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Andy

Ordinary.

"Do they whisper about you on the train like me? Telling you you shouldn't waste your pretty face like me."
- Gasoline by Halsey



My first class was uneventful at first. Like the last time I attended school with Andy, he tested my self restraint by doing an assortment of ridiculous things around the classroom.

At first, he got interested in the hair piece Mr. Fisher wears, so he took it upon himself to remove it for further examination, and as a result, a few moments later Mr. Fisher must’ve felt a draft, because he reached up, patting around his bald head before his face went completely pale, then flushed in embarrassment as he patted around his desk for the missing piece of hair.

Andy laughed to himself as he walked towards the desk of the bully who had tormented me in the hall. Reece was looking down, pretending to be looking at his book, but he had his phone out under the table. Every couple minutes he’d smirk at something his friend had sent him, and quickly text back.

Andy grinned manically as he advanced towards Reece, his arm extended at his side, holding the hairpiece pinched between his thumb and index finger. He chuckled darkly once more before dropping it onto Reece’s desk, causing him to jump in surprise, and as a result, catch immediate attention from Mr. Fisher, who was still searching high and low for his missing wig.

“Mr. Holland!” He scolded, sounding angry and embarrassed as the rest of the class looked up at him in confusion, trying to figure out what was amiss.

I press the back of my wrist firmly against my lips to keep from laughing, and look down at my work.

Andy is having a great time, parading around the classroom, picking up people’s phones as he went, quickly glancing over their texts before smirking and typing a quick response. Andy is the little devil of school.

Mr. Fisher pushed himself up from his desk, wheeling towards Reece with a speed I didn’t know he possessed. He swiped the hairpiece off the desk, putting it back on his head crookedly. “Principle’s office. Now.”

“I didn’t do anything!” Reece defended in confusion. The class was laughing at him, and his face turned beet red as a result. Surely someone of his stature was not used to being treated like all the other lesser-known kids. I straighten in my seat, bearing a smug smile as Reece got his ass reamed in the hallway by Mr. Fisher. It was impossible not to see Mr. Fisher flailing his limbs about in front of the door window, demanding to know why his clump of fake hair was on Reece’s desk.

“Ah,” Andy sighs contently, yanking back Reece’s abandoned seat, sitting down and propping his ankles up on the desk, knitting his fingers across his stomach comfortably. “So much better without that asshole around. These people are only getting started... See, most of them here are the snotty younger siblings of the ones I went to school with, and nothing’s changed. They’re still the same greedy, obligated fuckers they were back when I was in school.”

He sits at Reece’s desk until Mr. Fisher comes back, red in the face, clearing his throat, delicately dabbing his forehead with a hankerchief. His hairpiece still resides atop his head in a crooked fashion that looks like a lazy mullet.

“Okay, let’s start from chapter 34...” He sighs, slowly gaining control of the rampant class room again.

Andy gets up, and strolls around the classroom, searching for his next victim. He leans intensely over one of the nerdy boys in the back and laughs, and when the boy looks away, he plucks something out of his textbook and carries it to the front of the room in the same fashion he used on the wig.

I glance up in curiosity to see what it was, and as expected, he’s pinching the binder of an intensely erotic anime comic book, laughing so hard he can’t breathe.

I peek around him as he walks towards the front of the class room, and I have to pinch myself to keep from bursting out in hysterical laughter when he stops beside Elizabeth’s desk where she’s hard at work reading. Andy taps her shoulder to make her glance back, and drops the erotic anime comic book in the middle of her school book, the pages opened right up on a nice eye full of sinful illustration.

I’m sure by now my face is red from the internal pressure building up. I have to look away and pretend to find interest in whats going on outside the windows, but when I hear Elizabeth gasp in shock, I stifle a laugh, burying my lips in my hair.

“Elizabeth! I will not have this kind of reading material present in my class.”

I peek behind myself at the boy Andy stole the comic from and I see his face turn white when Mr. Fisher starts waving the cover around. “Go to the principle’s office... I can’t believe you kids today.”

“Bye, bitch!” Andy waves after her cheerfully, kicking the door shut behind her with the toe of his worn boot.

Normally, I might’ve been trying to reel him in, but today, I feel like raining hell fire on their asses, give them a nice taste of what all this feels like. Reece and Elizabeth are excellent first choices.

I seriously am trying to figure out what on earth got into Elizabeth, though... I know she’s mad, we both are, and have every right to be, but, I definitely didn’t break her nose, and she has no business telling everyone it was me. Like, jeez, I didn’t even get the ‘badass tough person’ credibility for doing it, the kind that makes everyone in the immediate vicinity keep their distance and leave you alone. If anything, it simply put a target on my back.

And for her to go as far as to tell her Dad it was me? What has gone wrong in that girl’s head?...

Andy grinned victoriously, looked around the classroom, and when he saw no one else he wanted to pick on, he resumed his spot at Reece’s desk, flipping through the erotic comic book in boredom.

Forty-five minutes later, the class ended. I join Andy in the hallway and we head to lunch.

I find myself hesitating once I have my food, because I normally always sit with Elizabeth and her friends.

Out of curiousity, and searching for another reason to pity myself, I spare a peek at her table to see who has replaced me. To my surprise, no one has, not yet, anyways. The seat remains unoccupied.

I can’t go back to that, though... I proceed with my chin high, passing her table to the vacant one by the trash. I notice her look up at me and hold me in her gaze in my perpheral vision.

My heart pressed itself against my ribcage, seemingly revolving around my old friend like the moon around the sun. A saddened, longing feeling filled my chest once I’d walked by.

“You’re disappointed.” Andy frowned, concentrating firmly on reading my emotions. I’d kind of forgotten he could do that.

I shrug softly, sitting down. He sits down across from me, webbing his fingers together on the tabletop, staring me down intently, searching for a real answer.

“A little,” I admit with another shrug, trying to busy myself with preparing my food. “I mean, she’s been one of my best friends most of my life, it’s hard to end that relationship on a stupid argument... As much as I want things to go back to how they were, they can’t; they won’t. She’s changed too much... She’s all... Wrong, now.”

Andy doesn’t push the topic, he lets it gracefully fall back into silence.

Lunch was surprisingly quiet for us. Between the two of us only sharing brief sentences, and glancing around the lunch room, nothing major was said, and no one made an effort to approach me, seemingly sitting alone, further feeding into the ‘lonely emo girl’ appearance I had accidentaly given myself.

“Do you want me to go to your next class with you?”

It surprises me that he’s putting it up for opinions. “Why? Do you have somewhere to go? It’s okay, if you do.”

“If you want me to go with you, just say so.”

“Do your thing,” I assure him, gathering my stuff, getting up from the table, walking around him to the trash can immediately behind him. “I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course.” I nod, managing to squeeze out a surprisingly confident tone. “I’ll see you after school?”

He nods, smiling. “As you wish.”

“Oh, you’re charming.” I laugh, glancing up just in time to see Elizabeth and Reece standing by the exit a few yards behind Andy. They’re both staring in my direction in confusion.

“I’ve got to go.” I whisper through gritted teeth, swiftly gathering my things and sweeping from the cafeteria towards my next class. Luckily for me, my next two classes do not contain Reece or Elizabeth. So I have some freedom time to get my shit together before I get potentially ambushed in Gym.

~~~


It’s three in the afternoon, and I’ve just completed Art Class. I pull the strap of my sling backpack further up on my shoulder, adjusting it more as a movement of trying to look normal, not out of comfort.

There’s fleeting glances coming my way as I walk as quickly as I can down the hall. I catch the whispers, and smile to myself.

“Is that her?”

“Where’s that hot guy she arrived with?”

“That’s the girl who stood up to Reece this morning.”


I’d managed to become a topic of gossip on day one, and while the results of this mornings’ confrontation was somewhat glamorous, what wasn’t glamorous, was that some students now think that I am insane, and some of them might let the word get out of school and around town - eventually back to my parents - that I have a potential boyfriend, and that, my friend, is a confrontation I am not ready for yet. I do kinda enjoy being alive, you know? If my parents even caught wind of something like that, my behind is toast.

I look down, concentrating on my shoes as I make my way as quickly as possible to the gym at the far south end of the school. No one went out of their way to hassle me, but I can feel the witch hunt brewing.

When I get to the gym, I dart into the girls’ changing room before the coach can spot me and demand to know why my grades are crap. She used to praise my high grades every time we got a moment to chat, and surely word had gotten back to her about my failiure.

I duck my head, guilt burns in my chest, the guilt and pain of not being able to please everyone. Every breath I take, affects someone else down the line.

In the locker room, there’s nudity everywhere. I guess I hadn’t quite mentally prepared myself for the ‘body-pride parade’ I’d see upon entering. Normally, I take the five minutes it takes to walk from art to gym to mentally prepare myself for the disturbing images I’d leave with. I’m not the kind of person who can gladly strip to my skivvies the giggle with the other girls and gossip, pretending to not be hanging all out confidentely.

I move quickly, dodging every attempt of conversation the nude cheerleaders tried throwing at me skillfully, sneakily avoiding them to the best of my ability until I was in front of my locker. I sigh in relief, and quickly change, shoving my backpack into the closet.

“Did you burn yourself?” Someone asks, and I glance up, unsure if they’re actually talking to me.

“Huh?”

“Your elbow look like they’ve been burned.” The girl tells me conversationally, gesturing half heartedly towards my left elbow. I turn and look into the long mirror wall behind me, holding up my elbow. Sure enough, there’s what looks like a burn there, except, it’s the strangest burn I’ve ever seen. There’s four of them, and half of one shaped like a crescent moon. The five small oval shaped burns are wrapped around my forearm, just below my elbow. I study them in confusion.

“Huh, I guess so.” I chuckle, playing it off as no big deal. The girl laughs, and resumes stuffing stuff into her locker a few spots down from mine.

“Weirdest burns I’ve ever seen,” she chuckles, shutting her locker, getting ready to walk away. “They kinda look like fingerprints.”

Notes

Chapter inspired by Gasoline by Halsey.

Comments

I just want to say, I am here to support you no matter what you do <3

Mezzy18 Mezzy18
4/12/20

Oh gosh, I'm getting weird vibes towards this "sketchy" part of town.

Mezzy18 Mezzy18
5/8/19

I am absolutely in love with this book!

Mezzy18 Mezzy18
4/30/19

Poor Ashley. Poor Andy. Poor Asheen. Wow, what a story! :)

Merelan Merelan
4/29/19

I am conspiring so many theories about this book my head hurts... lol... anyway, great chapter as usual! Can't wait to read what happens next

Mezzy18 Mezzy18
4/25/19