“What are you doing here?”
“What else? I need to study.”
“Stop trying to push people’s limits Zaria.”
“I’m not pushing anything Alex.”
The boy and girl continued to bicker in the eversilent library. The boy, Alex, sighed in defeat when the girl, Zaria, sat down in the section dedicated for the seniors in study hall. People stared at them while passing by. Giggles and whispers swarmed the two seniors. The girl shrugged the other’s belittling off while the boy seemed to have more difficulty. He backed away from the girl, as if she was a disease. She continued to scorn as he sat back down, this time, a table away from him.
“Still concerned with image?” the girl asks the boy, judgment glinting in her eyes.
“Unlike some people I know,” the boy hisses back. He stared back to his old friend with a wanting that suprised him. She continued to ignore him, smirking when she caught him staring at her. He broke his stare and focused it on his statistics homework.
Within the next five minutes, another pair of students walked past her whispering. They continued to talk when they passed Zaria. Echos of phrases to dirty to even repeat wandered into the ears of Zaria and Alex. Zaria’s face hardened with anger till they passed over to the next section. Zaria looked over to Alex to see him give her a pitiful glance.
“Hey, I’m fine. There have been enough rumors about the incidence to fill an entire book. Plus, it’s ruining my reputation not yours so you can continue to be the 'hardcore' football player.” She continued to explain to the boy. Even though he could see she was hurting inside, he nodded and continued to work on his homework. His mind wandered past ‘Pure Applied Statistics’ to the event Zaria had reffered to as the incident. The world stopped as he remembered. He was the one who let Zaria down. He was the one who caused her to take those steps. All he could remember from that night was the cold air that hit his face like a locomotive as he saw Zaria from a distance, sitting in the principal’s office. Afterwards, the sirens, the condolences, the confessions, it was all a blur.
Since then, Zaria was known as the girl who had beat someone up. She beat some random freshman enough to land her into the hospital. Everyone else thought of it as a threat. A threat that easily could be nuetral with the help of a few rumors and bullies. The boy knew the real reason she threw that punch. She had been hurt too many times.
She wanted to let it all out. She wanted to forget.
He didn’t help by yelling and ignoring her afterwards. Ditching her when she needed him to talk to. “When she needed her best friend, I wasn’t there.” He continued to think about the way he treated her. The way he abused her enough to push her to the edge. Now she was hanging.
A wave of guilt took over Alex. He slammed his textbook, picked up his stuff, and walked out the door. Zaria’s eyes traveled with him out through the door.
Author Notes: I hope to submit the sequel parts and more stories.
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United States • 18 years old