The Hollow Days

I got the dirtiest stares when walking down the hall with Elliot.

Not like I care. Because I really don't. But I heard so many whispers that I don't think he heard. I heard some girl whisper to her friend, "How much do you want to bet she'll end up dead in a few days?"
There was more, like:
"Poor girl doesn't know what he's like."
"She probably is clueless about what happened with Cyrus."
"Fucking dumb broad."
"She'll be hating him just like everyone else sooner or later."

It annoyed the shit out of me. Anyone who gave me a dirty look, got it right back. I had years of practice on mastering the death glare that made people shut up instantly. I smiled at myself, and also because, well, Elliot was carrying my books like a gentlemen. I'm glad he didn't hear all these whispers, because if he did, he probably would've dropped my books right into my hands and stalked off.

We walked into class together, smiling and blushing in unison. He dropped my books onto my desk lightly, and sat down next to me with a smile. The class seemed to go silent as this happened, and I whipped around at some girl who started to whisper and gave her that great death glare of mine. That shut her up immediately. I laughed to myself quietly and turned to face Elliot.

"Why don't you do your work?" I asked quietly.

"Because I don't care about school."

"Well, don't you want to get into a good college? Don't your parents get mad at you for your grades?"

He looked away for a second, looking troubled. Then nodded. "Yeah, they do, but it's whatever."

"Try." I whispered, leaning in close to his face and giggling softly just before the teacher started class. He had given us a weird look, which made me smirk like an idiot. As soon as Mr. Landry's annoying voice left his mouth, I saw Elliot turn up his music player's volume. I covered my hand in front of my mouth and tried to convert my laugh into a cough, which made him glance over at me and smiled. So now, we have inside jokes.

When Mr. Landry passed out the same packets from yesterday for us to finish, Elliot offered me a headphone and I took it. I figured if the teacher let him sit there and listen to music, he'd let me listen if I did my work. Elliot was watching me do my work, I could feel his eyes staring down at my hands and the pencil I was holding.

I had zoned out on the hateful music and packet questions just when the headphones were knocked out of both of our ears. A kid who looked like a jock leaned forward and sneered in my ear, purposely loud enough for everyone to hear except for the teacher, "You better run, girl. You'll die. He'll kill ya, a depressed boy like that. Just like how he killed his best friend."

The class burst out into laughing fits, making the teacher yell at us to be quiet. I gave jock kid a wicked dirty look before looking at Elliot. His hands were in fists and they were greatly shaking. I gently put my hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him. But he shook it off, pure hatred burning in his eyes, and everything from the bus this morning came back to me. I was starting to tear up, telling myself this was just going to keep happening and that me and him weren't gonna work out.

But I was wrong.

Because Elliot stood up, turned around, and punched the jock kid right in the face.

Hard.