His Scarred Love

Chapter 5 - [Crack Head]

I walked down the hall and found myself smiling when I saw Nikita who was standing at her locker, putting a giant biology textbook into it. She was still wearing her glasses and had her hair pulled into a somewhat messy half ponytail. She wore a short sleeved purple dress that was tight above her waist but flared below it. It was just above her knees, but she wore black tights that covered all of her legs and wore flats with socks.

It was cute. I wondered if she used to be cute, before I messed her up.

I shook my head and called her. “Nikita!”

She turned around and I think she sighed.

I swaggered over to her. “What are you doing?”

She turned back around, closing her locker and started to walk away. “I can’t talk to you.”

I followed her. “What?” I asked, confused. I started to panic. Had she heard about my plan?

“I said, I can’t talk to you.”

I stepped in front of her. “Why?”

She frowned. “I don’t like guys like you…”

I scoffed. “Excuse you.”

Her frown deepened. “I was talking to Jen yesterday and she got mad at me for calling you a cool guy.”

“Jen has something against me, what am I supposed to do about that?” I said it with a smile so that I didn’t look mean. I was also pretty flattered that thought I was a cool guy.

She shrugged. “I trust her, she’s my friend.” She turned around and started to walk away.

“Wait.” I said, continuing to follow her. “Just what did she say about me?”

Nikita sighed and turned around. “Listen, Nathan. I don’t talk to crack heads. I never will, got it?”

My eyebrows shot up. “What? I’m not a crack head!”

“Do you do drugs?” She asked.

“No!” I lied.

She could definitely see through my lie.

“Okay, fine… I smoke… sometimes…” I admitted. “But that doesn’t mean I’m a crack head.”

She frowned. “It’s illegal for you to smoke, you’re only seventeen. Plus, it’s a bad habit.”

“Well, I’m not a crack head.”

“Fine, I don’t talk to guys that smoke.”

I frowned. “Why are you being like this?”

“Because I want you to stop smoking and I want you to stop every other bad thing you do. I don’t know if what I say matters to you or not but this sort of stuff is really bad for you.”

I frowned. “Well, what you say does matter to me.” I said trying to sound the slightest bit romantic. “But I want to know why my habits matter to you?”

“Why would you want to mess up your life like that?” She asked, seriously.

I looked at her, not knowing what to say.

“I mean, you have nothing wrong with you but you’re doing things that are going to mess you up.” She said. “Think about it this way. Someone else messed my life up and I’m devastated. How do you think you will feel when you’re sitting in a hospital bed and realized that you ruined your own life?”

I pressed my lip into a thin line.

“So, I’ll talk to you when you drop all those habits.” She smiled but turned around to walk away.

I grabbed her hand. “Wait.”

She turned around and looked at my hand and then at me. “What?” She asked. I could see that she felt uncomfortable.

“As of now,” I said, “I’ll stop.”

Her face broke out into a smile. “Really?”

I nodded.

“You promise?”

I hesitated. “On one condition.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“Go on a date with me.” I immediately regretted what I had just asked. This was definitely not going slow.

She raised her eyebrows, looking worried. “Excuse me?”

“Err… umm…” I stuttered. “Just… go on a date with me and I promise that I will stop all of the bad things I do.”

“Why would you want me to go on a date with you?” She asked, confused. “I know you feel sorry for me but—”

“No. I’m not asking you out because I feel sorry for you.” I said. “I’m asking you out because I like you.” It felt weird lying to her, but I fought the weird feelings back. It was for the best.

She hesitated. “I can’t—”

“Please.”

She shook her head. “Listen, Nathan… you aren’t my type of guy…”

Slap. Yeah, that felt like a hard slap across the face. I have never been rejected before.

“I mean, you’re nice and all but… aren’t you failing?”

“No…” I lied.

“And don’t you always skip school?”

“Not always.” I lied again.

“And haven’t you been suspended tons of times?”

I shook my head. Another lie.

She sighed and pulled her hand away, seeing through all my lies. “I honestly can’t believe that you just asked me out because you like me, but if you really do, then you’ll smarten up.” She smiled at me, probably trying to tell me not to feel stupid. “When you smarten up… I’ll consider it.”

I hesitated but nodded. If that’s what I had to do then that’s what I was going to do. Besides, all I have to do was look and act decent. No more baggy clothes, no more dog tags, no more swearing at teachers, no more skipping. It doesn’t seem that hard. Besides, it’s all okay. I can be myself again after we break up.

“I will. I honestly will, you just wait.”

She smiled but she didn’t seem to believe me.

A sudden idea burst into my head. “But I need just one thing…”

She tilted her head and waited for me to speak.

“Can you be my tutor?”

“Tutor you?” She asked, surprised.

I nodded my head. “You’re smart, getting good grades and you’re nice.” I gave her a crooked smile, hoping my attractiveness would convince her to tutor me. “I think you’d be a great tutor.”

This was an excellent plan. What better way to get to know her and get her to like me than to spend time with her? Her becoming my tutor would be a great excuse for her to spend time with me.

Her cheeks turned a little pink. “I… we’ll see, Nate.”

“What?”

She turned around and started walking away. “We’ll see.” She said again but had turned into a class before I could stop her.