Bruises Heal (Damage Control)

Status Report: Mood: Slightly Annoyed, slightly confused. Tired, worried, quiet. Tired of people wanting me to talk to them. Worried Eric saw the dents, hand imprints, and bloodstain on the pillar. Quietly wishing this had never happened.

As Eric leaves and waves, I shut the door and walk into the study, to watch him disappear through the window. Once his silhouette is no longer visible against the sunset, I turn around and glance slowly around the room. I’m surrounded by dents and red smears, unnoticeable to someone who didn’t know what happened here. I walk quietly up to my room and shut the door behind me. I grab my iPod and sit at the piano. Shoving the buds from the headphones in my ears, I drown the world out in music as I turn up the volume and then run my fingers along the gleaming white ivory keys of my beloved piano, playing along with the song. Without my permission, my voice calls out the lyrics in tune with the song. Everything about my music is in harmony with the song on the iPod. I just wish my life were as harmonious. After a few songs, I’m calm enough to stand, shove my iPod into my pocket, and jog downstairs to start on dinner. As I’m sitting down at the kitchen table to eat, my mom appears in the kitchen.

“Hi sweetie.” She calls quietly as she grabs her purse, the dinner I packed her, and her keys. “I’ll be home after work the usual time. Don’t stay up too long.” Her sad eyes regard me kindly. “I’m sorry I can’t stay and enjoy dinner with you.” She apologizes sympathetically.

“Mom, it’s ok. Don’t apologize for having to go to work. That’s what’s keeping dinner here anyways.” I tell her, and am rewarded with a grateful smile. “Have fun.” I give her a hug and watch her leave.

After I finish eating, I clean up and go upstairs. Sprawling across my bedspread, I sigh. Gently stroking my black cat, Miška, I replay everything that had happened. And I fall asleep.

~♥~

The next day, I’m at school at the usual time, making my way to my locker before class. On the way, I pass Alexis and her friends, who promptly present me with their worst glares.

As I walk past, I distinctly hear Alexis hissing under her breath, “She’s gonna wish she never even SAW Eric! Come on, let's go.” Alexis and her friends smirk at me and then spin around and sashay away.

I roll my eyes and open my locker. As I shut it and turn around, I almost run straight into Eric, who’s standing behind me.

He smiles. “Hey, can we meet at lunch instead? I’ve got to meet with my math teacher at break.” He asks.

I nod and walk to my class. As I sit down at the back, I drown out the teacher with my doodles. I draw a whole world of mystical creatures. I draw a sunset, a sunrise, a valley, a mountain range, and the ocean, all before the beginning of lunch.

I grab a small sandwich from the cafeteria before sitting down at the back of the library. It’s not long before Eric shows up beside me.

“Hey, Cassey. Ready?” He asks me, smiling.

I smile and nod, pulling out the project paper. “What if we started with a few things that people are usually afraid of?” I ask as I look around for subjects.

“Great.” Eric agrees, “like sharks, lions, spiders, and heights?” He suggests.

“Yeah.” I answer as I write them down, adding a column for reasons of fear and a column for reasons not to fear them. I look around some more. “Let’s go to the caf’ there’s more people.” I tell him, standing up and cleaning up my trash from lunch.

He nods and stands up with me, starting to the library exit. He holds the door open for me and we walk downstairs. “Ok, we’ll just have to get through one table today and see what happens. Let’s go for the one with the most people.” He looks around.

I tug on his arm and point to the popular table, reluctantly. It’s my least favorite table. He smiles at me and drags me to the table.

At his presence, Alexis looks up and smiles widely at him. “Hey, Eric! You want to eat lunch with us?” She offers in that ear-piercing, high-pitched voice that could shatter bricks as well as glass.

Eric looks a little uncomfortable now. “Actually, we wanted to ask you guys some questions.” He forces a smile. Alexis doesn’t notice the fakeness.

“We?” She asks curiously.

Eric looks beside him then realizes I’m behind him. He reaches his arm around and drags me gently forward.

“Oh.” Alexis’ face falls a little. She pastes a smile back on before her sneer can spread at the sight of me with Eric.

All the other popular girls, aka Alexis’ entourage, still look excited at Eric asking them questions. Some of the guys are even looking up.

“It’s for our science project on the brain.” Eric explains. “Is that alright with you guys?” He asks. Everyone nods excitedly.

As lunch goes on, Eric does most of the questioning and I do the writing. Every so often, Eric glances over at me encouragingly. He understands how much I am not enjoying this. As we finish, Eric smiles at me as we stand up.

He looks around the table. “Thanks for letting us question you guys.” He smiles at everyone.

The girls giggle and the guys nod. It might just be me, but it seems like he has some sort of spell on everyone. The bell rings and we’re released to go to our next class.

“Tomorrow? Outside?” He asks, obviously meaning lunch at my outside table tomorrow, if he’ll see me.

I nod and walk off. As I enter the class, I meet the eyes of every single person that watches me as I walk in.

I sit in my usual spot in the back, pulling out a notebook to doodle in. After a few minutes, I notice that someone is standing in front of me. I look up. It’s Alexis. And boy does she look ticked off.

“I don’t know why you bother. It’s obvious Eric doesn’t like you!” She sneers, glaring at me. “The only reason he hangs around you is because of the science project, but I can promise you, you’re wasting your time. He’s mine, so just. Back. Off.” She practically snarls.

I set my pencil down and lean back in my chair, crossing my arms. I pause for a moment, tilting my head to the side before answering her in a tone about a hundred degrees colder than hers. “Wow, Alexis, jealous much? Or are you just defensive because he’s not interested?” I ask her, pausing to watch the shock and anger in her face grow. I look back down and continue to doodle, making it obvious in the set of my shoulders that I really don’t care if she has anything else to say, I’m finished listening.

A small gasp escapes Alexis’ lips before she turns on her heel and walks to her chair.

~ ♥ ~

After that class, I walk out to my locker, grabbing my PE clothes and heading down to the gym. Ducking into the girls’ locker room, I check what we’re doing during class—Badminton. As I change into my shorts and tank top, I wait for the rest of my period of girls comes in, chatting as loud as usual. Their topic today is—SUPER surprising—Eric. Them talking about Eric, I understand. Their adoration of him bugging me, I don’t. Taking a deep, calming breath, I walk out of the locker room. And run straight into Eric.