I Don't Belong Here

"Hey, can you pick me up?"

"Isn't Brian with you?"

"Long story; I'm not talking to him right now, I'm at the Starbucks in Bella Terra," I responded.

"Oh. Um, okay. I'll be there in 10 minutes."

"Thanks, Zack."

I was a coward, I'll admit it.

To lower the chance of Brian finding me, I walked over to the other side of the building.

...And I put up my hood a little bit. But, when I heard footsteps getting louder, my eyes widened and my heart started thudding more clearly and faster.

"Addie?"

I stayed still, squeezing my eyes shut in hopes of him not recognizing me.

The steps continued walking, and I sighed in relief.

'Til I opened my fucking eyes. He was standing in front of me.

"Look, I know I was a jerk, but seriously, can't we - "

I groaned loudly in annoyance and walked briskly away from him, standing in front of the Starbucks.

"I don't wanna talk to you, Brian," I said loudly, hoping it would catch the attention of others.

It did, and when took a step closer to me, I swear I saw an old lady narrow her eyes at him, and I wanted to laugh so badly.

"Babe - Addie," he corrected himself, "I just wanna talk."

"You little punk," I heard a voice behind me, "She doesn't want to talk to you! Leave her alone!"

I turned around, and saw...

An old woman in a deep-brown skirt, a white blouse, and a pink cardigan, using her deep brown bag as a fist, knocking it into his elbow repeatedly.

This was sounreal funny. Don't things like this happen in like, movies that include date-rapes or something?

I wanted to laugh, but I tried to conceal it, therefore, a smirk was flashed at Brian's horror-filled face.

"What the - get - off - of - me - lady - I - oof!"

The last hit got him in the face.

I let out a, "Hah!"

And the lady turned around, telling me, "Don't be afraid to call for help, honey, if he ever bothers you again, okay?"

I nodded, keeping in my laughter, turning red from doing so.

She promptly turned around and left. I watched her back until she turned a corner.

Ready to see Brian's face, I turned around, and saw a harassed, red-faced, heavily breathing Brian.

I bent over, my stomach hurting from the laughing, and once I stood up, I saw Brian standing there, no longer red-faced, arms crossed with a scowl on his face.

I immediately stopped, because I remember something about that scowl. In high school, I'd used to joke around with him, saying, "You look hot when you're angry," because that's what he would tell me.

Weird thing is, I could say the same thing now, and without a shadow of a doubt.

I took a deep breath and cleared my throat; "Zacky's coming here now, so you might just wanna leave."

"Addie, I'm fucking serious. I really wanna talk. I'm over the whole phase in high school, really."

"Brian, 'I'm fucking serious,' I really don't care," I retorted, shoving his quote back in his face, "I bet if I were fat and didn't wear makeup, and - and didn't have nice clothes, you wouldn't even look twice at me. If I looked like that and told you who I really was, you'd be disgusted and you know it."

Beep, beep!

I turned to my left and saw Zacky waving at me, white sunglasses perched on his nose.

"There's my ride. I gotta go."

"Addie, wait!"

Doesn't he fuckin' get it?

"What?" I gritted through my teeth, turning around to look at him.

"How about dinner with me sometime, just so we can talk? We don't even have to become friends or anything."

"You've gotta be joking."

"Oh, my God! It's Synyster Gates!"

I saw a crowd of a couple teenagers who, shall we say, didn't care much about their physical appearance. They reminded me of my former high school self, and I narrowed my eyes at Brian to see what his reaction would be.

This one girl walked up to him, shaking, from what I could see, in a pair of too-tight, light blue flared jeans, and a magenta tank top that was a little too short, for it revealed a rather nasty muffin-top.

He saw the skin between the bottom of her tank and jeans, and wrinkled his nose.

Still the same jerk from before, I noticed.