Take My Hand And Never Be Afraid Again

“Hey Frank” I smile at him as he takes the seat across from me. English was my favourite subject, not only do I get to talk to Frank and Mikey all period but you don’t have to do anything. The teacher would give us sheets at the start of the period and we just chuck the sheets in the bin and do nothing, then he gets to sit at his desk and look up porn or whatever the fuck he does on his computer all period. It’s a win-win situation.

“Yeah... hey” his body is tense and I can practically feel the discomfort radiating from him.

“You okay Frank?” I ask timidly, he opens his mouth to tell me something but closes it as Mikey goes to take his seat in front of me.

“Mikey, it seems you have a squirrel on your face” Frank says with a smirk, I turn around to look at Mikey and start laughing. Mikey has a beard.

“Wow, Frank very original. But I think I hear a bit of jealousy in your tone. By the way Fanny, loving the new look, you’re almost good looking enough to be seen with me.” He strokes his beard as he looks me up and down. When I say beard, I don’t mean a hot kind of Jonny Depp beard- I mean Santa Clause beard.

“It’s Rose actually. And you look like Santa Clause on a diet” I retort, Frank laughs beside me and murmurs “nice one”

“Rose? I like it, though the Santa Clause comment was uncalled for. It’s not my fault I have a lot of facial hair, it’s something only men would understand”. He looks at Frank as he says men and then turns back to me.

“You seriously think I’m gonna believe you grew a beard in like 2 days?”I smirk

“Yeah you only just got armpit hair a few months ago” agrees Frank, I laugh and Mikey glares at us before turning around.

“Do me a favour and don’t talk to me ever again” he murmurs without looking at us.

“You know we love you Mikey” I pout but he ignores me and pretends to be doing his work. I know he’s pretending because his sheet is folded up as an aeroplane on the floor. Frank just chuckles and shakes his head.

“So what were you going to tell me before?” I ask curiously, twirling my pen in my red hair. He bit his lip and clicked his knuckles for a moment.
“It’s nothing don’t wor-” He starts but I cut him off.

“Frank just tell me, I’m sure it’s not even that bad” I state, he gives me a nervous sort of half smile half grimace. He’s wearing a Nirvana singlet today and it’s hard not to notice the toned muscles on his arms. They’re not ugly body builder big either, they’re sort of-

“I don’t want you to get angry at me” he said, interrupting my self evaluation of his muscles

“I promise I won’t get angry” I reply curiously.

“I kinda... I sort of um... Elena and I... Elena and I slept together” he stutters, my heart sinks and I forgot to breath for a few seconds. Elena and Frank had sex, how could she do this to me? I thought we were friends, did I really mean that little to her? She probably told him all about my stupid crush on him and they were having a laugh about it behind my back. How could I be so stupid? I felt tears prick my eyes and I knew I was going to cry. Why was I so pathetic? Why couldn’t I be more like Elena and stand up for myself, why did I have to be the stupid fucking innocent one? Guys like bad girls, not girls who cry over stupid kisses and cough whenever they smell cigarette smoke.

“Rose, I’m sorry it was just a spur of the moment thing. And- And, forget it, I’m a prick.” I barely even hear him though, I’m so lost in my head and the worlds spinning around me. Don’t cry Rose, don’t fucking cry. I won’t give him that satisfaction.

“Please Rose talk to me” I ignore him and stand up from my chair.

“Excuse me sir, can I please have a hall pass, I left a book in my locker” I ask the teacher, he nods and passes the small pink piece of paper at me. I leave the class quickly and ignore Mikeys attempts to communicate with me. I walk through the halls like a ghost, a few tears roll down my face but I ignore them. Frank really was a jackass, who the fuck does he think he is? I had never hated and loved someone so much before. He had turned me into a fucking wreck. Elena was supposed to be my friend, she knew how much I liked Frank, I had never felt so betrayed before. I walked into the girls bathrooms and sighed when I looked in the mirror. My eyeliner was smudged and my mascara was running. I wiped it away and attempted to fix my hair. The girl looking back at me was somebody I could barely recognise.
Elena had just turned me into another version of her, I was a fake. I was just an uglier Elena.

That’s all I was now.

I looked away from the mirror and left the bathroom quickly. As I went the long way back to class I heard a small cry from the boy’s bathroom. I stood outside the door, not wanting to go in. Even if there was somebody in there crying, it was still a boy’s bathroom. Fuck it, I walked inside.

“Hello? Is there somebody in here?” I called, there were puddles of water all over the floor and- wait, blood? Oh shit, there was blood mixed with the water and it was coming from the end stall. My heart started beating rapidly, was there a murderer in here?

“Hello” I barely whispered and carried on walking past the stalls, when I reached the end stalls my heart stopped.

“Alex!?” I cried; he was leant against the basin covered in blood. The tap was on, which explained the puddles of water. His nose and lip were bleeding and his face was swollen, his shirt and jeans were soaking wet and covered in blood. He looked up at me and gave me a small smile but his face was pale from the blood loss and he looked as if he was about to pass out. I ran over to him and turned the tap off.
“Oh my god Alex” I knelt down beside him and wrapped my denim jacket around him. He had blood coming from the back of his head which I knew meant head injuries. What the fuck happened!? Where was all the blood coming from?!

“I’m gonna call an ambulance okay”, I reach for my phone in my jeans pocket but it’s not there. “Shit” I must have left it in class which is ages away.

“I’m gonna go get help, stay here!” even though he was in no state to move anyway. I walked down the corridor till I saw Mr Davies, the school caretaker.

“Mr Davies!” I cry as he turns around shock plastered on his face, no surprise since I was covered in water and Alex’s blood.

“What happened, is that blood-”
“I need to use your phone” I demand, thank god he was a smart man and didn’t mess around with stupid questions. He passes me his phone but it’s a touch screen and I don’t know how the fuck to use it.

“Why won’t it fucking work?!” I cry out with frustration, he ignores my curse word and takes it off me. He holds it to his ear as I pull him toward the bathroom.

“Alex, it’s gonna be okay alright, help is coming.”I kneel down beside him again and attempt to stop some of the blood flow from his head.

“The ambulance is on their way, keep applying pressure to the cut on his head” he kneels down beside me and if he’s surprised by the amount of blood covering Alex he doesn’t say anything- which I’m grateful for. “Don’t worry you’re gonna be alright son” He says whilst sponging up the water on the floor with toilet paper, I grab Alex’s hand and hold it tightly. “I’m just mopping up some of the water on the floor so it’s not too slippery for the paramedics” I nod at him though I don’t really understand what he’s saying, his mouth keeps moving as he talks to Alex but I can’t hear anything. My senses have turned off and I can’t talk, I can’t move. All I can feel is Alex’s hand in mine and nothing else matters.