Is It Worth Saving Me

After I took a hot shower, got dressed and ready for school, and made my dad his food, I left my house and started walking when I saw Ali pull up next to me. "Hey Max, you need a ride?"

"Sure. It's chilly out," I replied. I opened the door to her Mustang and said, "Thanks."
When I got in she was listening to Secondhand Serenade, "So, how you today," she asked turning down the music.

"Good. Really tired, but good. You?" I asked as she drove onward towards the school.

"Eh kind of crappy. I mean, I just hate mornings. They are kind of sucking for me. My brother is and ass to me in the morning, so its whatever," she said shrugging her shoulder.

"I know what you mean." I whispered to myself.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing. Nothing at all," I replied when we got to school. I looked to see Bryan and Omar standing by the entrance.

"Come on. I was hoping to get here soon because I have an awesome plan for Chelsea to see me," Ali said as she parked.

"What is it?" I asked as she turned her car off.

"Well, while you guys are talking, I'll wait for her to say something. Then I was going to rest my head on her shoulder and be like, "Vanilla Bear, I totally agree." I'm the only one allowed to call her that," Ali replied as she and I got out of the car.

The two of us started walking when Bryan and Omar saw us. They started towards our direction and Bryan said, "Yo Max. Hey Ali."

"Hey guys," Omar said.

"What's up?" Ali asked.

"Hey," I said.

We got to talking when Robert came up to us. "Yo guys. How’s it going?" he asked.

Ali was about to reply when she saw Ronnie and Chelsea walking out of the school hand-in-hand. Ali hid behind Robert and said, "Play along."

I saw Ali take he phone out of her pocket and it fell on the floor in between my legs. She crawled on the floor to get it and jumped up getting the hair out of her face.

"Hey guys," Ronnie said waving to us.

"Hey," Chelsea said.

"Hey," we all said.

"So, what's the plan for today?" Robert asked.

"I was wanting to go to the strip tonight, seeing as I haven't gone in a while," Bryan replied.

"I have to baby-sit. Folks are going out to play poker. Totally sucks," Chelsea replied as Ali snuck up behind her.

"Vanilla Bear, I couldn't agree more," Ali replied resting her head on Chelsea's shoulder.

"Thank you Ali. Someone agrees with me," Chelsea said when she got a shocked look on her face, looked behind her and said, "ALI!"

The two of them hugged and Chelsea said, "Oh my god I didn't know you were moving here!"

"I got here a few days ago and I started here yesterday," Ali replied.

"Wait. Yesterday? Then that means..." Chelsea started when she looked at us and said, "You didn't tell me?! You racist bastards!"

"Chelsea, you're not Achmed," Ronnie said.

"And you're not getting laid tonight," Chelsea said when she looked at Ali and said, "Come
on, let's walk around. Girl chat and all that good stuff."

"Actually, I told max I would hang with him," she said hugging my arm

"Figures," Chelsea said rolling her eyes.

"And that is supposed to mean," Ali let go of my arm.

"I know how you feel, bout Max," Chelsea said.

"I'm feeling sorry for Ronnie. He ain't getting any," Bryan said as he, Omar, and Robert started laughing.

"Eh, shut up," Ronnie said wrapping his arm around Chelsea

"You're still not getting laid," Chelsea said.

Ronnie pouted before Chelsea whispered something in his ear. He looked at her and
started smiling.

"What are you all smiles about Radke?" Omar asked.

"You don't want to know," Ronnie replied all smiles.

"I don't want to know," Bryan said.

"Imma gonna go to my locker. See you in a sec," Ali said walking away.

"Wait I will go with you," I said stopping her.

"Okay, but I am a big girl though. You don't have to," she told me.

"But I want too," I said following her.

She smiled before the two of us walked inside. I followed her towards her locker, stopping at mine to get my book for the subject. "So Max, how was your sleep last night?" Ali asked.

"Eh, could have been better. It was really uncomfortable," I replied truthfully, seeing as the
pain wasn't wanting me to sleep last night.

"That sucks," Ali replied when I got pushed up against a locker by one the jocks in the school. The pressure he was putting on my bruised shoulder was killing me.

"Hey emo boy. Cut yourself lately?" Jeff, the dumbest of the jocks, asked applying pressure to my shoulders.

I stayed quiet to prevent myself from back-talking when he punched my in the stomach, the same area my dad kicked me the night before.

"I asked you a question dumb ass. Or are you too stupid to answer?" Jeff asked before punching me again.

"You know, you seriously need to stop," Ali said defending me. Wait, she was defending me?

"Ali, just go. I'll see you in anatomy," I said looking over at her.

"Yeah. Listen to the emo boy you emo bitch," Jeff said before giving my stomach another good punch.

"Excuse me? You did not just call me a bitch," Ali said, the anger dripping from her voice like venom.

"What if I did?" Jeff asked.

"I'll have to kick your ass," Ali replied.

Jeff looked at her and quickly said, "Bitch."

Ali glared at him before punching him in the face, causing him to fall to the ground.

"Oh no he didn't. Jeff, stay the fuck away from him you asshole," I heard Chelsea say from down the hallway. I slid down the locker and sat down, clutching my stomach. I heard
several pairs of feet and saw Ali sit next to me. "Are you okay Max?" Ali asked.

I nodded the best I could when I saw Ronnie, Robert, Omar, Bryan, and Chelsea reach us.

"You okay man?" Ronnie asked.

I nodded and weakly said, "Come on. Let's get to class,"

They all looked at each other before nodding. I grabbed my books and walked with them towards class before Ali said something about lit class. we walked into the cursed math class and Ali said, "I'll see you guys later."

"See ya," we said before we sat in our group.

Ronnie had Chelsea sitting on his lap until the bell rang and Mr. Stone said, "Miss, please take a seat in one the chairs. Not on Mr. Radke's lap."

Reluctantly, Chelsea got up and sat behind Ronnie, the reason being so that way she's have something to look at when we were in here, that thing being Ronnie's ass.

The rest of math was boring. No, more like hell. Never mind. Home is hell. More like the deepest circle of hell. Math class is the circle of hell before it. I looked over to see Chelsea staring at Ronnie's ass, Bryan writing a note, scratching and shaking his head at random moments before marking things out, Omar staring blankly into space, Robert drumming the drum part for "The Ransom" on the desk with his fingers, and Ronnie doodling something on the desk.

Right when I walked out of math Ali was standing there waiting for me. She hugged my arm and laid her head on my shoulder. She looked up and me and I just smiled. There was so much I wanted to tell her. Everything about home, but I just couldn’t. Something was holding me back

"Wow Ali. Lovey-dovey there a bit?" Chelsea asked jokingly.

"About time. Max seriously needs to get laid," Ronnie said punching my bad arm.

"And what is wrong with that," Ali said hugging me and reaching up to kiss me. She hit my
bruise. I just tried to ignore it and kissed her back.

I resisted the urge to cry out in pain and said, "Eh shut up Ronnie. You're not getting any tonight, remember?"

Ronnie looked down at the floor with his bottom lip sticking out when Chelsea said, "Fine
Ronnie! You know I can't resist the pout! I’ll call you when my little brother's in bed. Happy?"

Ronnie smiled before looking at me and asking, "Who's getting laid now, huh? Not you!"

I looked at Ali and she looked like she was going to cry, "Ali whats wrong," I asked.

"Nothing I will, I will just see you later," and she ran off.

"Chelsea do you know whats wrong with Ali," I asked her.

She just shook her head, "Oh okay."

"Why," she asked.

"I don't know. She seems upset," I replied.

"I'll go see what's up, I'll see you guys later," Chelsea said. She kissed Ronnie for a bit before heading off in the direction Ali took.

We all looked at each other and Omar said, "Well, next class?"

We all nodded before heading to our classes, Bryan and I to anatomy.

I didn’t see Ali in our next class. I got a little worried. I took out my phone and texted her, Ali you okay and do you want to hang out after school?

She answered almost right away. Yeah. my place I will see you after this class i promise i will be fine. I put my phone away reassuring myself she was okay.

I felt kind of bad for Ali. I didn’t know what was going on. Well, she didn’t know about my life either. Right after class I ran to her locker and hugged her. "Hey," was all I could get out.

"Hey," she was keeping her face hidden. When she finally turned to look at me, "Listen, I love you and when I said it last night and I just," she stopped.

"Ali, it’s just, I don’t hear that often and when you said it I was kind of shocked," I grabbed her as she tried to walk off, "And I love you too. Trust me," I hugged her and held her tight. I didn’t care who saw. The dumb ass jock walked by again. He said something and kept yelling at me I just kept ignoring him.

Ali pulled away from me, "Max just listen, I dont know at the moment I just," she switched to Spanish and I totally didn’t understand her, "and that is why well yeah. So, we still hanging out after school," she asked stepping towards me.

"Yeah why not," I said wrapping my arms around her waist.

She shrugged and said, "I don't know."

I smiled and said, "Well, we are still hanging out after school. Where are we hanging out at?"

"Still at my house like I said," she told me

"Cool. I can't wait," I said smiling. And genuinely smiling for the first time in a long while.

She smiled and asked, "Are we going to Spanish?"

"If you want to," I replied when the rest of the group caught up with us.

"Hey, we're skipping. You guys want to join us?" Omar asked.

"Not all of us are. This loser here is going to German," Ronnie said hugging Chelsea.

"Well, you're just jealous because ich kann sprechen sie Deutsch und kannst du nicht!" Chelsea said.

We all looked at her confused and Chelsea said, "It mean I can speak German and you
can't. Duh."

"I am not skipping. My brother is here today and yeah. I just don’t wanna get caught by him or my car is gone," Ali said.

"You have a car," Chelsea and Ronnie asked.

"Yeah. Don’t ask how," she said, "Well then see you later."

I fake pouted and said, "Okay."

"BYE GIRLS!" the rest of the guys shouted down the hallway as Chelsea and Ali linked arms down the hallway.

They laughed and walked down the hall as we walked towards out skip spot.

I didn’t talk. I just laid in the grass and fell asleep. I was thinking how I was going to tell her
everything, how she would take it, and what she would say.

"Max, wake up. We have another class to go to man," Ronnie said shaking me away.

I sat up and rubbed my eyes. "Okay," I said before I got up and walked with the rest of the guys towards the school to endure another several classes until we could leave.

****************************************************************************************************

"Hey guys, I’ll see you later," I said.

"Hey Max, let me give you a ride home," Bryan said.

I looked over at Ali and said, "I'll meet up with you in a bit. I just have to drop my shit off at home and I'll have Bryan give me a ride home, okay?"

She nodded and wrote down her address for me. She handed it to me and said, "Text me before you leave, okay?"

I nodded and said, "See ya."

Everyone waved and I hopped in the car with Bryan . We started to head home when Bryan said, "Hey Max, can I ask you something without you getting pissed at me?"

I looked at him for a second and asked, "What do you want to know?"

He took a deep breath before asking, "Is there something going on at home?"

"What do you mean?" I asked hoping he didn't know about what my dad does to me.

"Well, I noticed that you seem to be in pain a lot. So I was just making sure that everything was going on okay at home and all that shit," Bryan replied.

I nodded and said, "Nothing's wrong Bryan. Everything's fine. Really."

"Well, if you're sure, I believe you," Bryan replied.

I hated lying to my friends. It was sad. I couldn’t even tell them. But somehow I felt like Ali NEEDED to know.

After I got done dumping my stuff off (thank god dad wasn’t home), Bryan dumped me off at Ali's, "Shut up it ain't like that," she yelled before I even knocked.

"Yeah it is. Don’t have to much fun Lil Ali," it was a guy.

"Shut up and plus that’s just silly Billy bull crap," she opened the door, "Hey, um that’s my brother jerk face. I mean Steven," he looked almost nothing like her, "He is a swimmer and a loser," he made a stupid face and walked off.

I laughed and said, "I wish I had a brother. I hate being an only child."

"Dude, wanna trade?" Ali asked as she let me in.

I shook my head and said, "Nah, I’m good."

She closed the door and said, "Let's go upstairs. I want to show you my music collection."

I nodded before the two of us headed up the stairs and towards her room.