"What the fuck's going on with you and Travis?"
Eva drops down onto the grass next to me and stretches out her long thin legs and I can't help but gaze at them with envy. Everything about her is longer and leaner and more womanly than me. I close my eyes as images of Travis doing to her what he did to me last night and more, attack my brain.
He'd seen Eva naked and liked what he saw obviously because he went all the way with her, what if he sees me naked and the sight of me kills his boner??? I cringe in humiliation at the thought of it.
"Well?"
"Well what?" I ask as Eva's voice pulls me from my thoughts
"You and messy Kelce, what's going on?"
"Nothing"
"So how come Darla said she heard you arranging to have sex with him in the hallway?"
"Me? The 18 year old virgin arranging to have sex with him... the 18 year old whore?... your words not mine"
"That's what I thought like... why would he be interested in someone that doesn't know what they are doing?"
I gasp at her words, that's what she thought when she heard the rumour why would he be interested in me?
"I mean you're cute and you know I love you but a guy like Travis usually goes for someone more... experienced, more... womanly, more..."
"Someone more like you?!" I can't keep the hurt or anger from my voice and she looks up at me surprised, i think, that I'm actually talking back.
"No, not like me just someone..."
"Why not like you Eva? I mean he had you once right? Why wouldn't he want you again?" I push myself up so I'm sitting and not lounging, my heart racing in my throat as I feel every part of me begin to tremble. I am not good at confrontation and yet here I am stuck in the middle of it for the second time today, determined not to back down. I'm tired of everyone thinking they can say and do whatever they want to me because they know I won't react, well here I am reacting, in fact I'm probably over reacting but today it seems as though too much is better than not enough
"He told you?"
I nod in response "The question is why didn't you?"
"Because it's none of your business, it's not as though you are dating him"
I say nothing this time, just stare directly at her, trying to stop my body shaking as though I'm a pathetic little weakling
"Are you dating him?!"
I shrug and her face floods with blood
"Are you fucking him too?!"
"Well that's something that's none of your business now Eva" she pushes herself to her feet and for a second I think she's going to attack me, she has the same look in her eyes that Britney had earlier and I realise how dangerous Travis must actually be, how crazy he seems to turn the girls he touches.
"What happened to waiting for the right time with the right guy? The bad boy gives you half a second of his attention and you drop your panties for him"
"Just like you did right?! Only with me he hung around, with you he was gone the next morning"
"You bitch!" I don't have time to stand up before her hands are in my hair and she pulls me back onto the grass. I scream and reach out trying to grab her hands to free myself but she just pulls harder and then brings her hand down hard across my face causing me to cry out. "You may be able to talk crap like your boyfriend but you sure as hell can't fight like him!"
"Eva stop! Please!"
"HEY!!!" Travis' loud voice sounds far away but I recognise it immediately and know by the way Eva's hands loosen that he's headed in our direction
"Oh look who's coming running to your rescue" she finally releases the last strands of my hair as I manage to push myself to my feet and don't have time to get my bearings before Travis' strong arms are around me, pulling me into his body and then moving me so he's stood inbetween Eva and myself
"What the fuck is your problem?!" He bellows and I see Eva noticeably shrink under his tone. "Are you okay?" He asks me over his shoulder, guarding me as though he expects Eva to attack again but I can't speak, sobs of shock and hurt are bubbling through my chest and filling my throat
"She started it" Eva says whilst chewing on her thumb nail and looking nervous in Travis' presence.
"Well it's a good job i turned up to fuckin finish it then isn't It?"
Eva just rolls her eyes and then picks up her backpack "whatever!" Is her last word before she walks past us both, making sure she pauses long enough to give me the dirtiest look I could ever imagine getting from one of my 'best friends'.
"Are you Okay?" Travis turns to face me and I collapse into his arms shaking my head against his solid chest "Two arguments in one day, people are going to think I'm a bad influence on you"
"If it wasn't for you I wouldn't have had the courage to stand up to Britney or to Eva" I stutter between sobs "It was your voice I heard in my head telling me my voice was worth hearing too" that must surprise him because he falls silent, rubbing circles into my back and placing kisses to my hair. We stand in the middle of the school football field. The bad boy and the good girl, neither of us quite as bad or as good as we had been when we first met.
