In Her Dreams

Maggie-

School the next day was torture. Someone kept pushing me into the walls or into a locker. I actually got hit a few times with paper that was scrunched into a ball. It was starting to piss me off.

By the end of the day my body was aching, but not as badly as I make it sound.

I guess you can say I like to exaggerate?

As I was about to walk out the back doors and get on the buss a hand was on my shoulder. I spun around to see who it was and I wasn’t disappointed.

There stood Jack in all of his daft glory. Was it just me or could you hear him losing yet another valuable brain cell. Again with the theatrics, but oh well. What can you do?

“Where do you think you’re going?” He asked. Wasn’t he on the buss with me just yesterday? You think he’d be able to figure that one out by himself.

“To fly a kite. Where did you think I was going?” I asked pointing to the buss which was slowly leaving me behind. I needed to get away from the idiot so I wouldn’t miss the buss.

“You have no reason to talk to me like that!” Jack thundered. I rolled my eyes trying to pull my arm away from his tightening grasp. It was beginning to hurt.

“I’ll scream ‘rape’ if you don’t let go in five…” I watched as he rolled his eyes and his grip became tighter. “Four…” Tighter yet. “Three…” Amazingly his hand could clench even tighter around my small arm. “Two…” He was going to make me scream it wasn’t he. I skipped one and screamed. “RAPE!” I yelled as loudly as my lungs would allow.

Apparently Mr. Tough-kid hadn’t though I would actually do it. He let his hand loosen enough for me to pull away before kneeing him where… yeah. There.

I ran out into the light and the people. They only stared at me for a moment before going back to what they were doing before. Some started whispering, glancing at me every other word.

How long had they been doing that? Where they actually trying to spread rumors about me… again?

I was being paranoid. Stupid.

A hand grabbed the hair that I had taken the time to put in a hair tie this morning ripping out the rubber band and probably pulling a few hairs with it. That’s what it felt like anyway and I’m not exaggerating this time.

I stopped dead in my tracks trying not to move an inch.

He spun me around so I was facing him. I watched just as the damsel in distress does in the middle of a horror movie as he took a slow deliberate step towards me and I took one back. He took a larger step forward causing me to go the same distance –-and maybe more-- back. We kept repeating this until my back hit the cold, rough stone that was unmistakably the school building.

It felt like a dead end, but going back to the horror movie theory, looks can be deceiving.

I lost my breath as Jack leaned over me and memories flashed before my eyes. I tried kneeing him again, but it was just about as good as the first time. I held my face in shock maybe milliseconds after the idiot had slapped me. I could feel the silent tears stream sluggishly down my face, but I ignored them.

“I see you’ve gone as low as hitting girls, Jack.” Said a voice from somewhere behind Jack.

“Don’t act as if you’re any different there Jacob,” I didn’t like the way Jack sneered the name. “Have you already forgotten about…?” He trailed off and turned around letting a little light touch my face.

I hadn’t noticed how dark he had made it; I hadn’t noticed how little I could see.

“I was aiming for you. I missed.” I could hear the nonchalance in his voice, but I could also hear the lie. Was he talking about the fight? Was he my so called friend?

I about scoffed, but held back trying to sneak under Jack’s arm; I wasn’t fast enough though.

Jacob-

I watched from across the parking lot as the buss started driving away. I shook my head knowing I had lost my chance again. I was going to go over to an old friend’s house, but decided to stay after trying to get the needed confidence to go and talk to her; to talk to Maggie.

I shook my head about to start walking, but something caught my eyes.

What I recognized as Jack was holding some girl’s hair backing her slowly into a secluded corner. I know that girl, I remember her from somewhere. Her red hair was what caught my attention. So familiar…

I think I was running before I had consciously figured it out. I slowed my pace as I got closer. I wanted to know what this was about before I started another fight. A fight my parents would most likely hear about.

I watched as she kneed him and as he slapped her back. He opened his mouth to say something, but I beat him there.

“I see you’ve gone as low as hitting girls, Jack.” I said so only the two could hear. What was the point of gaining attention?

“Don’t act as if you’re any different there Jacob.” He said still not facing me. I could tell he was thinking hard about what to say next. “Have you already forgotten about…?” He didn’t need to say anything more for me to know what he was talking about. He turned to give me a toothy smirk that only made him look stupid.

“I was aiming for you. I missed.” I lied covering it up easily. My eyes slowly shifted to Maggie whose face held an emotion I couldn’t explain even if I tried. I watched silently trying to focus on Jack as she tried edging her way out.

Jack saw it though and swung around hitting her head against the brick behind them. It was one of those moments that should be in slow motion where someone’s yelling ‘no’ in the background. Nobody was though… we were all frozen in shock.

Jack hadn’t meant to do it. He wasn’t as evil as he thought he was. He was just stupid. That didn’t stop what I was about to do though.