To Be Accepted

To Be Accepted Part 7

   Monday morning rolled around, and after a rough time waking up, I was outside at the bus stop waiting for the bus to come pick me, and other kids from my neighborhood up for school. Once the bus pulled up, I saw that we had a new driver, who thankfully was ten times nicer than the last one was, and it was a guy this time. He let us all board the bus, then we were promptly off for school, getting there with no incidents whatsoever.

   Once getting off the bus, I walked in the school, where everyone was talking about Adam, and everyone was saying some not so nice things about him, all of which I would cringe at if I were to repeat what was said. Not long after walking in, and getting halfway to my locker, I ran into Luke. He was seeing the backlash from what Adam did, where just like me, he heard some crazy things people were saying about him.

   "Man, this place is toxic today, have you heard what people are saying about Adam?" Luke asked.

   "How could I not?" I asked, "I've never cringed so hard in my life!"

   "Have you been to your locker yet?" Luke asked.

   "I'm on my way, why?" I replied.

   "When you get there, stick around, I heard someone wants to meet you." Luke replied.

   "Someone you know?" I asked.

   "No, I hear he's just a new guy that heard what happened to you." Luke replied.

   So, with that, I said my goodbye to Luke until later, then headed to my locker. When I got to the hallway where my locker was, I saw a bunch of students lining the hallway on the only wall that the lockers in this hallway were on. I opened my locker to get my books out, when a commotion started in the hall. I turned to see a guy coming down the hall that I'd never seen before. He was only about 6 feet tall, but man was he jacked! He had to be 285-290 pounds, and he had our football team's jersey on, so I knew he had joined the football team. 

   He was coming down the hall greeting the other students as he made his way down, but I thought for sure that since I was on the short side, he'd miss me for sure. He was slapping hands with the guys, hugging the girls, he stopped to very briefly talk to a couple students, making me think he'd never get to me. As he got closer, I could see that he was a really cute guy. His dark blonde hair was short enough to where from a distance, he looked bald, and those eyes, good lord those eyes, they were the most beautiful blue I'd ever seen.

   Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he finally got to the girl that was next to me, hugged her, talked to her for about 30 seconds, where afterwards, she pointed down to me.

   "Don't forget Mike!" she told him.

   Then he looked down at me, where right away, he bent down to my level.

   "Oh, I'm not gonna forget this guy." the guy said. 

Then he put his arms around me, giving me a hug that I wasn't expecting, but he smelled so good, I didn't dare push him away. After we got done hugging, we locked eyes again. He ruffled my hair, then rose to a full standing position.

   "Your days of having fake friends are over buddy, your life is about to change, and I'm the one that's gonna change it." the guy said, then he waved to everyone in the hall, then walked around the corner to the next hall.

   I wasted no time chasing after the guy, I wanted to know more about him. So, I ran as fast as my legs would take me.

   "Wait! I need to talk to you!" I said, running short of breath as I finally caught up with this guy.

   "What would you like to know?" the guy asked.

   "I didn't catch your name." I replied.

   "Oh! right! I'm Russ." he replied, extending a hand.

    "How did you know what happened to me?" I asked.

    "Read it all over social media bud." Russ replied, "Plus, after I found out about it, Luke went into specifics and told me you were Adam's victim."

   "You mean you've dealt with Adam before?" I asked.

   "More times than I can shake a stick at pal, you're not the first person he's done this to." Russ said, "He just better be glad he's in Arizona where I can't get my hands on him." 

   "I kind of wish he was." I said, "I'd love to see you pound him to a pulp for what he did to me."

   "I've seen him do some underhanded things, but what he did to you, that was an all-time low for him." Russ said.

   "Adam was the one guy who I thought actually liked me." I told Russ.

   "Well, you need to forget about him now bud, because now that I'm here, I'm going to introduce you to a whole new crop of friends, both in and out of school. I know a few people here who've told me they've wanted to talk to you since the year began, but that you haven't reached out, what's going on with that?" Russ asked.

   "Fear of being rejected, like I was at my old school." I replied.

   Russ hugged me again, "You can't let fear of being rejected constantly get to you buddy. You have to put that at the back of your mind, and start letting other people in."

   "I know, it's just hard is all." I replied.

   "We'll get you taken care of buddy." Russ told me, "But right now, I see we're both late for class, catch me at lunch and we'll talk more then."

    I gave Russ one last hug, which he graciously accepted. I could tell that he was so much different than Adam was. I had times with Adam, where he was very hard to talk to, but with Russ, he was so easy to talk to, it felt almost like I'd known him forever, even though I had just met him. Later at lunch, Russ would meet up with Jamie and I, and bring along another friend who was tagging along.

   TO BE CONTINUED.................................................................................................................