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Once he was at arm’s length the fear really set in when I saw the look in his eyes. It wasn’t a look of anger it was a look of pure hatred and it all was towards me. The look scared me, but my feet didn’t seem to get the message to move, move far away. Until it was too late and he had his hands around my neck and slammed me into the lockers, my head connecting with the lockers left a big echoing bang down the hall, which seemed to resemble the pulsing pain that now filled my head

“You stupid little B!tch. Why did you go around telling people what happened, or shall I say the lack of what happened?” He growled in my face. He kept staring at me like he was expecting me to reply but I couldn’t considering the lack of oxygen in my lungs and two hands blocking anything from coming out. Chris seemed to release this as he loosened his grip allowing me to wheeze out “Don’t you dare blame this on me! It’s not like I drugged my own drink!” My answer only seemed to make him even angrier as he began to squeeze once again.

“Well all anyone is talking about is how I rapped you this weekend. Do you know how hard it is trying to talk to anyone after they’ve heard something like that? It’s impossible. And well since you interrupted me earlier and you’re kind of stuck here now...” He trailed off. Please for the love of God, why is this happening to me again?! And right after I said not to press charges against him and for him to stay on the team. I guess karma doesn’t like me.

(Skyler’s P.O.V)

Today coach let the whole team out early since we’ve all been coming to all the practices and we’ve been improving our game. Though as captain of the team I think we could be better, but nonetheless I’m proud of how much we’ve improved in a matter of a couple of days all with the price of a little blood, a lot of sweat, and minor injuries. For the first time since I can remember I’m the one who has to wait for Ashley to get out from practice, so as a surprise and from exhaustion I went and sat on her car. As I lay on the hood of her car staring at the blue sky, I heard the doors to the school open and a seventh grade girl come screaming towards the parking lot. So I put my arm out and stopped her. “Hey, what’s wrong?” This girl had terrified written all over her face, me stopping her, the way I did probably didn’t help. “Oh god he’s in there with her. Chris is still in there with her.” She ran away before I had the chance to ask who “her” was the way she kept saying her was almost like anyone would know who she was talking about. Thought it really didn’t matter who she was, she needed help and fast.

I entered the school and starting running towards the hall the separated the grade twelve’s from the sevens. It was the only part in the school that was sort of isolated from the rest of the school, that’s when I heard a loud bang that seemed to echo through the hall. I pushed my aching legs to make me round the corner faster. I almost came to a dead halt as I rounded the corner to see Sam a couple inches off the ground with Chris’s hands around her neck. The color in her face was beginning to fade as she struggled to loosen his grip.

“Chris. Let her go now!” the authority in my voice shocked even me. Chris didn’t look so phased by it “Or what?” he challenged. Just like the night on the beach I had all this anger towards him, only this time he was sober and would put up more of a fight. I took one more look at Sam, she was struggling less, and she was barely hanging in. That was all it took to muster up any leftover energy from the practice and I threw all my weight into the tackle. We both fought for the upper hand, though he did put up a better fight I was able to get in some pretty good hits, until someone pulled me off.

“Skyler, come on man just let it go. The janitor is on his way down here. He’ll call someone if he see’s what’s going on. Carter said as he struggled to keep me from going back to punching Chris. “Let me go. This dick deserves it. If you seen what was going on you’d do the same thing.” He gave me a confused look so I let him in on what had just happened with him and Sam. What Carter did next I didn’t expect.

For the next five minutes both Carter and I held him down and took turns punching. I think we both would have kept going to if we hadn’t heard the whistling of the janitor getting closer, neither of us thought twice as we gave a final punch and got the hell out of there. Once outside the both of us went different ways. And this time I went straight to my car, I needed to go home and put some ice on my hands, though part of me needed to know that Sam was alright.

(Back to Sami’s P.O.V)

Once I seen Skyler come around the corner I knew I would be safe, there was something protecting I see in him. I was beginning to lose conscience as I still struggled to get free as Skyler tried to reason with him calmly but with authority. And when that didn’t work he just tackled him to the floor in which he let me go. It took awhile before I could get up and move but once I did I just ran and didn’t look back.

As soon as I made it into my car I made sure to lock all the doors, and she sat there and cried. I was too frightened to drive anywhere and my shaking hand made it hard to put the key in the ignition.

Two hours later the shaking in my hands stopped and my eyes had ran dry, I could now make the drive home without having some sort of mental break down. Before I could step over the threshold mom was already in my face asking me where I had been and why I didn’t bother to call her. She seemed to study my face as I didn’t answer either of her questions “Have you been crying?” I guess my eyes were still red and puffy, but it’s not like I can tell her that Chris tried to attack me again today after school and I’d just spent the past two hours crying over the fact that I can’t defend myself. So I lied. “Yeah I went to Claire’s after school, and we watched a walk to remember.” She made an understanding face as she knows how both Claire and I find the movie very sad and cry every time we watch it “Have you eaten yet? I was just about to make some pizza.” I nodded not trusted myself to speak, I might blurt everything out.

I loved my mom’s homemade pizza and I usually helped her make it but tonight I just wasn’t feeling like my normal self so instead I watched as she walked from cupboard to counter over again as she gathered all the ingredients “Samantha I know it’s the last thing you want to talk to me about right now...But I think we should talk about it. Something like this is not best kept bottled up inside.” She began cutting ingredients rather than looking up as she spoke. But I suppose that telling her what happened wouldn’t be so bad though she may never let me go to another high school party again.

As we sat across from each other eating our pizza I began explaining the story from what I remember as the beginning. I watched as her face was a big canvas of emotions from rage to sadness, I even had to stop for a minute so she wouldn’t begin to cry. From the whole story the only thing she had to comment on was how she disapproved of me spending the night alone with Skyler; though I don’t even remember it and weren’t even on the same levels in the house. But nonetheless she didn’t judge me. “Samantha, I think this Skyler character likes you. He seems like a nice boy do you like him?” I was not expecting this so I froze unable to answer though she sat there expecting one. A millions things started running through my mind of what I could tell her, but all of it would give away the truth one way or another. I was very thankful when she heard crying coming from the nursery and turned her attention elsewhere. I took this opportunity to make the escape to my room.

Just as I was about to turn out the light and go to bed there was a tap at my window. Cautiously I walked over to the window to find Carter waiting for me to open the window. After I had explained to him what had happened after school yet again, we both sat on my bed in silence neither of us knowing what to say. I picked at a thread trying to hold back the tears trying to escape. For the second time today I just felt so helpless, and the tears broke through the barrier.

As I drifted to sleep in Carter’s arms he hummed an unfamiliar tune, though it had a beautiful melody. I was barley aware when the hum ended and my weight was shifted to the side and from the colourful blur of colors echoed the words “I love you.”