by Dave Ferraro
By the time we made it back to the house we were both panting and covered in sweat. We’d taken the long way home, going through the woods instead of following the road that led directly to our house. I shut the door once we made it inside and slumped back against it.
Nelly stood directly in front of me, with a look on her face that I had never seen before. She looked both proud and… scared. Was she scared of me or of the trouble I was going to be in when we returned to school tomorrow? I didn’t know. Probably both.
Still breathing heavily, I looked down at my hands to see that they were trembling. Now that we had stopped running, the reality of what I had just done hit me. What was wrong with me? How badly had I hurt Riley? More importantly, how badly would I have hurt him if Nelly hadn’t pulled me away? I would like to say I would have been able to walk away on my own, but some small part of me knew that was a lie. Another part of me was disgusted by this. And, yet, another small part of me was left feeling disturbingly unsatisfied.
Glancing back up at Nelly, I got the feeling that she was aware of this. I’m not sure what my face looked like, though I did my best to keep it reasonably void of any expression at all. But, Nelly knew me. Sometimes, I felt like Nelly knew me better than I knew myself.
She came forward and took me into her arms. I let her hold me, and actually took comfort in the embrace. My mind seemed to relax a little.
“Girls? I’ll have dinner ready in a few minutes if you want to go wash up and-“
Upon seeing us, my Mother stopped abruptly. Her eyes narrowed slightly and my back went rigid in response. I tried to prepare myself for what was to come. No point in lying to her. She would find out from the school soon enough.
“What happened?” she asked. The threat was clear in her voice.
“I got into a fight.” I didn’t know what else to say. Besides, I kind of felt like I deserved whatever punishment she gave me.
My Mother remained deathly still, waiting for me to elaborate. I was so shocked that I couldn’t even think past that initial thought. I honestly thought I wouldn’t have to. I had been expecting her to drag me outside right then and there.
It was Nelly who came to my rescue.
“There was this guy at school who was messing with me,” she began. “He grabbed me and Alexa yanked him off of me. She tried to tell him to leave me alone, and then he attacked her… so she… stopped him.”
Okay, that may have been a little bit skewed, but it sounded better than: Alexa may have just seriously injured someone with an extremely badass punch to the face. Nonetheless, I was glad she spoke up.
My Mother’s gaze snapped to me. I met her eyes and nodded. And then, to my utter astonishment, she gave a small nod and… walked away.