Life Starts Now.

I was numb by the time Monday had come along that week. The stares from passing students in the hallways were colder than usual, the whispers and hushed conversations as they passed were more audible, and the taunting was almost excessive. My heart felt as though it was beating itself out of my chest and my breathing was staggered. I walked quickly looking at my feet as I tried to dodge passersby to get to my car for lunch.

“There she is.” A voice said from in front of me. I didn’t need to look up to know who it was. Derek Peterson, star quarterback of the Huntington Beach Oilers, was staring at me with that mischievous glimmer in his eye and the condescending tone he always had in his voice, “We’ve been wondering where you were Harper.”

Derek was one of Katie’s friends, and I’m sure she had mentioned her unhappiness with me over a few drinks on Saturday after she had left my house, not that this was Katie’s fault Derek was always an asshole. I glanced around myself quickly to see that other than Derek and I the hallways had pretty much cleared out with the sound of the lunch time bell.

“Can I please just go?” I asked already knowing the answer to the question.

A maniacal laugh came from Derek, and he just shot a toothy smile at me in response. Before I could blink Derek had taken the strides to reach me and his rough hands made their way around my throat. He walked forward pushing me towards the wall until I could feel the jagged bricks of the building against my back.

“Why can’t you just leave me alone?” I squirmed my hands struggling as I tried to pull my neck from his grasp.

“Because Harper, you’re just too much fun,” he smirked, tightening his grip around me preventing my escape.

“Doesn’t that just make you feel like such a man,” I didn’t know what I was thinking as I spoke, “beating up girls for fun. You are just a worthless piece of shit.”

He changed his grip, firmly holding me in place with his left hand as he slammed his fist into my stomach with his right. A gasp flew from me as my arms flew to my stomach. He cared less as he continued to use me as nothing more than a piece of gym equipment.

“Please stop,” I cried, my voice cracking. My arms scratched, clawed, and hit back doing nothing more but making it more enjoyable for him, or so it seemed. My panicked eyes searched for something or someone to help me as I felt the lungs scream for the oxygen he was cutting off. I could see figures walking towards the parking lot farther down the outside hall. “Help me!” I screamed with the last of what my lungs could give.

“Shut the fuck up bitch,” Derek growled taking my head and slamming it with all his force into the brick wall right before the darkness came.



Matt’s Point of View:

The only noise that could be heard in Mr. Flynn’s chemistry classroom that morning was the clock on the wall ticking down the minutes to the lunch bell and his disgruntled sighs over the fact that no one in his third period class every paid attention to his lectures. I sat staring at the clock, just as anxious as everyone else in the class to get out of the room. I could feel Mr. Flynn’s glare center in on my forehead specifically and met his gaze. The aggravation radiating off of him could be seen from miles away, but it was just as much his fault as the students. Maybe he shouldn’t be so fucking boring.
The bell finally rang and everyone quickly rushed out of the door of classroom 103, none of which were sparred Flynn’s glare as they exited. I just rolled my eyes, making my way to my locker. Already Brian, Jimmy, Johnny, and Zack were waiting for me.

“You are the slowest mother fucker,” Zack said with a chuckle.

“The bell rang half a minute ago, you’ll get over it,” I argued jokingly as I shoved my books in my locker.

“Well are we going or not?” Jimmy questioned, almost visibly shaking from how nervous he was, which wasn’t like him at all.

“Jimmy calm down dude,” I said slapping my hand on his back, “the worst they could say is no right?”
We had been planning on ditching class that day to go and see one of his friend’s friends about them possibly being able to help us record a demo for our band.

“I can’t take another no man,” he sighed as we all began making our way out to the parking lot. We were almost to the next set of lockers when a scream could be heard from down the hall. My head shot in the direction, only to be greeted by the scene of Derek Peterson slamming some girls head into the side of the building, her limp body sliding down the side of the bricks.

I felt the blood run to my face and my heart jump with the adrenaline, I don’t care who you are, you never hit a woman, especially in front of me. I didn’t even remember taking the strides over to the punk, let alone taking his neck into my hands and slamming his head repeatedly against the brick walls. His eyes were closed and his breath was in short huffs. I felt hands gripping my shoulders and pulling me off him, as Brian kept repeating that we needed to leave before someone came looking for the cause of the sound.

“What should we do with this one?” Jimmy’s voice broke me out of the state I’d been in and I gazed at the girl in his arms.

“Do we know who she is? Should we take her with us?” Zack asked skeptically, shrugging as he did so.

“Her names Harper, she’s in my English class,” I said, putting her face to the one that was always stuffed into a book two desks to my left.

We all kind of nodded in agreement as we quickly made our way towards the parking lot and into my car. It was going to be a tight fit since there were already five of us in my ’72 Camaro, but we made it work.

We had already gotten a few blocks away from the school when Johnny asked quietly, “Isn’t this technically kidnapping?” as he looked at the girl that was squeezed in between him and Zack in the back seat.

“Now you say something!” Jimmy exclaimed as he rolled his eyes.

“Maybe we should call Quinn and tell him that we need to meet up some other time,” Zack said glancing at the girl to his left, “he would understand if we tell him there was an emergency.”

“Yeah you are probably right,” I sighed, my fingertips tapping along to the radio.