Chapter 9
1002words
"I'm not. That part of me makes me who I am today. That no matter what life throws at me, I have to over it."
"I've never heard anyone speak like that, especially a young woman as yourself. Most girls at this school, especially the popular ones, only complain about silly stuff and things that doesn't even matter.
You're amazing, Blossom. Don't let anyone tell you different."
"Thank you Jevan."
He just complimented me and told me I was amazing.
I squealed mentally but contained myself. The last thing I wanted to do was to make myself a fool in front of the most handsome and nicest guy in the school.
The bell rang, ending lunch. We groaned but stood up and filed out of the room.
"Wait! Aren't we supposed to clean up?" Nina asked.
"Nah. There's someone who takes care of that for us," Connor told her.
We walked through the halls, side by side, all eyes falling on us. Students started whispering with questions and I felt like I wasn't invisible anymore.
"See you later?" Jevan asked me.
"Sure."
"Okay then." I watched his wonderful figure walked away.
I went into the ladies washroom to do my business before class. At the sink, I washed my hands and felt an unfriendly presence behind me.
Brooke.
"Are you messing around with my boyfriend?" she asked, eyes blazing and piercing through to my soul with her friends at her side as usual.
"You're about to learn your first lesson, Africa's baboon! Beat her ass!" she commanded to her minions and they both latched onto me like bull sharks.
Blossom's POV
"WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR FOREHEAD?" my mother's concerned voice rang out when I entered the house and met her in the small living room.
"I tripped and fell on a stair case in the school," I lied. I had never lied to my mother before but I couldn't tell her that I was beaten up by my head cheerleader for being too friendly with her boyfriend. After all, my mother did warned me to stay away from boys.
"Are you going to be okay?" She asked again.
"Yes. I already saw the school nurse and she said it was just a slight cut. It wouldn't scar or anything."
"Okay. Well, I'm off to work now. Lock the doors as usual and don't answer it to anyone. I felt food in the oven."
I watched as she walked down the pathway, crossed and street and fetched a bus to her night-shift job. I felt vulnerable all over again as the images flashed back to what Brooke had her friends do to me.
My tiny frame was pushed in every direction, with punches landing on me like rain, and I felt the warmth of blood when my forehead collided with one of the sinks but that didn't stop the attack against me.
Amy and Tina literally dragged my beaten body to Brooke, who stood over me and looked down like if she was God. She then dropped to my level, bending her knees and using her hands to brush strands of hair stuck to my face by the blood.
"Let this be lesson number one. Jevan is mine. Stay away!" She rose and walked out of the washroom with her friends following after her.
I slowly picked myself put and staggered to the school nurse's station. When her eyes fell on the condition I was in, she rushed towards me and help me sit down. She cleaned the cut on my forehead and applied a band-aid. I spent to rest of the afternoon in her care and when the school bell rang, ending the day, I was the first to get to the school bus.
________
After I had completed my homework and freshened up, I put on the television and help myself to the food my mother prepared for me. Before I could take a seat, a knock came to the front door. I leaped and glance up at the wall clock. It was now minutes to six.
I took slow steps to the door. "Who is it?"
"It's me."
My heart leaped again. "Go away, Jevan."
"Blossom, I want to see your face. Please, can you open the door?"
I was now emotionally fighting with myself. My heart wanted to let him in but fear wanted me to double lock the doors and run upstairs and pretended as if he never came to the door.
"Blossom. I have something for you."
"Is it Jason?" I asked, remembering our 'stuff child' together.
"No."
"Then please go away, Jevan."
"Why? Why are you pushing me away? What are you afraid of?" he asked from behind the door.
I wanted to tell him how vicious Brooke was for him but I didn't. My hands fell on the surface of the door as if it was his body. Tears streamed my eyes. My heart hurt for him more than the punches and cut on my body and forehead.
"Bloss, I'll just leave this right here then." I placed my ear against the door and heard his receding footsteps and then the engine to his car before he drove away. I slowly opened the door and the tears poured down when I saw what he had bought for me.
________
The next morning at school, I tried to be invisible but it turned out that you can't be invisible when the most popular boy in the school is giving you attention. Every locker I walked by with student gathered around, they were pointing and whispering his name or saying something about Brooke.
Nina and Sophia met me.
"Oh, our poor baby. Are you okay? We're so sorry this happened to you," Sophia said and frowned at my forehead.
"Can we please return to being ordinary? All I wish to do is to graduate and go to college in one piece," I responded.
