All The Pieces

---Viola---

“So would you consider us friends yet?” Nate whispered in my ear, as we sat in English class the next day.

“No,” I said a bit too loudly, which earned a disapproving glance from the old teacher. I smiled an apology and looked back down at my worn book.

He tapped me on the shoulder. “Why not, Viola?” he asked quietly. “We got along fine yesterday.”

I ignored him the best I could and continued to read my book, even though I lost my place.

“Viola?” he asked again and tapped on my shoulder.

“I will talk to you later,” I whispered to him.

“Good enough,” I heard him say, and I giggled a little to myself but I’m not all too sure why.

As we were all leaving the English room, I felt Nate grab my hand. I looked back at him and then down to our hands intertwined. “So you cant run away from me,” he said with a crooked smile, this one I had not seen before.

“I wasn’t going to run,” I said as I bit my lip.

“Liar,” he said and squeezed my hand.

I scoffed. “For that I don’t think I want to talk to you anymore,” I said and tried to pull away from his grasp.

“I don’t think so Miss Viola,” he laughed and pulled me toward a deserted hallway.

“Your acting like really weird, you know that,” I said and cocked an eyebrow.

He let out a small laugh. “I thought you thought I was always weird.”

“No,” I shook my head. “I think you are always annoying. Weird just comes along with that.”

“Well, if I am so weird and annoying then what are you?” he asked and he stepped closer to me. In that moment I became aware of just how close we were.

“I’m amazing, dun,” I said then I let out an awkward laugh, which more closely resembled a squeak. But whatever, I mean who I am trying to impress. Certainly not Nate, that would just be wrong.

“Amazing?” he asked as he tilted his head to the side. “Amazing people… squeak?”

Damn it, so I did squeak. That’s great, Viola. “Yes, as a matter of fact we do,” I said almost
too confidently, because I was still biting my lip.

“Why do you do that?” he asked. “Well, I know why. But I want to know the real reason.”

“What reason would that be?” I asked and leaned against the wall. I am pretty sure that we were missing class, but I didn’t really care for some reason. “I thought you knew everything.”

“If I knew everything, then I would already be your friend by now,” he shrugged.

“You want to be her, friend?” someone asked from the end of the hall. I tried to back away from Nate, but my back was already against the wall. And he didn’t move an inch, other than his head to see who had interrupted our conversation.

“Yes,” he said confidently. That is what made it hard to tell if he was acting, his overwhelming confidence.

“Why?” she asked, the girl at the end of the hall. I refused to look, I knew who she was, I knew her voice. And at one point in time I knew her, all too well.

“Because, Viola is interesting,” Nate said, and he looked down and gave me a warm smile.

“Interesting?” she snorted. She was probably standing there with her arms folded, and she probably looked as though she had just smelt dog shit. The shit being me, of course. I don’t know why or when I became this dreadful, evil, stinking, human being. But it happened. I never got the memo. But it still happened, none the less. And there was nothing, I could or wanted to do to change that.

“Yes,” Nate said, instantly interrupting my thoughts and bringing me back to the dimly lit hallway that we were cornered in. “Viola Pierce, is the most interesting person I have met since I moved here.”

“You say that with such confidence,” she sang. I knew she wanted Nate. I knew that she could have him too. Pretty people are meant to be together. Not that I’m not pretty. I’m just not who I used to be. And the new me, doesn’t belong with, them.

“Cause, I meen it,” he said and he shook his head in disbelief. “Who are you anyways? Your not either of the girls from English that stare down Vi. Who are you?” he asked again.

“Seriously?” she scoffed in disbelief that someone didn’t know who she was. As if it was a crime. “Seriously?” she repeated herself.

“Uh, yah. Why would I ask if I knew the answer?” he laughed.

“I’m Lillian Anderson. But you can call me Lilly,” I looked at her now, she had a sickly sweet smile on her thin face, her blood red head band kept her blonde hair from falling in her face.

“I cant believe Vi hasn’t told you about me yet,” she said and she slapped her knee like it was just the funniest thing ever. “I mean her and I go way back. And you would think she would tell her new bestie about her old one.”

“What?” Nate asked me, he lifted my chin up so I would look him in the face.

“Its in the past,” I hissed at Lilly.

“Of course darling,” she said. “But you know how history has that problem of repeating itself.”