I bit his lip, drawing blood. He jumped backwards. I kicked him in the balls and then ran away. He told everyone at school that I came onto him and Lily made it her long-term goal to humiliate me from then on. I went from being the school loner to the school freak.” I stop talking. I can feel tears falling down my face. Embarrassed, I try to turn away and wipe them off my cheeks.
David exhales crossly, “I should have punched him harder.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Colton get up from the couch and walk towards me. He pauses in front of me and looks down, his eyes searching my face. His strong arms envelope me in a fierce hug. I tense for a moment, then relax, leaning into him. I can’t help myself. I wrap my arms around his waist, put my head onto his chest, and begin to sob into his shirt. Within minutes, his shirt is soaked.
When I am finally able to calm myself, I take a small step back, rubbing under my eyes with my sleeves. I’m sure I look like a raccoon. I catch a glimpse of his shirt and grimace. I ruined his shirt. The front is soaking wet with mascara stains on it. His arms are still around me. I drag my eyes from his shirt and open my mouth to apologize, when he starts vigorously shaking his head.
“Don’t you dare apologize to me, Ryanne. You didn’t do anything wrong.” He stops talking and looks towards David, “If only I knew. I could have done…something… anything. He shouldn’t have gotten away with that.”
“No one would have believed me if I said anything. It would have been my word against his,” I whisper. “He was the quarterback. The jock. One of the popular guys and I was the class freak, remember?”
“You weren’t a freak and it doesn’t matter. He still shouldn’t have gotten away with that.”
“It happened a while ago,” I say. “I’ve moved on from it.”
He looks down at me and can tell that I don’t want to talk about it anymore, so he lets go of me.
“Are you hungry?” David gets up from the couch, grabs the boxes of pizza, and heads into the kitchen. Colton walks over to a cupboard and brings out a couple of plates.
“Could either of you tell me where a bathroom is?”
David points towards the door. “Go out this door and take a left. It’s the second door on the right.”
“Thank you.” I walk out of the kitchen and go to the bathroom. I stand at the bathroom sink and look at my pale reflection. My eyes are bloodshot and my face is puffy from crying. I splash some cold water on my face, trying to get some color to return to my already pale complexion. I grab some Kleenex and dab under my eyes, trying to get rid of the mascara stains. When I finally feel presentable again, I walk out of the bathroom and back towards the kitchen. The closer I get, the more I am able to hear the whispers going on.
“I heard those rumors, David. I was with Adam when he told everyone. I couldn’t believe it. This shy, quiet girl that I had crushed on for over a year threw herself at the school jerk? I couldn’t wrap my head around it, but I got mad at her. I didn’t spread any of the rumors or anything, but I didn’t stop them either. It’s partially my fault.” I listen to the whole thing, but can only think about one thing: Colton had a crush on me? How is that possible? I had never met him until a couple weeks ago.
“Don’t blame yourself, Colton. There…”
I put on a blank face and decide to enter back into the room. “Why is Colton blaming himself?”
“Colton broke one of Claire’s favorite plates,” David says quickly, while pushing the pizza box towards me. “Here, have some pizza.”
I grab one piece and eat it slowly. I’ve lost my appetite. The guys inhale a whole pizza by themselves.
When I finish eating the piece, I wipe my hands off with my crumpled napkin and turn towards the Colton, “Can you teach me how to fight when you are done eating?”
“Yeah, just wait a little bit, so our food can settle.”
I nod and walk back into the living room, grabbing my notebook to start a new drawing: Liam. I’d never been very good at drawing people,