Dan Western Stole My Girlfriend

Dan Western wasn't at school on Friday and nobody knew why. Holly looked uncomfortable as she sat with his friends at lunch, which was probably because she didn't have anything to do with them before she started dating Dan. Her best friend, Amanda, who migrated from our group to Dan’s with Holly, didn't seem to be at school that day either. I don't think I saw Holly open her mouth once during that lunchtime, except to eat, of course. I caught her eye a few times and she sent me a weird half-smile that told me how uncomfortable she really was. It definitely wasn't the look of someone who was happy to be there with the people they were sitting with.

I kind of wanted to go over to her and talk to her, make her feel less alone, but I knew I would regret it if I did. It would bring back memories from when I liked her before we started going out, and I would see her with a group of girls who she only sat with because there was nobody else, looking absolutely miserable and out of place. It was only when I started to talk to her and invited her to sit with me and my friends did she really start to look happy at school. This was a different situation though; one that she got herself into and I didn’t want to make myself hurt more by trying to bail her out of it. Was that selfish of me? Probably. But, as Ash pointed out when I vocalised my thoughts on whether or not I should go talk to her, it was her fault she was over there with people she’s not comfortable around; I didn’t send her there. And so I stayed put, and spent the remainder of my lunch trying to concentrate on not looking over at my ex-girlfriend and instead paying attention to my friends’ conversations.

~

After an uneventful weekend and a sleepless Sunday night tossing and turning the entire time, I arrived back at school on Monday, the day my detentions were due to start, apprehensive, exhausted and really not in the mood for spending extra time with Dan if he was going to give me shit about him taking Holly from me. I half hoped that he wouldn’t even be at school on Monday, but I had no such luck. There he was, standing in the hall with a bunch of people around him, as usual. He had an arm wrapped around Holly, who looked considerably happier than she was on the previous Friday, and seemed to be chatting to his friends, but there was something different about him. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until I got closer to him and noticed a bruise on his jaw that I know I didn’t give him, because the black eye that I gave him was yellowing, well on its way to healing up entirely.

As I walked past Dan and his friends, one of the Liu twins – Adam – asked him where the bruise came from. I slowed down my walk so that I could listen in to the answer. It seemed weird that Dan would end up bruised twice in the same week. Dan only scoffed and threw out a quick “don’t worry about it”, but the twins both questioned him then, and Kevin – the other twin – examined the large mark, commenting that it looked like it was a hard hit.

“I just got in a fight with some dickhead after my soccer match. He must’ve thought I looked at him funny. He was probably on steroids or something. I told you, I’m fine, don’t worry about it,” Dan snapped, looking annoyed at all the questions and fussing over him. He pushed Kevin’s hand off his face and began to walk off with Holly in tow, but not before he caught my eye and sent me a sneer. I returned the look and rolled my eyes. It wasn’t any of my business what Dan got up to in his spare time and I didn’t know why I cared so much about how or why he got hit. Maybe I wanted to congratulate whoever did it for realising that Dan is a dick just like I did. I didn’t know, but I decided to just try to forget about it.

~

As much as I wanted to get on with my day, I found that my curiosity got the better of me and I spent a lot of time pondering over why Dan had that bruise. It wasn’t so much the existence of the bruise that had me intrigued, though. It was the fact that Dan was so defensive about it and why, if he only got it on the weekend when he would have played his soccer game, did the bruise look at least a few days old, rather than just one or two? I really wanted to know why, so I went back on my decision to forget about it all and instead decided to ask him about it when detention rolled around.

Once the final bell rang out and everybody had packed up and left their classrooms to head home, I said goodbye to Taylor and Ash, who were in my Modern History class, and made my way to the room that Dan and I were required to meet at for our detentions. I was the first there, which wasn’t a surprise because Dan usually isn’t very punctual; especially for things he isn’t keen on doing.

A few minutes later, Dan rocked up. He completely ignored me by immersing himself in whatever was on the screen of his phone, so I took the time to study his face again. The bruise was certainly a big one, and it looked painful. It was a blueish black colour and about the size of a large fist. Whoever hit Dan definitely wasn’t a small or weak person.

“Okay, delinquents, listen up,” a loud voice boomed from the end of the now empty hall. I held back a groan. I recognised that voice. Everyone did. It belonged to Mr Shaw-Cox. There’s a running joke in the student body by calling him Mr Show-Cock behind his back. It’s stupid and immature, but that’s what you get at a high school; stupidity and immaturity.

I’ve never had Mr Shaw-Cox as a teacher, but it’s pretty well known that he’s a hard-ass. He teaches Ancient History, which I don’t take, but being part of a reasonably small school, you get to know the teachers you don’t have as well as the ones you do, and he definitely has a reputation. I remember hearing once that he made Lilah McMamara – one of Dan's multiple ex-girlfriends – cry so hysterically over unfinished homework that she had to be sent home from school for the rest of the day to recover. So, let’s just say that he wasn’t my first choice for a supervising teacher while on detention. But I never get my way. I should be used to that by now.

“Redmond! Stop daydreaming and pay attention!”

Mr Shaw-Cox speaks in exclamation marks, too, which gets real old real fast. Dan snickered. I shook my head slightly and started to pay attention again. Mr Shaw-Cox was saying that every Monday and Thursday he would be supervising us painting over the graffiti in the school bathrooms and he would also watch us clean science beakers and other equipment of that nature on Wednesdays. Every Tuesday we would be supervised by Mrs King, who would just watch us sitting in a classroom and on Fridays we would be cleaning whiteboards in all the classrooms so that they would be ready for the next school week and supervised by Mr Ferguson. As it was a Monday, we would be starting with painting. Mr Shaw-Cox led us to a supply cupboard where there were two large tins of paint with paintbrushes resting on top of them. He got us to pick up one tin and one brush each and then led us to one of the girls’ bathrooms. He then instructed Dan and me to choose a stall and start painting the door and walls. We got started as soon as the paint tins were open.

About ten minutes after we started painting in silence, Mr Shaw-Cox told us that he was going to step out for a little while and to behave while he was gone. Almost immediately after the door to the bathroom shut, Dan opened his big mouth from the stall next to mine.

“Hey, check this out. It says ‘Dan Western is a smexxy beast’. With two ‘x’s.”

“Don’t flatter yourself, Dan,” I said, sighing, painting over a tag that said ‘Sarah 4 Nathan 4ever’ which had then been crossed out.

“No, seriously, come look,” he insisted. I rolled my eyes and sighed again, but left my stall and came into his. Sure enough, there was the writing. With two ‘x’s, like he said. Of course. There was even a love heart drawn next to it.

“Well done, you got written about on a dirty girls’ bathroom stall. You’ve made it, Mr Popularity. Congratulations,” I said. He smirked at me, but winced slightly as he did so, as if his jaw moving under the bruise made it hurt all over again. “Who hit you?”

Dan stiffened slightly and hesitated a few seconds before answering, “You mean, besides you?”

I just looked at him.

“Nobody, okay? It was just some sore loser who couldn't handle that my team annihilated his at the game on the weekend.” I could have sworn that he looked uncomfortable as he was telling me that, almost like he was worried I would catch him in a lie. “Anyway, why are you still in here?” he snapped, the uncomfortable look gone and an annoyed one in its place.

I wanted to ask more questions but it was obvious he was done with the conversation, so I just shrugged and left to go back to my own stall, where we continued to paint for the rest of the detention without speaking.