Bad Love Lingers (Book Three)

Chapter Three

                                                                                            Isabel

            Monday morning approached earlier than I wanted. Of course, I was ready to go back to school because the reality was that I loved school. I excelled in all my classes and had a perfect GPA. That came with a lot of studying and always staying on top of my work. I guess in a way that I got that from my mom. She was always a bright young woman as well, even if that did fall short after meeting my dad.

            I got up out of bed, ready to get this day over with already. The first day back was always the hardest. All the bullies would try to attack me the first day to set up what I would expect for the rest of the year. Most of the time, I had Olivia to save me, but this year our classes were so vastly different that I didn’t know if I would see her that much. The only period we shared together was study hall and lunch. Outside of that, I would only see her a little before and after school. I let out the first but most definitely not the last sigh of the day. Jumping from my bed, I went straight to my closet and picked out something simple. I wanted something that would hide me if at all possible. I brushed through my long curly brunette hair before pinning it up in a ponytail. Then, I put on my blue jeans with one of my favorite band t-shirts, which happened to be ACDC. Lastly, I shoved my feet in my black and white converse before taking a look at myself in the mirror. This would have to do.

            “Isabel! We need to leave right now, or else I am going to be late opening the clinic,” my mom shouted from downstairs. She owed a veterinarian clinic in town that was supposedly given to her, but I am not sure of the details. Mom never talked much about her business to me, and I was okay with that because I didn’t share her same love for animals. Don’t get me wrong, I loved certain types of animals, but not all. For that reason, I have never been there. Spiders were one of my biggest fears. My mom has been known to get a tarantula in every now and again. No thanks!

            “Coming!”

            I grabbed my bag and rushed down the stairs. Mom already had breakfast made up for us, knowing exactly what I preferred for my breakfast. Morning bagels were my go-to and easy for when I was being rushed.

            “Where’s dad and Justin?”

            “Your father already took Justin to school since he passes by there going to work. I figured that I would let you sleep in a little longer today. I know how you feel about the first day back at school.” She smiled at me as she grabbed her pocketbook. “Ready?”

            Ready as I will ever be, I thought to myself. The school line was already jammed pack of students waiting to be dropped off by their parents. I wish that my parents would come up with the money to get me a car. Being dropped off by your parents was embarrassing enough as it was. I said goodbye to mom and hopped out of the car as fast as possible, and practically powerwalked to the front door.

            When I got inside, Olivia was waiting for me by the vending machines. “What took you so long?”

            “Mom let me sleep in today. Wait a minute. Aren’t you normally the late one? How in the hell are you here before me?”

            She reached in her pocket and swayed a key holder in front of me. “Last night my parents surprised me with a car. It isn’t a Ferrari or anything, but it will do.”

            I shook my head back and forth. This was unbelievable. I always thought that I would be the first of us to get a car, even if it was a piece of crap. Deciding not to ruin her good day, I said, “well, congratulations. I’m so happy for you, girl.” It may have come off a little redundant, but I tried to sound authentic.

            Inside I wanted to scream like a little girl throwing a tantrum. I knew that I should be happy for her, but I was anything but. Her parents gave her everything that she ever wanted, while I never asked for a single thing. My dad was always so hard on me. For that reason, I never got a thing, though my mom tried to reason with him. The one good thing that wouldn’t ruin my day was the fact that my mom told me that my dad agreed to let me go to the dance. I don’t know how she did it but thank goodness that she did.

            “So, I got some good news of my own. It may not be as fancy as a car, but it made me pretty happy. My dad agreed to let me go to the dance.”

            Olivia stopped walking, which made me stop walking. She turned toward with huge bug eyes and let out a screech loud enough to turn everyone’s head. Way to keep myself invisible today. “Hell yeah! About damn time that he agreed to let you do something. Geez, I thought that I was going to have to go alone.”

            “Olivia, you know as well as I do that wouldn’t have happened. There are a million guys in this school that would love to be your date. I don’t know why you told them all that you were going with me. I love you for it, I do, but I don’t want to ruin your good time just because I don’t have a date.”

            She shrugged her shoulders, getting ready to respond when one of her flavors for the month came up, snaking his arms around her waist. “Hello beautiful,” he whispered into her ear.

            Everything inside me told me to look away, but I couldn’t. I might have refused to let a guy creep into my space, but I found it kind of interesting to see all the guys kneeling at the feet of Olivia. They would all beg to be given a chance with her because she was incredibly beautiful. All the guys wanted to be with her, and all the girls wanted a chance to get to know her. I knew that if we didn’t grow up being friends that I would have never stood a chance to be her friend now. We were total opposites. Not only that, but popular girls like her never got caught being around girls like me that were at the bottom of the school totem pole.

            Olivia giggled as she turned around, rubbing her fingers through his ginger hair. “Good morning, handsome.” She turned her head toward me. “I got to go, but I will see you at lunch.” She winked, then locked her arms in with his and was off.

            I went to my locker first to put my bag inside and grab only the necessities for my first class, which happened to be English. My locker was bare and would stay like this for the rest of the year. Simplicity was a simple girls, like me, best friend. It seemed like this morning would be easier than I thought. That was until I heard chuckling from behind me. Olivia’s outburst caused the attention to fall back on me. Damnit!

            “Look who we have here. Little miss Hawkins decided to give us the pleasure of seeing her face this morning.”

            When I turned around, Chelsea knocked my books from my hands and shared a laugh among her friends. “Really, Chelsea? Don’t you have anything better to do than ruin my morning? Like, I don’t know, fix your hair or makeup.”

            All her friends shared an ohhh moment. Chelsea grunted at me before slamming me into the locker. “I would watch yourself, b***h. No one in this school talks to me that way. Your friend isn’t here to save you this time.” Just then, the bell rang. I expected her to let me go because Chelsea was one of those girls that never got caught doing anything wrong. Every teacher here thought she was nothing but a goody-two-shoes. “I think that it's worth skipping the first period just to have a little fun with you. After all, we need to start the first day of school off with a bang.” She grabbed my shirt, turned me around, and slammed my face into my locker.

            I squinted my eyes, waiting for her fist to fly toward the side of my face, but nothing ever came. That was when I heard a voice that caught my attention. “How about you leave the girl alone?”

            “Oh yeah? Why do you care?”

            “I don’t, but you are in my way. That is my locker that you are beating her face next to. Now that you have brought me into it, I have no other choice but to care. How about you get the hell out of here before things turn bad for you real quick?”

            His voice was husky, deep, and mysterious in a way. The way he spoke was kind of scary and intimating, but it seemed to do the trick. Chelsea smacked her lips before letting go of my face. I could hear the thumping of her high heels as she walked away. When I turned around to meet the guy who saved me, my mouth dropped open as I stared into those familiar smokey grey eyes. He didn’t seem to care that I was standing there gawking at him.

            “Are you going to move out of my way now?”

            I put my head down, moved out of his way, and started picking up my books. A part of me expected him to help, but he never did. He was getting ready to walk away when I figured I owed him something. “Thank you,” I said, but it didn’t feel like enough for what he just did, whether he was doing it for me or not. He didn’t even stop walking as he heard me thank him for his help—what a jerk.

            “Class started ten minutes ago,” a teacher said as I stood up with my books scattered in my arms. “Miss Hawkins, you aren’t setting a good example for the other students being this is the first day back.” As I looked up, I noticed it was our gym teacher Mr. Lucas speaking to me. “What in the world?” He approached me, turned my head, and saw the mark on my face. “Who did this?” I didn’t respond. The last thing I wanted to do was to be known as the snitch around school from now on. Mr. Lucas always was very nice to me but partially reminded me of my dad. “Come on and follow me to the school nurse. Your lip is bleeding, and your face is bruised.”

            He would end up telling my parents way before I ever got home from school. I could hear my dad now going on and on about how they were going to pay for hurting me. At times, he was annoying, and I didn’t always appreciate how hard he was on me, but I couldn’t deny how much he loved me, even if he was overly protective. The nurse ended up checking me out, giving me some antibiotics and some ibuprofen for the pain. After that, I was free to go to class since I wouldn’t provide them with any information on who did this.

            One thing that I wouldn’t be able to avoid was Olivia. I wouldn’t have to say a word to her because she already knew who it was. Since the sixth grade, Chelsea has despised me and has done everything she could to make my life hell at school. It usually wasn’t this bad. Someone must have pissed her off real bad this morning. Oh well, there was nothing I could do about it other than to get back up on my feet and brush it off. If I gave into her, she would win, and I wasn’t going to let that happen. Silent revenge was sometimes the best revenge.