Me

"me !?" that didn't not make any sense. How could these people even come to that conclusion that I of all the other social excludes had a significant other. I couldn't move much with my shirt bunched in that guy's fist and my back pinned to the bathroom tiles. Those jerks definitely misunderstood something. There wasn't any universe in which I'd even tolerate her as a friend. It's an insult to me if they assumed that I was seeing her, romantically at that. For the first time the damage that brat caused me was more than social or psychological. Just because of her tailing behind me I almost had my nose broken by a bunch of envious high school dirts. I declined their allegations, even going as far as to admit that I hate her in order to save myself from their torment. To my surprise that worked and they didn't bother me ever again. I thought the reason was they acknowledged me as unfortunate as them in the love department.

That day I realised, because I was so focused on hating her and trying to get rid of her. I'd been robbed off the hormonal brain fog everyone else seemed to have around that time. I saw one of those dirts approaching her outside of the school that day. So this is why I almost lost my nose? I honestly pitied him, if only he knew what a bad omen she is. It was the perfect opportunity for me to walk away from the situation. One peaceful walk home without that brat's cheery voice damaging my ears. If I walked away then I could have attained that. If I walked away that is. My feet remained nailed to the ground. Till then the most annoying sight in the world to me was her cheeky grin but for some reason seeing that brat helpless didn't sit right with me. Stop looking at me like that if you didn't follow me you wouldn't be in this situation. She was always so confident and upfront about confrontations with me. That day I saw her speechless for the first time. As the dirt pushed her to tell him about her more she only grew more silent. I wasn't the only recluse I suppose. In her pursuit of constantly crowding my personal space, she too had been void of any other social interaction. Even though I was there I made no attempts to approach her. With a look of betrayal she glanced at me once before turning to leave in the other direction. How dare you look at me like I wronged you. I didn't promise you anything that you expected of me.

When 5 pm rolled around and she didn't come to my house my mother grew worried. That was unusual for her to do. Ever since playschool she always followed me home no matter what. My mind unlike I predicted, wasn't at all appeased. Call it the fear of bad karma my mom had ingrained in me since a very young age or the guilt of being a coward. To find that brat I immediately rushed to the one place I knew I would find her at. With each step I took I decided each and every way I was going to scold her for giving my mum a scare. I could feel a nerve bulge on my forehead at the sight of her hunched over a swing as she sat in the playground alone. "How old are you to be going off like this? I know that you're a stray but my mom doesn't at least don't cause her pain". She didn't say anything snarky or smart in response. Her head hung low as she swayed back and forth on the swing. Just as I was about to empty another round of daggering words towards her she tilted her head up, eyes puffy and red from crying, bottom lip puckered out in a frown.