Save Me

{Matt}

When I woke up this morning I did my usual morning things with a smile on my face. I could not wait to see Rainy today. After I got dressed I made a mental note to go shopping for new clothes real soon.

While I was eating breakfast Anna reminded me that my parents were coming home tonight. I kind of don't want my parents to come home. I like it when they're gone. I left the house when I was done eating and headed to school. As I was driving I had the radio turned up loud as I was listening to Guns N' Roses.

Once I got to the school I parked my car and got out. I walked to the back of it and sat on the trunk waiting for Rainy and the guys to get here. As I waited I watched the students arriving. Many stayed outside and waited for friends before going in, some kids were just standing around goofing off as they waited for the bell to ring.

I spotted Liz and her friends standing about five cars over from mine. She saw me and smirked, turning her head to her friends and started saying something. Then they all looked at me, a few of them laughing while some glared at me. I'm pretty sure I can guess what they're glaring at me for.

I turned my head away from then and saw Zack and Johnny walking towards me. As they headed my way I looked over the parking lot for Rainy, Brian and Jimmy but not seeing them.

"Hey man." Zack said once the two of them were standing in front of me.

"Hey." I said to them.

"The others not here yet?" Zack asked I shook my head.

"I haven't seen them yet. Maybe they got here before I did and are waiting inside." I said.

"Nah. I don't think so. I don't see Jimmy's car." Johnny spoke as he scanned the parking lot.

"They're probably just running late." Zack said shrugging. I watched him as he looked at my car.

"Nice car." he said. I raised my eyebrow and gave him a look asking if he was serious. "What? Porsche's aren't my kind of car, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate a nice car when I see one." I just laughed.

The three of us talked cars but when the bell rang, signaling everyone to start heading to class, Rainy, Brian and Jimmy still weren't here. Zack repeated that they're just running late but the tone of his voice and the look on his face suggested that he has an idea as to why they're not here. Zack shared a quick look with Johnny and it was clear they weren't going to sat anything front of me.

I can understand why seeing as they hardly know me enough to trust me with something serious. I have my own idea of why they're not here and I'm pretty sure it's the same as Zack and Johnny's.

We walked to our lockers and I found that Johnny's is like six or seven down from mine. After getting the books I would need for my first classes I walked over to Johnny. When Zack came over they told me that they have English class so we went our separate ways with a 'See you in Math' from Zacky.

As I walked to Science I saw Dean and two of the guys from yesterday walking down the hall. They stopped when they saw me and watched as I walked by them. They were glaring and even snarling at, I just chuckled slightly them and kept on walking.

Once I was in the classroom I walked to my desk. Before I sat down I spared a look at Rainy's desk. I hope that she is just running late and nothing happened but somewhere in my gut I know something did happen. When I sat down I watched the door hoping to see Rainy walk through but she didn't.

When the final bell rang, Mrs. Kutch took the attendance and then told us that we get to have a free period today as she has many papers that need to be graded. The rest of the class started talking to their friends quietly and I just grabbed a notebook and opened to a clean page. Maybe I could get a song down.

I couldn't concentrate however, not with my thoughts on Rainy. Liz turned around in her seat and just looked at me. A smile slowly grew on her face as she was staring at me. I raised my eyebrow at her in a question of 'what?'.

"So you punched Cole yesterday." she stated more than asked in a tone of slight hatred.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because he's an asshole that's why." I said. I knew that Cole would tell all his friends what happened, and they all probably felt that Cole wasn't doing anything wrong. At least nothing that warranted him getting punched for.

"No he's not." she said defensively. Then with a sickeningly sweet smile she went on. "He wasn't doing anything bad. Him and the guys were just having some fun, that's all."

"Just having fun? Well I guess if you call someone who's almost about to practically molest someone else fun, sure." I said sarcastically.

"Molest? Oh, please." she said rolling her eyes.

"I saw what happened. I know exactly where his hand was going." I told her with a bit of anger lacing my voice.
 
"Look, whatever alright? Who cares what Cole and them were doing to her?"
 
"I do." I said loudly, nearly screamed it in fact. The whole class including Mrs. Kutch looked back at Liz and I. Liz just ignored them and went on.
 
"Why do you care what happens to the freak? Her and her friends are not like us."

"Like us?"

"Yeah. They're poor. They don't have any money like me and you do." she said with that sickeningly sweet smile.

"Okay, first, it's my parents that are rich, not me. Second, there is no 'me and you'. I'm nothing like you." I told her. The look on her face told me that she did not like what I said.

"So what, are you her friend?" she asked bitterly.

"Yes I am. Do you have a problem with that?"

She turned her head to the side a little and mumbled under her breath, 'I warned that bitch to stay away from him'. I don't think she wanted me to hear what she said but I did and it pissed me off. Who the hell is she to warn people away from me?

"Excuse me? You warned her to stay away from me? You have no right to do that. I'm not yours." I spat angrily at her.

"Oh come off it. Like you'd really want to be with her." she said in a disbelieving voice. I knew that she wasn't talking about friendship though and when I answered, neither was I.

"I would choose her over you any day." I said to her and then started writing in my notebook, ignoring her as she turned around with a huff. I have a feeling that Liz won't back off this though.

The rest of the period went by pretty fast and when the bell rang I walked out of the room and headed to Math. Zack was already sitting in his seat when I got there.

Half way through the lesson, Mr. Juniper had us get into pairs and work from the book. Zack and I pushed our desks together and opened our books.

"I talked to Brian. He says that they'll be coming to school either during or after lunch." Zack told me.

"When did you talk to him?" I asked.

"I got out of English for a few minutes and called him." he said.

"How come they're taking a half day?" I asked. I looked at Zack out of the corner of my eye and saw that he was struggling to come up with an answer. That only confirmed my suspicion from earlier. Something had happened.

"Oh, they just didn't feel like coming in that's all." he said with a shrug. I nodded to his answer and put my hands in the pockets of my hoodie. Feeling something in the right pocket I pulled it out and saw that it's the note I had written to Rainy. I nearly forgot about it. With a slight smile on my face I put it back in my pocket and Zack and I got started on the math work.

Knowing that Rainy was coming to school the rest of math and my other morning classes went by slowly. Time usually does seem to slow down when you can't wait for something. Though Spanish class (the one right before lunch) seemed to be going by at a snail's pace.

I could not stand being there with Liz sitting next to me. I ignored her though and all the little irritating huffs and scoffs that she was making towards me.

When lunch finally came I practically sprinted out of the room. When I got outside I saw that Johnny and Zack were already sitting beneath the tree so I walked over. When I sat down I made sure that I had a good view of the parking lot so that I could see if Rainy, Brian and Jimmy were coming.

Zack, Johnny and I talked about random things but I was barely paying attention. I kept watching the parking lot and a few times when I would turn back to the conversation, I would catch Zack looking at me with curiosity.

When lunch had ended and they didn't show up, I trudged my way to English class. Taking my seat I waited as all the other students came in and sat down. I saw Taylor and Eric come in and they both glared at me. I just laughed to myself. Are their glares supposed to frighten me? Make me wanna run and hide? I just laughed more. Their glares continued throughout the period along with some whispers.

There was about twenty minutes left of class when the door opened and in walked Rainy and Jimmy. They handed the teacher what I'm guessing is their late passes and walked to the back of the room to their seats.

I gave Rainy a smile, which she returned, when she walked past me. When Jimmy walked past I saw that there was a cut on his lip. They both sat down as the teacher went on talking about something. I wasn't paying attention though. I'm currently wondering what the hell the feeling in my stomach is. It started when I saw Rainy walk in the room and seemed to intensify when I saw her smile.

When the bell rang the three of us walked to gym. Rainy was walking between Jimmy and me and I noticed that he was walking close to Rainy in a protective way.

"So, how did you get the cut on your lip?" I asked Jimmy, breaking the silence.

"Oh, I like a nice healthy dose of fighting once in a while." he said with a chuckle.

"Oh." was all I said. As we got closer to the locker rooms I saw Liz and some of her friends ahead of us. I remembered the conversation from Science and hoped that she wouldn't do anything to Rainy in the locker room.

To my surprise however, Jimmy and Rainy didn't head towards the locker rooms but instead went straight toward the gym. Jimmy said that the two of them were going to sit out today. I nodded and walked into the boys locker room and went to my locker.

After I changed into my gym clothes I looked for the other guys. Finding them two rows away I walked up to them.

"Hey." Brian said when he saw me.

"Hey. How's it going?"

"Not bad." he answered. Once those three were done changing we walked out to the gym. I saw that Rainy and Jimmy were already sitting on the bleachers. We headed over to them.

"So, rumor has it that Liz Davis is extremely pissed that you're friends with us." Brian said to me with a smirk.

"Really now?" I questioned with a laugh.

"Yep. Heard her talking to her friends about it last period." he said.

"Yeah she didn't seem to like that I punched Cole yesterday and helped out Zack and Rainy. I think she expected me to ignore what they were doing and let Cole get on with it." I said as we sat down with Rainy and Jimmy. Rainy was looking at me as I said that. She had a slight frown on her face but it changed to a smile when Zack and Johnny both hugged her.

When I looked at her I noticed a band aide on her temple. I hadn't noticed it before cause her hair was covering it. Now there's a slight frown on my face. I can pretty much guess why she has a band aide there and I started to get mad.

Before I could say anything to her however, the gym teacher blew his whistle and told everyone we're continuing with Basketball. He gave a small speech where he told us that next week we would start playing Volleyball.

The rest of the day kind of went by fast. When the guys and I walked out to the parking lot, I saw Rainy leaning back against Jimmy's windshield. We all walked over and when she saw us she sat up. The guys told me that Jimmy, Rainy and Zack all had work tonight and that the others were going to Johnny's cousin's house.

I said bye to Rainy and just as I was about to turn and head to my car I remembered the note in my pocket. I pulled it out and handed it to her. I could see the guys looking at me questioningly but I just said bye to them and went to my car.

I was kind of dreading going home. My parents were coming back tonight. They might already be there. I didn't really want to see them. I just wanted to be left alone tonight but I knew they'd want to see me and hear about my weekend.

I was right. They got home about an hour after I did. They asked me about my weekend and everything but I was able to end the conversation early and lock myself in my room. I spent the evening thinking about a lot of things and about how glad I was that we moved to Huntington Beach.