Save Me

{Matt}

The end of the day didn’t come fast enough but finally I get to see Rainy soon. Johnny was riding with me so that he can show me where he lives. Though he doesn’t need to since I already know where he lives, but he doesn’t know that.

As we drove to his house, Johnny was telling me that his house wasn’t all that great. Not like mine. I could tell he was a little nervous about me seeing his house. Even though I’ve seen it, I told him that I don’t care what his house looks like. I’m not going to stop being his friend because of what his house looks like.

When we got to his house I parked on the street and turned the car off. We got out and I followed Johnny up the front walk to the door. Once we got to it Johnny twisted the knob and opened the door. I followed him in and my eyes immediately landed on Rainy as she came into the hall with a can of soda in her hand. Johnny saw her also and walked over to her and gave her a hug.

My eyes never left her, not even when her and Johnny pulled apart and she looked at me. I saw a mark on her left cheek but I couldn’t make out what it was. The both of us just stared at each other and I could feel butterflies in my stomach. I never knew guys could get butterflies. My heartbeat started to quicken and my feet seemed to have a mind of their own as they took me closer to Rainy.

When I was right in front of her I saw her cheek clearly and I saw the scratch. I gently turned her head to the side to get a better look. It wasn’t long, maybe a quarter to a half an inch and it didn’t look deep but it might leave a faint scar. I felt anger towards Liz for doing that and guilt at myself for possibly being the reason it’s there.

I saw Rainy looking at me out of the corner of her eye. She had a confused and questioning look on her face and I realized I was lightly touching her cheek around the scratch. I pulled my hand away and took a step back.

“Sorry.” I said softly. Rainy gave me a small smile. “Are you okay?” I asked. I only saw the scratch but she might have other marks somewhere else.

Rainy nodded her head with another one of her dazzling smiles. I smiled back at her and we once again just looked at each other. I could faintly hear Johnny saying that he called Jeremy who would be over in like an hour.

Zack, who came over to see what kind of drink I wanted, interrupted our little moment. I didn’t want to get drunk tonight even though it’s a celebration, so I told him I just wanted a six-pack. I pulled out my wallet to give him the money for it.

“What about Rainy?” I asked him.

“Oh, her and I always get a bottle of Jack to share and split the cost.” He said, and then looked at Rainy. “But tonight you’re not paying. It’s on me.” He told her to which she shook her head no. Zack said yes and walked away after I gave him my money.

Rainy rolled her eyes and with one last look at me she walked into the living room. I followed behind her and took a seat on the couch. Jimmy and Brian were playing a video game while Zack was watching. It was amusing watching Jimmy and Brian arguing over the game. It’s a racing game and it looks like Jimmy is winning.

An hour later I heard the front door open and close while someone shouted hey. A decent looking guy who looked to be in his early twenties, walked into the living room. Everyone said their ‘hi’s’ to him and when he saw Rainy he walked over to her and she gave him a smile.

“There’s my girl.” He said bending down to give her a kiss on the forehead. “So, Johnny tells me that you got into a fight today.” He said to Rainy while she looked over at Johnny. Johnny just smiled sheepishly. “That’s all she did to you?” the guy asked Rainy as he looked at her cheek. She nodded.

“It looks like you’re getting a slight bruise on your jaw.” He said as he ran a finger along her jaw and I saw him press it a little. “Does it hurt?” Rainy shook her head no. “I hope you kicked her ass.” He said with a chuckle.

“You bet she did.” Brian said. He then told the guy what Liz looked like. It’s the first time the guys and I were hearing the details of how bad Liz looked. It kind of made me feel a little easy knowing that compared to the ‘damage’ inflicted on Rainy, Liz definitely got the worst. But I need to find out if the fight was because of me and what I had said to Liz.

The guy looked at Rainy and it looked like he was smiling proudly as he said. “That’s my girl.” He gave her another kiss on the forehead as he hugged her.

“Oh yeah. Jeremy, this is Matt. He’s a new friend of ours. He just moved here last week.” Johnny said introducing me to the guy. “Matt, this is my cousin Jeremy.” I shook his hand.

“Nice to meet you.” He said to me.

“Yeah, you too.”

“All right. Well give me the list so we can get this celebration started.” Jeremy had said. Zack got up and handed the list and money to him.

“We? What, you’re going to stay?” Brian asked Jeremy.

“Yeah. I gotta help y’all celebrate.” Jeremy said. He then walked to the front door and opened it. “I’ll be back in like twenty minutes.”

He then walked out of the house and we soon heard his car start up. Brian and Jimmy went back to their game and we watched.

By the time Jeremy came back, Jimmy had pretty much annihilated Brian in the game and Brian was declaring a rematch later. As the night went on we continued drinking but we didn’t want to get drunk. Everyone was just a bit tipsy. I had called my folks earlier to see if it was okay for me to stay at Johnny’s and they said it was fine as long as I went to school the next day. Rainy and Jeremy were now playing the video game while Brian and Jimmy waited for them to finish so that they can play again.

“Hey Johnny, when is Aunt Stacey coming home?” Jeremy asked.

“She’ll be home tomorrow. Why?”

“Cause I need a place to stay for a couple days while my ex-girlfriend cleans her shit out of my place.” Jeremy answered.

“Dude, you know my mom will let you stay here. You don’t even have to ask.” Johnny said to him.

“Wait. You and Tara spilt up?” Brian asked him in what sounded like a shocked tone.

“Yeah.” Jeremy said.

“Damn. We thought you two would be together for a long time.” Jimmy said.

“So did I till I came home from work on Monday and found her screwing some guy on the kitchen table.” Jeremy said in a sour tone.

“Holy shit. You’re kidding?” Zack said.

“Nope. Then I broke up with her and kicked her ass out.”

“What did she do?” Johnny asked.

“She tried telling me it was an accident and it didn’t mean anything. All I said to her was that I wanted her shit out of my house by Friday night.” Jeremy said to us.

“What if she doesn’t get her stuff out?” Brian asked.

“Then I’m just throwing it away or I might sell some of it if it can be sold.”

“Damn man, that sucks.” Zack said.

“Yeah, sorry man.” Johnny said top Jeremy.

“Ah forget it. I’m better off without her.” Jeremy said as him and Rainy went back to their game. It is messed up what his girl did. I wouldn’t stay with someone who cheated on me either.

It was about an hour later and I was talking with Zack and Johnny when they got onto the topic of the fight. Johnny was saying how Liz should have known better and you’d think she would have learned her lesson the last time.

“What do you mean ‘last time’?” I asked Johnny. Him and Zack looked at each before letting out a few laughs.

“The last time Rainy and Liz fought.” Johnny said. I just stared at them. Rainy and Liz had fought each other before?

“When was this?” I questioned, curious to know.

“Back when we were in seventh grade.” Johnny said.

“You see, Rainy and Liz never got along. They’ve pretty much detested each other since they first met in sixth grade. I think Liz was jealous of Rainy because of how pretty she is. And how a lot of boys thought she was prettier than Liz. Though none of the rich boys ever asked her out cause of social statuses but some of the ‘middle class’ boys did. Though she didn’t feel any attraction to any of them.

“Liz hated that because to her only rich people can be beautiful. She couldn’t understand why the boys in school would even think to give a second glance at a ‘poor’ girl like Rainy.” Zack explained to me. I could actually feel my disgust with Liz growing.

“Yeah, especially when some of the boys were the popular ones. Boys that Liz hung out with and still hangs out with.” Johnny piped in.

“It’s no doubt that you might find this hard to believe, considering how he is towards Rainy these days and especially after what he tried to do to her on Monday, but Cole was one of those boys.” Zack said. Holy shit. He has to be kidding right? I looked at him and I’m sure my eyes looked like they were about to pop out of my head. Zack just nodded.

“Oh wait, I lied. I said none of the rich boys asked Rainy out but there was one who got the balls to ask her on a date. Rainy turned him down though. When his friends found out about it, they all stopped talking to him. He spent the next two years of junior high being teased and ragged on by those he used to call friends. It wasn’t till he joined the junior varsity football team in ninth grade and became their best linebacker, that all his old friends welcomed him back into their crowd. You probably won’t believe this either but that boy was Dean.” Zack said. My jaw dropped so low that I thought it was going to fall off. Dean, the guy who helped hold Rainy’s arms while Cole messed with her, asked Rainy out. He even went through a couple years of teasing from who he’s friends with. This is really hard to believe.

“We actually think they still like Rainy and that’s why they’re the way they are towards her. Dean because Rainy turned him down. He was one of the popular boys that a lot of girls wanted to date but he only wanted to date Rainy and she wouldn’t go out with him. Cole because Rainy is something he wants but can’t have cause it’ll ruin his rep.” Johnny said. I just shook my head slightly, still not being able to believe this.

“So why did Liz and Rainy fight?” I asked them almost feeling like a gossiping schoolgirl with how into the story I was.

“It was over a boy, actually. Tommy Miller. He’s from the middle class part of town and he’s a decent guy. He liked Rainy and she liked him. They became friends and started hanging out a lot, getting to know each other better. Then one day he asked her out and she said yes.

“Liz didn’t like that. She had liked Tommy for a while and had even asked him out. She couldn’t stand the fact that he’d rather go out with Rainy then her. Rainy and Tommy had been together for about a month when rumors started going around about them. Bad rumors. Then one day Rainy had gone to meet up with Tommy at the park. She was gone not even an hour and when she came back she was really upset and we could see she had been crying. When we asked her what happened she told us that Tommy had broken up with her cause he thought she was the one spreading the rumors.

“Brian asked him about it the next day at school and that’s when we found out that Liz had told Tommy that Rainy was the one saying all that stuff. Tommy had believed her and when he asked Rainy about it he said that Rainy told him she didn’t know what he was talking about.

“Rainy never talked about their relationship to anyone but us and we never said anything. Jimmy told Rainy what Tommy told us and she confronted Liz one day between classes. Liz started gloating and said, ‘yeah I told him that you were spreading the rumors when really, it was me doing it’. When Rainy asked her why Liz simply said, ‘because he should be with me and not trailer trash like you’.

“What Liz didn’t know was that Tommy was standing right behind her while she was saying all this. He found out the truth: Liz lied to him to try and break him and Rainy up and she succeeded. But before he could say anything Rainy just basically launched herself at Liz.” Zack told me.

“You know, I think that was the only time Rainy was the one to start a fight. Normally she’ll avoid fights when she can but if she can’t then she won’t be the first one to swing.” Johnny said.

“Yeah, I think it was. Anyway, the two of them were fighting for a good ten minutes before anyone could break them up. It took four teachers to pull Rainy off Liz, that’s how pissed she was. Rainy liked Tommy a lot and she hated Liz for what she did and for screwing her and Tommy up.” I sat there in disbelief at what Liz had done. She sure is a vindictive bitch.

“And man did Rainy mess her up. Liz was out of school for three weeks after that fight.” Johnny said nearly laughing his ass off. I could tell he was replaying the fight in his head.

“So what happened after that?” I asked.

“Well Rainy was really hurt about what happened. She was upset that he didn’t even try to talk to her about it, he just automatically believed Liz over her. She kind of ignored him for a few weeks but eventually started talking to him again. Though it was too late by then, they couldn’t get back what they had. Even though they didn’t really have anything romantically yet, they did have a pretty good friendship but even that was never the same again. Now-a-days if they see each other in the hall or glance at each other in class, they’ll smile at each other but that’s it. Sometimes he’ll ask her how she’s doing.” Zack said finishing the story.

“In class?”

“Yeah. He’s in our Math and History classes.” Zack said. “He sits two seats over from Brian in Math and right in front of me in History.” I tried to remember if I had seen him but I never really paid attention to everyone in my classes.

“He’s also in our Spanish class.” I heard from next to me and I jumped a little as the voice startled me. I turned to see who it was and saw Brian sitting there. I hadn’t even noticed he came over and joined us.

“Really” I asked and Brian nodded. When I get to school tomorrow I’ll have to remember to look out for this guy. I looked over at where Rainy was now playing against Jimmy. They were playing Mortal Kombat and it looks like Jimmy is winning. I laughed when Rainy grabbed his controller and threw it off to the side, causing him to lose.

“Hey, that’s cheating!” Jimmy exclaimed as Rainy and Jeremy laughed at him.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Zack watching me as I watched Rainy but I chose not to pay attention. I thought back to when Zack said that boys thought she was prettier than Liz and I have to agree with that. Rainy is a very gorgeous girl and anyone who didn’t see her beauty is a blind idiot. I continued to watch Rainy and I couldn’t help but feel those butterflies in my stomach again.

Rainy looked over at where we were sitting and our eyes connected. She smiled softly at me and at that very moment I decided that I wasn’t going to fight any feelings I may have for Rainy. I would let them take over my body if they wanted. I know now that no matter what I could do, I would never be able to stop these feelings if I wanted to. But I don’t want to. I want to feel everything and anything I could for Rainy even if she never feels anything for me. I gave her a soft smile of my own and she went back to her game.

The rest of the night went by faster than I thought it would. That could be because I was having a good time. I played some games with the guys and Rainy and I even won a few. Before I knew it everyone was tired and ready to go to bed. I looked over at the clock on the wall and saw that it was a little after one in the morning. We’ve been hanging out and ‘celebrating’ since around four this afternoon.

We decided on where we were all going to sleep. Johnny was already passed out on the chair and Jimmy was asleep on the floor. Jeremy had gone up and crashed in Johnny’s mom’s room and Zack and Rainy were going to sleep in Johnny’s room. Brian said I could sleep in the guest room and he’d sleep on the couch. We all went to our assigned sleeping spots and fell asleep.

Johnny woke me up the next morning by shaking me and telling me it was time to get up. I got up out of the bed and put my jeans back on and walked out of the room running my fingers through my hair. As I was walking down the hall I looked in one of the rooms and saw Johnny waking Zack up. I laughed at what I saw. Zack was on his back laying on the bed normal while Rainy was laying across the bed with her legs over Zack’s legs and her feet dangling over the side. Her head was almost hanging over the other side of the bed.

I walked downstairs and into the living room where Brian and Jimmy looked like they were still trying to fully wake up. I sat down in the chair and closed my eyes. I really didn’t feel like being awake but we had to go to school.

After a few minutes I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. I looked up and saw Johnny. He came into the living room and sat on the arm of the couch.

“Well Zack’s not waking up so I guess he’s the one skipping to day.” Johnny announced to which I gave him a confused look.

“When one of us gets suspended, each of us will skip a day and just hang out with whoever got suspended, except on Friday when we all skip.” Johnny explained to me. I nodded my head in understanding.

When we were all more awake, we decided it was time to go to school. I looked over at the clock and saw it was already 8:00, which meant first period would be ending about the time we got there. Brian had let me borrow one of his shirts that he had at Johnny’s so that people wouldn’t notice I was wearing the same clothes as yesterday. I can get away with wearing the same jeans though.

Johnny rode with me to school while Brian and Jimmy rode together. It didn’t take us long to get to school and as I pulled into a parking spot, I got myself ready for what I knew would be a long day since Rainy wasn’t going to be here.