If Not for You (Completed)

Chapter 10: Kazzi

10 Kazzi

I didn't see Kale again until lunch, where I watched him pull a brown sack from his backpack and carefully tuck his cafeteria food in it before wadding it up and putting it back into the backpack. I'd seen him do it every day for almost two years and had always thought he was a secret anorexic or something with how thin he was.

I knew now, though, that the reason was likely that he was taking it to share with Meg and the others. It couldn't have been all that often that they had a decent meal, or any meal at all. Kale wouldn't be rolling in greenbacks from his job at the convenience store, and I didn't know if any of the others worked. So, watching him stow away the food now just made me sad.

"He hiding food again?" Brad scoffed from the chair beside me, and I nodded.

"Yeah. He's such a freak." I answered, hoping to stay on Brad's good side. At least for the time being.

"Apparently Creepy Kale is too good for school food." Cody chirped in, and it took everything within me to hold my tongue. Knowing Kale's situation made their comments all the more cruel and untrue.

Laughing lightly, Brad grinned at me. "Watch this."

I stared, mouth agape as he scooped up a spoonful of mashed potatoes and bent it back like a slingshot before flinging it at Kale. It hit him on his right temple to splatter into his hair and eye, and drip to his shoulder. He froze as the surrounding student body broke out into an uproar of laughter. Last week, it would have made me laugh too, but after everything, it just made my heart break for him. Without a word, he took a napkin from his tray and wiped off the mess as the people around him continued to laugh.

"Hey, Kale, you missed a spot!" Cody shouted from behind me, and before I could say anything, another spoonful went sailing, hitting Kale in the chest. The entire room was in upheaval now.

"Knock it off, you two." I grumbled. "You're gonna get us in trouble."

They were laughing hysterically, ignoring me as we watched poor Kale stand and wipe off the potatoes before shrugging on his backpack. Without so much as a glance in our direction, he started walking away, and I gasped as a kid from across the room, one I recognized from Brad's football team, stuck his foot out, causing Kale to trip and fall, catching himself on his injured arm as everyone laughed.

Dear God, we weren't the only ones that picked on him? How had I never noticed that before?

It made me think back to the week prior when Lisa and I had found him picking up papers; made me wonder if they were scattered because someone had pushed him. We had mocked him for it, then Lisa had kicked his papers to scatter all over again. It was then that I'd told Kale how worthless I thought he was. The memory almost made tears come to my eyes.

I swallowed hard to keep them at bay as I watched him stand, cradling his arm against his chest, pain on his face as he walked out of the cafeteria and down the hall. I didn't see him again for the whole rest of the day.

I got a text during fifth period that my car was ready to be picked up, and by the time the final bell rang, I was more than ready to bolt. Lisa gave me a ride to the mechanic's shop and waited with me until I finally had my Dad on my phone, and he was passing over his credit card information. After, I spent half an hour talking Lisa out of another trip to the mall and round two on attempting to get with Evan, on the excuse of a migraine.

As soon as I was on my own, I drove to see Kale, parking at the gas station a block away so no one who might recognize my silver Subaru could trace it to the bridge. Kale wasn't outside, which I'd been hoping. With my supposed reputation around that place, I wasn't about to just go waltzing in, and there wasn't exactly a doorbell. But neither could I just stand outside and get snowed on, so taking a deep breath, I pulled up my big girl panties and started toward the doorway, just as Meg emerged. And her eyes locked instantly on me.