The Boy With The Hopeless Dreams

Chapter Seven

Amy wasn’t in school the next day or the day after so by the time Friday came, I was about to skip school and try to find her, when she walked through the gates. Sam walked straight over to her, telling me to stay where I was. At first, she ignored him but Sam grabbed her arm and forced her to look at him. Funny… He didn’t seem like the violent kind.

Their faces were inches from each other. Shock planted itself on Amy’s face and her free hand to reach out and push Sam away but he stood stock still, not budging. He shook her gently then released my former best friend. He watched her leave and I noticed how angry, no, furious, he looked, but he wiped that look from his face and sauntered back to me.

“Everything okay?” I inquired.

“Just peachy,” he replied sarcastically. “Ready for reg?”

“No, Sam, what’s going on?” I demanded. He shifted and looked away, his beautiful eyes clouding over.

“Don’t you worry your pretty little head, Lils. Everything will be okay in time…” He appeared to be convincing himself as opposed to trying to put me at ease.  I figured he would tell me if it was important so I just forgot about it.

School was weird when I wasn’t talking to Amy. There were so many times when I would catch her eye, think about apologising, then see the way she was looking at me; with such contempt it made me recoil.  I had been trying to protect her.

Okay, so maybe I was a bit forceful and unsympathetic but the guy was hitting her and doing God knows what else… I had to try and get her to stop seeing him but that was her choice. She chose some scumbag woman beater over me. He must be pretty special underneath all that brutality.

At lunch I had to find Amy. When she saw me approaching, she swiftly turned her back and stalked away. She hurried into the toilets and locked herself in one of the cubicles.

“Amy!” I called out. “Amy, open the door!” She unlocked it and, as it opened, she gave me such a dirty look.

“What do you want?” she replied harshly. I fumbled about my brain, trying to find the right words to say.

“I’m sorry for how I reacted: I just can’t believe you’re sticking by him and I just wanted to warn you and I was scared and angry-”

“You’re scared?! You are not the one seeing Harvey,” she interrupted.

“Exactly! Just leave him!”

“It’s not that easy, Lily.” Her eyes filled with tears and she let them fall. “I can’t ‘just leave him’. It’s so hard. I love him but… I can’t leave him.”

I stared at her incredulously. I didn’t understand. Then I heard someone enter the toilets and turned around, shocked to see it was Sam. He locked the door, came in and took my hand, saying,

“Lily, let’s go. Leave her.” Idiot. He completely didn’t understand. I gaped at him, not believing how heartless he could be. “Listen, she’s in too deep. I’ve tried to knock some sense into her but she just doesn’t know what she’s got herself into-”

“Oh, and you do, I take it?” Amy yelled.

“You know bloody well I do…” he whispered threateningly. Sam knew about being abused… That explains his reaction when I touched the scar. That’s what he was talking to Amy about earlier and he didn’t want me to hear.

A small, sad moan escaped my lips but neither of my company noticed. They were staring daggers at each other; Sam’s eyes had lost their glint and Amy’s were cold and ruthless. “Lily, come on.” He grabbed my hand and practically dragged me out of the bathroom, causing many passers-by to wolf whistle and the usual buffoons called out, telling us to “get a room”.