His Scarred Love

Chapter 3 - [The Quiet Girl with the Scar]

I'm sorry. Jeez.

I’ve said it over and over again for the last few weeks but nothing helped. What happened had been biting on my conscience since day one. No matter what my friends said, it never helped. I didn’t tell my parents about what happened. Of course I didn’t. My parents never knew about what was going on in my life, unless they got called to the school by the principal.

I was hoping that maybe actually seeing this girl would help me feel better. I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as what Ms. Jesse said it was. Maybe it was a small scar, maybe she could cover it with her bangs. I mean, girls use their bangs to cover things all the time. I’m sure it’s okay.

But I was wrong, like I am most of the time.

I walked out of my first period class and saw a male teacher giving a female student a hug. It took me less than a second to realize that the teacher was Mr. Damon Alton. How did I know? Because all the girls were staring at him. And most of them were staring angrily at the girl he was hugging.

Mr. Alton was a chill guy in his late twenties. He was my favorite teacher and it’s crazy for a guy like me to have a favourite teacher. But he’s the only teacher that can make a course like English fun. He was tall and stood with a proud sort of posture. He had chiseled features, short brown hair and small blue eyes. The thing about him that everyone knew was that he was strangely capable of attracting girls without even knowing it.

I wouldn’t be surprised that the girl who was hugging him was another one of those girls who had a crush on him. To be honest, what I was actually surprised about was the fact that Mr. Alton hugged her back. He was always very professional and knew it was illegal to be in close relationships with his female students. But really, who am I to talk about what’s illegal and all.

I walked up to them. “Hey Alton.” As much as I liked this guy, I was dying to know who he was hugging, who could be a possible cause for him being sent to jail.

He nodded his head at me and then I heard a sob.

It was then that I realized that he was only comforting the girl, who was for whatever reason crying.

“Listen.” He said. “You have to move ahead. You can’t always be crying about this, Nikita. What’s done is done. You are a still a wonderful girl who is completely capable of doing the amazing things that you used to do.” He placed his hands on her shoulders and stepped away from her hug so that he can look at her.

My eyes widened and my heart stopped.

The girl looked up at him, tears in her eyes. There was a scar on all of the right side of her face and even along the upper part of her neck, making small areas look slightly darker then her normal tan skin colour. She wore glasses over her teary eyes… her long, wavy, brown hair did little to cover her right eye which was a shade of grayish brown and her left was a normal brown.

I couldn’t breathe.

“And one of those things,” Mr. Alton said, “was being strong.” He smiled at her. “You are one of the strongest girls I know and I want you to stay like that. There is nothing wrong with you. You are still the same, strong and beautiful Nikita. Okay?”

She shook her head. “I don’t even want to be here anymore.” She said. “I don’t want to come to school… people are looking—”

“Why does that matter?” He asked. “Do not, ever, worry about other people. You have a family, friends and teachers that care about you and that’s all that is important.”

I wanted to turn around and walk away, but I couldn’t. For some reason, I just couldn’t. All I could do was just watch as she cried.

“Listen, Nikita… you’re going to be late for class. I want you to stop crying. I want you to take a deep breath.”

She did, but it was shaky.

“Now, I want you to know that nothing has changed. Nothing. You are still you and everyone knows that. Is that understood?”

She hesitated but nodded.

He smiled and patted her shoulder. “Good.” He then looked at me. “Nathan. Would you do me a favor and take her to her next class?”

I didn’t say anything, I just stared at the girl.

“Nathan?”

“Yeah… I can.” I said, ripping my eyes off her and looking at Mr. Alton.

“Thank you.” He smiled, but frowned as he took my hat off my head and handed it to me. “No hats in the building, how many times do I have to tell you that?”

I didn’t respond, I was too busy freaking out about this girl to worry about the fact that I was breaking the rules.

He didn’t seem to care because he turned back to the girl. “Nikita, remember that if you ever need anyone to talk to, you can always come to me, okay?”

She nodded and then looked at me hesitantly.

“Don’t worry. Nathan’s a good guy. You can trust him to take you to your next class.” He looked at me. “Right Nathan?”

Mr. Alton knew I wasn’t a good guy, but I nodded. “Yes sir.”

He smiled. “Alright, I have to get to my next class.” He said as he turned around. “Take care.”

The girl forced a smile. “Thank you, sir.”

He nodded his head at her.

When he left, I put my hat back on and tried my best not to look at the girl. Maybe that would help. Maybe not seeing her would get rid of this guilt and even fear that I was feeling. “So, what class do you have next?” I asked.

“Art.” She said, adjusting her glasses.

“Oh, okay, room 115?”

She nodded.

“Okay, c’mon.” I said as I turned around and started walking.

Classes had already started so the halls were pretty quiet and unfortunately for me, the two of us were alone.

“So… are you new to this school?” I asked.

“No. I’ve gone here since grade nine. So I’ve been here for three years.” She said, softly.

“And you still don’t know where room 115 is?”

She hesitated. “I’ve never worn glasses before. I’ve had two perfect eyes since I was born. Now I only have one.” Her voice cracked. “I’m still not used to walking around using one eye, I’ll probably hurt myself.” She bit her lip and her eyes got watery.

“Oh…” I said stupidly and then we continued to walk in silence.

“Nikki!” I heard a familiar voice yell.

I looked up and saw Jen, Justin’s ex-girlfriend, run up to her along with some other girls. She looked at me with a glare and then turned to her friends.

“Hey Jen.” Nikita smiled.

Jen gave her a hug and then looked at the other girls who hugged Nikita as well. “Take her to her next class guys, I’ll come in a second.”

Her friends nodded and gently took her hand, as if they were afraid that she was breakable. They began to guide her away from me.

Nikita stopped them though and turned around to look at me. “I’m sorry if what I said freaked you out…” She said with a frown.

I shook my head, trying to avoid looking at her scar. “No it’s fine… you didn’t.”

“Thanks for walking me to my class.” She smiled. A cute smile. If she didn’t have the scar on her face, it would have probably been cuter.

“No problem.” I said immediately. I felt terrible. She shouldn’t thank me for anything.

She then turned around and walked away with her friends, but Jen stayed.

“What the hell are you doing?” She asked.

I looked at her. “What? What do you mean? I’m not doing anything.”

“Are you taking advantage of the fact that she’s blind in one eye?”

Jen was a hot and popular brunette with green eyes and pale skin. Like most hot girls, she had the curves, the boobs and the ass. She wasn’t known for being a slut though, like most of the hot and popular girls at our high school are, but she was known for being a b***h. There wasn’t one boyfriend out of the many she’s had that she didn’t accuse of cheating on her. If you were dating Jen, one look at another girl could ignite her suspicions. She trusted no one.

And that, no doubt, included me.

“What are you talking about?”

“Shut the hell up.” Jen said, throwing her hands around to add emphasis.

“Mr. Alton asked me to walk her to her next class.” I said, truthfully.

“Yeah right.” Jen spat. “Listen here you bastard, I heard that you were the one who kicked the ball.”

I frowned. “What—”

“Let me tell you something. She’s one of my best friends and if you f**k with her, you f**k with me. Got it?”

I scoffed and prepared myself to say something smart but she walked away.

She has always acted like that. I don’t blame Justin for breaking up with her… she was a pain in the ass and she knew it. She was loud with her suspicions and always had something rude to say about everyone. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was talking about her own friends behind their backs.

The fact that Nikita hung out with her probably meant that Nikita was not that different from her. It actually even made me feel a little better for doing what I did to her.

As time passed, however, I realized that I was wrong about Nikita. She was the total opposite of Jen.

I saw her a lot after that. I think everyone saw her, how could you not notice a girl with a huge scar on her face and eyes which were different colours. But even still, she was very quiet and I was surprised that she was friends with someone like Jen.

And for some reason, her individuality made me want to talk to her… my friends called me stupid and said that I was looking for trouble. If she found out that I kicked the ball, I could get charged, or worse, arrested.

But I thought differently, like I almost always did.

I sat down and thought about why I would want to talk to her. Like my friends said, was I really looking for trouble? But then I realized that my brain was a step ahead of me. Talking to her… even becoming her friend would be an amazing idea.

I mean, who would suspect that their friend kicked the ball that ruined half of their face?