31. DONE
Another day. So far, it started out like yesterday. As I pulled into the parking lot, Patrick was leaning against his car, waiting for me. The remnants of my encounter with Becca were slowly starting to heal, but not enough for me to pull my hair back into a pony tail. Besides, there was a small chunk of my hair that would fall out because it was shorter than it should be. There was no need to make it obvious, to let Patrick know.
“You ready for tonight?” He seemed to be in a better mood than yesterday. He was a little calmer, less edgy. Then again, so was I.
“Yeah. Can’t wait.” I looked at him and teased. “Just got to get through the silly thing called classes.”
“Huh! Classes, why would anyone want to go to those? Like you’d want to get an education or something.” He was in a playful mood.
“Silly me.” I bumped my shoulder into his arm, laughing.
Mr. D always said he didn’t mind us talking if we got our work done. Patrick and I got work done, so he couldn’t tell us to be quiet while we talked, laughed and joked around.
“So, what do you think? Want to do dinner before the concert?” Apparently the crew wanted to make a big thing out of it all.
“Sure. A girl needs to eat, but don’t be surprised if I don’t eat too much. I still get nervous. I’d hate to throw up on stage.” It’s true. No matter how much I loved to sing and perform, I always got nervous just before the performance. My stomach would feel like it was full of hummingbirds.
“Yeah, that would not be a performance that I’d like to see.” His face scrunched up as he made a face.
“The ultimate in performance art and audience participation.” I could just see all the sympathetic vomiters joining in.
“Aww... gross!” He laughed.
“Yeah. So, don’t give me a hard time if I don’t eat much.”
“Okay, okay. I promise. But after?” His voice was hopeful.
“After, I’m usually starving. Not hungry. But famished! So, we should definitely get something afterwards.” I was excited to ‘celebrate’ the first concert.
His voice was light and I could hear his smile through it. “Okay. Where do you want to go? We all decided it’s your choice.”
“I don’t really care. I want what I can’t have before the concert—chocolate. It screws up my voice. After the concert, the place has to have good chocolate anything. Before the concert? It doesn’t matter, you guys choose. Remember, I’m just gonna have something light.”
“Oh, yeah. No performance art.” He laughed.
Mr. D’s voice raised above the classroom noise. “Ladies and gentlemen, you have a couple minutes left in class. Be sure you put all your stuff away!” Wow, class went by fast. We were still putting stuff away when the bell rang. I guess we didn’t hear his earlier announcement about cleaning up. Oops.
We quickly went back to our desks to grab our stuff. I didn’t bother to put my notebook and calculator into my backpack. Since I was already running late, it was easier to grab and go.
“The concert’s at 7, but I need to be back here by 6:30.” We were trying to figure out what time we should do dinner.
“Okay. So, why don’t we do dinner at, like, 5:00. That should at least give you some time to digest whatever you ate and not share it with the audience.”
“Thanks for that image.” I shuddered and laughed. “Yeah, 5:00 sounds…” Someone fell into me from behind. “What the…” My backpack fell off my shoulder, it fell to the ground as I took a step forward to catch my balance. My notebook and calculator skidded across the pavement.
“Oops. Sorry.” The voice was less than sincere. I whipped around to see who it was. This was no accident. It was Nikki. Again. She put her hand to mouth and tried to look innocent. “I didn’t see you there.”
The second I saw it was Nikki, the euphoria of class vaporized. I was mad. Blood rushed to my face and my heart was pounding. It was like it was going to beat right out of my chest. I turned my entire body to face her and saw her smug face. She thought she was going to get away with it again. Everyone around me thought it was just an accident. I knew better.
I took both my hands and shoved her against the building wall as hard as I could. Her head banged against the wall, a look of shock washed over her. “Don’t mess with me.”
My ears felt like they were ringing, but I could hear the muddled shocked sounds of people around me. They sounded so distant, even though they were just a couple feet away.
I could hear Patrick behind me, “Liz!”
The only other voice I could make out was Joey’s, “No. Let her do this.”
It sounded like Patrick was getting closer for a moment, then stopped. Joey said he’d back me up. Stopping Patrick from stopping me was a good way to do so.
Nikki continued to taunt me. “Is that the best you can do? Please.” She rolled her eyes and eased away from the wall, as if she would be able to just walk away from this.
“No.” I tightened my fist and swung at her making direct contact with her jaw. She grabbed her face and was half bent over and half leaning against the wall for support. Adrenaline pumped through me. My hand felt hot where it had hit Nikki’s face. “You watch yourself.” I hissed at her.
I backed away a few steps from her before turning. I saw the group of students who had circled us in mere seconds. My face was resolute. I had no remorse for what I had done. I had to do it. The faces of those around me showed either shock or pleasure. Mostly pleasure that Nikki got what was coming to her and for the amusement that was provided to their morning. It had all happened so fast that it was done and I was away from Nikki before a teacher was even there.
As I started walking away, I saw Joey grinning from ear to ear. He was easy to read. “Nice to see someone else on the receiving end of your punches.” He was amused.
What I wasn’t as sure about was Patrick’s reaction. His face was emotionless, blank. He looked at me with wide eyes, searching for something. He handed me my stuff. I didn’t know what he was looking for. Regret? Guilt? Joy? That’s not how I would describe how I felt and what, I thought, would be on my face. No, I was proud of myself. I was proud that able to stand up for myself at the moment in time that I had to.
Like yesterday, he walked with me partially to my next class. He seemed thoughtful and a little confused. Before we had to part ways, he finally spoke, “Are you okay?”
Adrenaline still coursed through me. Now, the only thing I was afraid of at the moment was not knowing what was going through Patrick’s head. I really wish I could read minds. It would probably save me a lot of grief. “Yeah. Are you?”
“Yeah. Yeah. I’m fine.” He shook his head, like it would clear his head. His eyes slowly raised to meet my gaze, “I’m okay. Really. Go. You’ll be late for class.” I looked around and the usual traffic of students had thinned. I was going to be late if I didn’t hurry, and so would he. At least he could run. “I’ll see you later. Okay?” He put his hand on my back and walked off to his next class.
Between wondering what Patrick was thinking and my hand throbbing, it was hard for me to concentrate. It was hard to type too. This was not conducive to computer science class. Mrs. Wyle, my CS teacher, had to have noticed that I had trouble with my hand. It was pretty obvious. Usually, I type at lightning speed, it’s fluid and seamless. Right now, it was far from it. I could only type with my left hand.
“Everything alright, Liz?” I didn’t expect to see her right behind me.
I was startled. “Huh? Yeah. I just hurt my hand.”
“I’m sorry. How did that happen?” Mrs. Wyle was sweet and always seemed to care about her students. I wasn’t surprised by her question.
Throwing it into Nikki’s face. Yeah, I couldn’t tell her the truth. At least, the entire truth. “It ran into something on my way here.” There was truth to that.
My hand felt tight. I kept making a fist and outstretching my hand out in order to loosen my joints. I didn’t want to
go to the nurse. What if Nikki had gone there? I’m sure the nurse would figure out that I was the one who hit her. I’d rather deal with the pain.
“Do you want something cold for your hand? It may help with the swelling.” Before I could answer, she was already walking to her little fridge in the classroom. She returned with a frozen bottle of water and some paper towels. Mrs. Wyle wrapped the paper towels around the frozen water bottle and handed it to me. “Here you go. Try to be more careful next time.”
“Thanks.” I smiled back at her to show my appreciation.
“You’re welcome. Do what you can today.” She walked away to go help another student.
It did make my hand feel better. The cold quenched the heat on my hand. It also made the throbbing in my hand subside a bit. At the end of class, I returned the partially melted bottle back to Mrs. Wyle and thanked her again.
I walked to my next class thankful that I was in choir and not orchestra. I don’t know how I’d manage to play an instrument right now. Among the tide of students walking in my direction to their next class, I noticed one girl, long flowing dark hair, looking at me through tightly squinted eyes. It suddenly dawned on me that it was the other girl who helped Becca, I think her name was Jen.
She walked toward me with a purpose. That’s fine. I had one too. I figured sooner or later she and Becca would hear what I did to Nikki. Well, more like sooner.
I was ready. I locked onto her eyes, not backing down. I stopped where I was, in the middle of the hall and put my backpack down. I waited for her to come to me. I worked on loosening my hand again—clenching and stretching my hand.
Jen seemed to be surprised at my decision to stay and not run. She raised an eyebrow, intrigued and a little wary.
She was about four feet away and still walking toward me. I baited her, “Go ahead and try. It’s not three on one this time.” My voice was steady, strong without a hint of fear.
Her body weight shifted to her back leg. She rolled her eyes and huffed, “Whatever. You’re not worth it.” She turned with an attitude, her hair whipping behind her and left.
Falling (Bits and Pieces, Book 1) Page 72