it myself.

I was grateful for the sound of the bell signaling break and didn’t waste any time in getting to the cafeteria.

I was used to the familiar surroundings while waiting in line, but something was different today.

He was here.

I never really wondered where he spent his breaks apart from the few times he had bombarded me in the library.

He was seated alone at a table and in the process of taking a sip of water when one of the jocks tugged on his hoodie. His hood fell off which revealed his hair in all its untamed glory and the rest of the team laughed and cheered as if they had just won some game.

They were all just idiots and I expected Dane to get up and do something, but he simply pulled his hood up again and focused on his food.

He didn’t seem like the type to just sit back if someone messed with him and with his bruises and scars I was certain he wasn’t a stranger to fights.

I shook my head as I guess he was right I wasn’t above anyone here, I judged people in my own way too whether I intended to or not.

It was easier to do it with people I knew my whole life because they were judging me for as long as I could remember. But realizing I had done it to him when he had been nothing but nice to me, in his own way, made me feel bad.

I decided not to run away to my sanctuary this time because it would still be there when I needed it tomorrow.

I slowly made my way through the tables towards his in the corner of the hall. He didn’t really notice me at first because he was focused on his food with his head down, so I chose to eat a bit.

He had probably heard me chewing unfortunately because he soon lift his head up and peeked at me, surprised that I was there.

“What are you doing here?” He snapped, and I frowned due to the anger in his voice when there was a usual playful tone for the most part when we spoke, but I wrote it off as him still being upset with the jocks.

“I came to join you” I shrugged as that should have been as obvious as him ambushing me in my sanctuary.

“Just leave now.”

I frowned as he was serious and the little I could see of his face held no expression.

“Why?” I wasn’t sure why I was pushing him when I would have gladly taken the hint, had it been someone else.

“Because I said so.” I searched his face for a hint of humor but there was none, so I took my tray and got up.

“Okay” I mumbled and walked away.

●●●

I wasn’t a fan of watching television which I was sure wasn’t a surprise to most because of how much I loved reading books.

I felt like I was cheating when watching tv because I wasn’t taking the time to read and catch all the details or visualize things. It's why I never watched when the books I read were turned into movies or series with the exception of Harry Potter. The characters in the books were never what I had imagined and there were always details that I deemed important left out.

“Well if it isn’t the sister that just makes reckless decisions!” I heard Melissa as soon as she entered the living room where I was watching one of my comedy shows.

“What are you talking about?” I asked with a bored tone as I didn’t really feel like focusing on her when there were just a few minutes left of my show.

My sister was always dramatic, so I was sure whatever vile thing I had done probably wasn’t that bad.

“I asked you to do one thing for me and you couldn’t even stick to it, you broke your promise!” I heard the anger in her voice which threw me off as I was sure we had moved on from our previous argument.

I finally looked at her as she stood in front of me to block my view of the screen and found her glaring at me.

I tried to think of which promise I had broken as I rest my head back on the couch and quickly realized what she was talking about, “You saw me sitting at the table with him”

Even though I acknowledged it, she seemed angrier that I did than when I was ignoring her, “You choose the one time you don’t disappear to avoid crowds to sit with him. Why on earth would you sit with him? That’s putting a target on your back!”

I shrugged as I could see she was upset but she didn’t have to be shouting at me the moment she walked through the door. “There already was a target on my back long before he ever came to this town, Mel. I basically just sat down for a minute and got up almost immediately. It wasn’t the big deal you are making it out to be.”

“Maybe to you because you have this ability to block out the world but to the rest of the school it was. You basically committed social suicide before you ever gave me the chance to allow it to begin for you!” She had just come from cheerleading practice, so I was sure they had a lot to say about it and that’s more the reason why she was upset.

“Funny. I thought being seen with the one guy everyone is obsessed with would finally bring the spotlight I have been dying for” I couldn’t contain the sarcasm from my voice.

“Do you hear yourself? No wonder you are being so snappy, he is corrupting you!”

“Spend a few minutes with him and I am tainted now? You would think that the one screaming her lungs out was a little possessed.” I stood up and made my way to the kitchen and she followed behind while I just wanted her to leave me alone.

“If only that were it because once you did, people started talking and guess who they saw on the back of a motorcycle the same weekend you were out for ‘celebratory milkshakes’ ” She folded her arms as she seemed pretty proud of herself for finally figuring out what I did that weekend.

As I said before, we were a small town, so I should have known someone had seen something and it had finally landed up on our doorstep. Except in the moment I didn’t feel bad for breaking the promise or having her down my throat, I was still upset because Dane had just shunned me. So, it didn’t matter if she threw dishes on the floor to emphasize how upset she was, her antics just wouldn’t work on me today.

Maybe tomorrow I would feel the disappointment and regret but not today.

“So what if I took a ride with him after my sister ditched me?”

“Oh, now it’s my fault that you could be hurt.” She narrowed her eyes which caused me to scrunch up my face as it seemed to be escalating in too many directions for me to follow.

“By who?”

She scoffed, “Don’t play dumb. You know that he is part of that gang and when things get rough the ones associated with them always end up as collateral damage.”

“You are overreacting as usual, Mel. You always hear crazy stories and you run with them because the rest of the town is, when we both know that gang hasn’t cause any trouble in our lifetime.” I shook my head noticing my mom moving to the lounge, clearly wanting to stay out of the fight while I wished I wasn’t on the other end of it.

She sighed as she sat down on one of the stools set by the kitchen counter, “I try so hard to protect you and you could just care less, Meredith. While I can stop the kids at school from bullying you, I can’t protect you from the judgement of the rest of the town and possible rivals passing through”

“Oh, my word. It was one time!” I finally screamed as she sounded more like my mother than our actual mom who was trying not to be caught in our argument.

“What the hell is going on down here?” I heard my dad as he made his way down the staircase and I realized with our screaming we had woken him up. He usually took a nap before his evening shift at the restaurant and I was surprised my mom hadn’t reminded us of that.

“Sorry for waking you, Dad. Melissa is being crazy again” I gestured towards her before I opened the fridge and poured myself some apple juice.

“I am being crazy? You’re the one sneaking off with the new boy that belongs to the local gang. There’s a reason people run in the opposite direction when they enter town.”

I took a sip of my juice before I turned around as my dad glanced between us, “He is not some bad guy, maybe if you and your entitled friends stopped talking s**t about him you would realize that”

“Do you hear how she is speaking to me because of this guy, Mom?” She called back to the lounge for back up.

“Meredith…” My mom began but I quickly spoke, knowing she was going to pick her side when she didn’t even know what was going on.

“He is actually a nice person” I defended even though nice wasn’t exactly how one would describe him, especially after he shunned me today, but he had his moments.

“What? From the few hours you spent with him you realized that? Have you ever heard of a wolf in sheep’s clothing?”

“I happen to be a much better judge of character than you” I shook my head and moved towards the staircase.

“Yet you are running away from me because you know I am right and you were wrong!”

I turned to stare at her, “You aren’t right. You are just mad because for once I didn’t do what you told me to do!”

“When do you ever listen to what I tell you to do? I asked that I do your make-up and clothes. I asked that you sit with me and my friends, so you didn’t have to deal with all the gossiping and judgement! But have you done any of that? Absolutely not.”

“Maybe because I refuse to pretend to be someone I am not, and I thought that maybe my sister would get that but obviously not!”

“It's not pretending, it's actually putting a little effort in so you can fit in and not just accept the abuse from the world. You won’t have me to protect you forever, Meredith!” I heard her as I slammed my bedroom door closed, flopped onto my bed and covered my head with the pillow.

It was all just too much for one day.

I heard a knock on my door even though I hadn’t locked it after I had slammed it and I was about to scream for Melissa to leave me alone when I heard my dad’s voice on the other side.

He entered and closed the door behind him, so I chose to sit up instead of laying down with my pillow over my head like I had done before.

“Are you okay, Princess?” The name was like salt in my wounds, but I quickly shook those thoughts away as my dad sat down beside me.

“Yeah. We always fight, just happens to be more these days” I shrugged even though I was positive that I wasn’t okay.

“I know it affects you more though. You like to pretend like you are disconnected from this world, but I know that you hate these arguments with your sister” He spoke sincerely, and I smiled as he knew me well.

I was always a daddy’s girl while my sister took more to my mom because they got to bond over shopping and all the beauty things I ran away from.

“I do hate it. I just know she holds in things and then I will do a silly thing and she will say all these things when I thought she didn’t mind being there for me because we are twins” I rambled as every time I tried to just forget the words she said when we fought, she tended to repeat some things each time.

“Just because she says things when she is upset doesn’t mean that she means them. Both of you care so much but you are still siblings and alike in many ways. In the end with this particular situation from what I gathered she is just concerned about you”

I nodded as I knew she was, but she didn’t have to be, “Are you concerned too?”

“I don’t think I have any need to be. I know that you have good intentions because I am sure they are treating him like an outcast, but I just don’t want you to get involved in things you can’t control”

“Dad, I am not involved with him. I just wanted to show him some kindness that’s all, but it was met with hostility anyway so don’t worry”

He frowned but didn’t question what I meant, “I don’t mind you offering him friendship because we all need a friend. Especially someone that is met with judgement for being different and I am sure you can relate to that. You don’t mind being on your own but the fact that he reached out perhaps means he needs a friend”

“You make him sound so soft” I giggled.

“The harshest men usually are” He chuckled, “But I don’t have a problem with it, just make sure you don’t go anywhere alone with him”

“I won’t get myself kidn*pped, Dad” I playfully rolled my eyes while he reached over and hugged me.

He stood up to leave me alone but not before adding one more fatherly thought, “It's not that. He wears that jacket and puts a target on his back and if you’re alone with him they will just assume you are with him”

“I understand.”