Fvck The Haters

The first time one of the guys on the football team nodded at me in the hallway I felt kind of honored. So honored that I was deep in everything’s-going-to-be-ok thoughts and smiling when I walked right into Destery’s path.

“Watch it!” He shouted.

“Sorry.” I put my hands up innocently.

“I bet you are.” He glared, his usual bright and calm demeanor suddenly darkening. I noticed a few heads turn to look at us. He seemed to notice too since he tossed his books on the floor loudly.

“I don’t want any trouble Destery, I said I was sorry.” I said loudly. More people began to look at us.

“You made me drop my books.” He pointed to the floor.

“You threw them down.” I scoffed.

“You pushed me and I dropped my books. Pick them up for me.” He said, folding his arms and staring me down.

“You dropped them on purpose.” I began to anger.

“You pushed me!” He yelled, looking around.

“It was an accident.” I shrugged.

“You’re an accident.” He said and laughed.

“What the hell dude? I said I was sorry.” My anger worsened and the faces around the hallway seemed to close in around us. Things began to blur.

“Pick up my books.” Destery shrugged and looked around him, nodding his chin to somebody.

“Des, let it go.” Somebody from the now gathered crowd said.

“FIGHT!” Somebody else yelled.

“You threw your own books down.” I said firmly, “Everyone saw you do it.” But nobody came to my defense.

I felt a hand brush against the small of my back and jumped away, startled. I stumbled a step too close to Destery and he pushed my shoulder hard. I fell on the ground and felt the corner of one of his textbooks stab into my knee.

“OW!” I shouted and rose to my feet. I inhaled angrily and threw a jab to his gut, turning my shoulder and hip in the process.

He stumbled back from the punch and gave me time to look around. Everyone had seen me hit him. People had started to chant, “fight!” repeatedly. Destery yelled a string of obscenities and rose to his feet again.
I’d hoped for a moment that we would shake hands and walk away like on the football field, but nobody was doing anything to break this fight up. If anything the circle of spectators had closed in around us to block the view of any nearby teachers.

Destery picked up a textbook and slammed it vertically into my ribcage like a karate practice board. The combination of shock and anger sent me into a fit of rage leading me to grab hold of his shirt and throw a punch at him. We ended up holding onto each other’s shoulders with one hand and throwing punches with the other while everyone around us chanted, “FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!”

Destery took a step back and put his hand up for me to stop. “My contact.” He said.

I looked on the floor and saw a colored contact laying on the floor between us. As he leaned down to reach for his contact lense I stomped on it and folded my arms. “Fxck your contact.” I said, pumping my fist into his stomach.

Hearing him gasp for air brought me back to the present moment. “JEREMY!” I felt a slap sting hard across my cheek and looked over in shock to see Lauren standing angrily before me. “That was mean.”

Destery lay on the ground, holding his stomach.

I felt horrible, but the words that came out of my mouth were, “He started it! You saw him!”

“First you start fighting.” She said then paused, her hands on her hips, “Then you play football.” She glances down at Destery. “Now you’re beating people?!”

“He started it last week! You were there!” I tried to defend myself, aware that it looked pretty bad.

“You’re not who I thought you were.” She grabbed my fist and pried my hand open, setting the silver chain necklace I’d given her in my hand.

“Lauren, wait.” I said desperately.

“No!” She shouted, everyone watching. A couple of the guys from the team smirked and Diego shook his head in disbelief.

“He didn’t start it Lauren.” Diego offered.

“The fight started on the field yesterday.” Johnnie tried.

“I’m so done with you.” Lauren looked into my eyes. “This isn’t who you are.” She said and walked away, pushing through the crowd.

“Nice one Jeremy.” Hannah rolled her eyes and followed Lauren.

A couple of the guys laughed. “Way to go Jinxx.”

I put my silver chain back around my neck and continued staring at the ground.

“That was harsh.” Johnnie smiled warmly.

“What should I do?” I asked quietly.

“She’ll get over it.” Ashley said. “Give her time.”

But I didn’t want time away from her. For a moment I started imaging dancing with her at prom but when the memory of moments ago hit me I felt like I might lose it again. I couldn’t cry here.

Then the intercom paged Destery and I to the office.

Notes