Unshed Tears

They spent the rest of lunch talking about music mostly. It seemed like a safe topic. Jace and Jake seemed to get along, and she was genuinely happy, having the two boys sitting with her. Even if it wasn’t going to move beyond anything besides friendship, with either of them, May wanted this to last.. When the bell rung all three of them headed for class, May slightly disappointed.

“Locker?” she asked Jake.

He nodded and she waved bye to Jace before we walked through the mob of kids. In a few minutes, Jake was sitting behind her in class asking random questions. She smirked as the bell rang, and turned to face the front of the class. For the next forty minutes, their teacher droned on about poetry. She doodled on the edge of the paper and watched as Jace wrote on his arm. Over his tanned skin, he traced a Chinese symbol with black ink. Once he looked back at her and tapped the mark with the end of the pen. She was about to ask what it was when the teacher turned back to them. She slipped further down in her seat and glued her eyes on the clock. That was safe to look at. When the bell rung the class moved in a rush. Jake waited by the door for her to get free, and Jace snuck up behind May.

Laughing, Jace poked her side and then fell into the crowd.

She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting. Honestly, after he left her house the other night, May hadn’t spent too much time thinking about what would happen at school. She had figured either he would talk to her or he wouldn’t. It hadn’t occurred to her how different things would be if he did talk to her; she especially hadn’t expected to meet someone new at the same time Jace was starting to stop being a total ass. All the thoughts rushing around her mind actually made her head hurt.

Jake tapped her arm, and she looked up at him. There was a nice height difference, enough to make her feel short but not enough to make her feel awkward. Probably, there were five inches between the top of her head and his.

He asked, “How long have you two known each other?”

“Three years, give or take,” she said as they pushed past kids. She bit her lip. That was the end of that topic. She didn’t want to explain how he had decided it was better to have a lot of friends rather than one true one, and she most definitely did not want to explain how she had a crush on him but wasn’t sure how she felt about him now that her feelings where turning towards Jake who was a much more reasonable person to have a crush on. As they sailed down the hall, no one said anything. She ignored the calls coming from other people, and noticed Jake didn’t answer when others actually called out his name. Word travels fast in small schools, everyone already knew all about the new kid.

She yanked open the wood door and walked in. Her feet thudded on the ground as she wove around bags and legs. She collapsed into her seat with a loud huff.

“What’s the matter Spring?” the girl in front of me asked. She normally didn’t bother with picking on May, but everyone knew that nickname got to her.

Grinding her teeth, she shook her head. She saw a pair of jeans jump onto the table beside her. Dark hair covered her eyes, blocking her full sight, but she could see Jake at the front of class, chatting it up with the teacher, so it wasn’t him. She caught her breath.

There was a dramatic sigh, and half the class turned their eyes toward me. “Come on,” Jace’s voice stopped her heart, “we all know May hates that name.”

She smirked, feeling heat go to her face. Hiding behind her hair, she guessed everyone was looking at Jace and wondering why he was standing up for the freak. Slowly she tucked the hair shield behind her ears and looked over at him. His hazel eyes looked defiant and strong, daring someone to challenge him. He never did anything half-assed, and she would applaud him that.

“Jace,” Jane whined, “What has she done to you?” Her high pitched voice got closer, as the blond stumbled over chairs to get to his side. “First you eat with her and now, now this!”

Jace coved his mouth, stiffening a laugh. A chair slid back, making a loud screech. Heads spun, and that was the end of that conversation. Jake’s long strides brought him to the back row in a manner of seconds. He placed himself beside May, nodding to Jace.

Jace smiled and jumped to his feet. The room filled with noise as everyone took their seats. Someone flicked off the lights and they settled in for a movie. Jakes hand rested on the desk, his fingers tapping quietly. She snuck a look over at him. His face was relaxed; his sharp eyes seemed to be locked onto the screen. Black hair clung to the side of his face, still covering his ears. He twitched, scaring May; she was more jumpy today than usual, but perhaps it was just all the unusual things that had been occurring. Redirecting her sight, she looked over to Jace. He leaned back in his chair, pretending to pay attention. Right arm resting on the table behind him, a girl drew on his arm. His left hand held the desk in front of him, keeping him up, but apparently writing on someone can hurt because he let go of the desk and jumped, wiggling in the seat and ultimately falling out of his seat. There was a loud thud that echoed. She found herself holding her breath, waiting for Jace to get back up.

Somehow, she ended up keeling beside him, a hand resting on her shoulder.

Loud voices mingled together.

“Oh her god, Jace!”

“Jace!”

“Oh me god. Oh me god!”

Nothing made sense to her. The teacher was telling them to settle down, he had called the nurse. Someone flipped on the lights. Mechanically, she lifted her hand. She found his pulse, and the just rested her hand on his warm arm. Looking down at him, she felt her heart accelerate.

Jane stopped next to Jace, her eyes piercing me. “You little bitch,” she spat. “Get away from him!”

She was shocked, and was about to speak when Jake moved around her.

“Back off,” he snarled.

May was too focused on Jace now to really notice them, but Jena glared and received backup from most of the class. Everyone wanted the freaks away from the all-star boy, despite how weirdly he had been acting that day. The air was thick with tension, and their teacher was oblivious to it all. At that moment, the teacher scrambled into the hall way, leaving May and Jake to the mob. Kate took her place beside Jena, hands on hips, glossy lips pursed, eyes glaring. Behind them, most of the class had turned back to the scene. The majority of them were glaring, and some of the guys had clenched their fists. Jake stood like a brick wall, hands shoved in his jean pockets, black hair tipping over his face. He met their looks with steady brown eyes.

Someone said, “You’ve done enough you fat bitch!”

Jake’s head shot around, looking for the speaker. He didn’t get much of a chance because the room filled up with words once again.

“Get her away,” one whined.

A girl said, “You’re disgusting!”

May shook back and forth, wrapping her cold arms around herself. Dark hair tumbled around,her face, and she bit down hard on her lower lip. She shook uncontrollably, sitting on the floor, hugging herself. Her hazels eyes were stuck to Jace’s bronze face as she tried to calm down. This was, after all, Jace Anderson; nothing bad ever happened to Jace, and sure he had hit his head on the ground as he fell, but he had a thick skull. She found herself chewing on her cracked lip as she tried to ignore all the comments and focus on her worry for him. Friends were supposed to worry about each other, and she was trying to be his friend again because he had made the effort. Every now and then she would hear what the class was say, and it stung that they had that much energy to insult her when their supposed friend had just knocked himself out of the floor- it would have been comical if he had sat up right after it happened.

Things had just been getting better, and their freshman year was almost over. In a couple of weeks, they might have been splashing around in her pool as they laughed about how stupid they, well primarily Jace, where. After exams Jace might have come over, and maybe Jake would want to hang out with them. She began coughing; she had forgotten to breath. Taking deep shaky breaths, she looked up at Jake. He still stood tall, protecting her, a girl he hardly knew. Waiting until she couldn’t see, she tossed her straight hair out of her face. She still shook vigorously. In the normally cold biology room, shefelt warm. On the back of her neck beads of sweat were building. After what seemed like hours, the nurse finally got to the room. She walked right to Jace, took one look and said call the ambulance. May wanted to pounce and scream, “You should have done that in the first place,” but just sat there rocking back and forth. She was ignored and the nurse steeped outside to talk with the absent teacher.

“May you little fag,” a high, disturbing voice, shouted, “just gets away from him!”

Some words slipped past her defense. Tears began slipping down her pale cheeks, leaving water trails. The sobs only made me shake more. In a manner of seconds, her vision had completely blurred. She couldn’t make out Jace’s face or her own shoes. Shaky hazel eyes looked up at where Jake was.

She just wanted to worry for her friend like a normal person.

Turning his head, Jake met her gaze. His face was partly masked behind ink hair, but shefound the compassion in it, even though blurred vision. As others shouted and yelled at May, Jake stood his ground. She looked back at the floor where Jace lay. She could see the rise and fall of his chest, but other than that he didn’t move. Shaking her head, more tears slid down her face. She cried softly and quietly for everything: the loss of their friendship, the year of shit she'd taken, ruining his social life, dragging him down to her level, the bad words between them, and now for all this pain. Tears came faster. The warm water washed down her face as she let everything out. Crying this much probably took years off her life. Her body shook more and more and she was gasping for air. For a moment she was freezing and then she slipped back into the burning heat. Striving for a solid breath, she closed her eyes. She lost track of time and her consciousness.

This week had been an emotional rollercoaster, and a ride she would prefer to never take again.