I'll Make You Feel Beautiful Once Again

I stared at the small Mexican boy in front of me, watching as he pulled his sleeves over his wrists again and again and again. I even watched him tug on the rubber band he wore on his wrist. He pulled it up and released, repeatedly allowing it to smack back down onto his skin. Huge, red welts rose up on his tanned skin, and damn, that looked painful. But it didn’t seem to bother him at all. “Vic...?” I whispered, trying to grab his attention. His head snapped up to meet me, his brown eyes expressing hurt and worry but his face stone and blank. “Doesn’t that hurt?” I asked, pointing to the rubber band.

He simply chuckled sadly. A small giggle escaping his lips. “Don’t worry ‘bout it,” he told me, turning to the look out the window.
“So, um, we’re supposed to share what we have written down,” I said, remembering the way my stomach lurched when I saw his name on the paper when Mr.Williams tossed it in front of me. I have always noticed Vic in the hallways, even before this class. The only thing that I could remember about him was the way he hung his head, and the way his shoulders slumped. His lips were always dipped into a frown. I think I have only seen him smile a couple of times. I mean, to me, he just looked so sad. As if the weight of the world was forever on his shoulders.

So when I received his paper, my hand immediately slapped over the words. I didn’t want to invade his privacy and know what his problems were. Jenna was smart to object to Mr.Williams, though I had a feeling that was going to happen. There was something about Mr.Williams that made me think he actually wasn’t going to tell the whole class what was written on the sheets.

After we all received papers, we all dragged our chairs into a secluded part of the room with our partners. However, I could tell that no one had shared anything yet. Why should we? I even saw Jaime crumple his paper a couple times, then Tony snatched it away from him, smoothing out the wrinkles and handing it back to Jaime, but only to have it crumpled up again. Andy was eating his paper, (fucking idiot he was), taking large bites of the sheet and chewing then swallowing. But most of us were just sitting there, staring at anything besides our partner, and the room was practically suffocating me in silence. Mr.Williams didn’t acknowledge it though, and something in the back of my head told me he knew this was going to happen.

“Uhm, yeah,” Vic replied quietly, taking his paper in his hands while I took mine. I stared at his brown skin, wondering how it could actually be that beautiful. My eyes travelled up to his face, where he wore his brown hair close to his ears and parted down the middle. His long, dark eyelashes batting against his cheeks, and his brown eyes seemed so enticing to me. But it seemed as if Vic himself didn’t know how beautiful he actually was...

“Uh, Kellin?” Vic whispered, bringing me out of my thoughts. “Do we really have to do th-”

Then the sound of the monotone school bell rang throughout the classroom, interrupting Vic and cutting short any type of conversation no one was really having. Vic’s blinked a couple times, staring at me for a couple seconds before rising from his seat and meeting his brother at the door.

“I’ll see you basketcases tomorrow, maybe we’ll make some kind of progress instead of you guys staring at each other like fucking idiots,” Mr.Williams sighed, rising from his chair and disappearing into the chain office next door. I replaced my chair at the table, huffing sadly as I watched Vic make his way out of the classroom. And yep, there it was. The frown.

I’m gunna make him smile... one day I’ll give him a reason to be happy.