I Only Know How To Love

7: Cashmere

At rehearsal, I saw Alex in our usual spot. "Hey. How are you doing?" He started off. I had told him what was going on at school, including all the drama that happened. "Jack is treating me like shit. Like I'm his property that he can just put a label on." I told him. "Have you tried standing up for yourself against him?" He asked. "I wish I could, but it's not possible. It's like he has this superpower of being able to manipulate people". I told him. "Well then be on the lookout for anything suspicious", he told me. "I was joking when I said that. I don't think anyone has superpowers. That's our reality." I told him. At break, Alex had told me, "What if I told you that I think that I have superpowers?" He asked, being obvious that he was joking around. I belted out laughing right there, knowing it wasn't possible.

"That's a good joke. Good one Alex", I told him, trying to stop myself from laughing. Once we had started up again, there was one trumpet player that wasn't playing along. I could tell he was looking at me. "Ben!" Mr. Hudson called out. "Sorry, I just phased out at the moment", I heard Ben tell him. "Please get your head out of the clouds and back into the music. And stop looking at Cashmere for Pete's sake." Hold on, Ben was looking at me? It's probably because of what had happened earlier today at school.

After bumping into Jack, and Jack called me a shit-head and told me that this world doesn't deserve me, Ben was there, and had witnessed the entire thing. He held me in a hug, and put his hand in my hair. We were close to kissing, until Snow came and pulled me away.

Ever since that moment, I've been rethinking about my love life. If I start a relationship with someone, will I not spiral down? It'll be really hard, because I see Jack everyday at school. He torments me for fun, and I don't know how much longer I can live. Apparently he thinks that this world isn't wide enough for the both of us. I swear, one of these days he might as well kill me.

I head home, and I see Jasmine and James at the table. I change into my pyjamas and head to bed. My brain just doesn't want to function today. I ask them about Ben asking me out on Friday night, and they say it's okay. The next day, I see Charlene with Logan and Noah. "Hey Charlene", I say going up to them. "Hey Cashmere. How are you doing?" She asks me. "I'm not quite sure", I tell her. "What's going on?" She asks. "School drama", I tell her. "Yeah it sucks." She tells me, before I see Logan open a locker to reveal Noah inside. Noah scares him by jumping at him. "Noah Fox and Logan Wate! Get over here and stop playing around. This is a school, not a playground." Charlene tells them. "Yeah, just like she said", I tell them before I try to head off. "Look, whatever is going on, I'm sure it's going to get better", Logan tells me. "Logan, you don't know what's going on." I told him. "You sure? Cause we've dealt with a lot of school drama", Noah tells me. "Come on, what's going on?" Noah asks me. "There's this one guy who thinks that he has every right to hurt me and make fun of me. He treats me like I'm his property basically." I told them as Charlene stood up. "Who is this guy and where is he?" Noah asks.

"Hold on, is he in the same grade?" Logan asks. "No he isn't. He's in grade 12, and he's in dance intensive." I tell them. "He might be in the cafeteria." I tell them. "What's his name?" Charlene asks. "His name is Jack". I tell them. "I know him. Come on guys, let's go teach him a lesson." Charlene tells me before they head over to the cafeteria. I stayed over by the band room.

I headed over once I had heard people laying punches on others. Seeing what was going on, Charlene went after Jack, Noah after Nadia, and Logan held back Jack for Charlene to hit him. Jack and Nadia were now getting bruised pretty badly. Noah was kicking Nadia, and Barbra had stepped in and pushed Noah to the ground. Jocelyn and Elaine had walked by and saw the mess that was taking place, and they went off to get the constable right away. Mr. Jazler and Mrs. Dan came right away to the scene to stop the fight from getting worse. Charlene had given Jack a good punch in the eye to give him a black eye before Mr. Jazler had pulled her away.

"What is the meaning of this?" Mr. Jazler asked, after Mrs. Dan pulled Noah away from Barbra and Nadia. "We are all friends here." Mrs. Dan says as the constable enters the scene. "Not all of us are." Charlene spoke up. "Charlene, please tell me what the real reason is here." Mr. Jazler told her. "Jack here treats Cashmere like shit, and this is what he deserves. He deserves pain." Charlene says. "No one deserves to feel like shit", Noah told Mrs. Dan. "I hate to agree with them." Mrs. Dan told Mr. Jazler and the constable. "We live in a world where everyone treats everyone like crap and they don't stand up for themselves. It's about time we change that." Logan tried telling Mr. Jazler and Mrs. Dan. The constable went up to Logan, then Noah, and then finally Charlene, handcuffing each and every one of them. "Save it for the judge." The constable told after handcuffing Logan, Noah, and then finally Charlene. "Constable Amick, there must be a better solution" Mrs. Dan tried telling him; I could tell this was going to be bad. Constable Amick took them away without noticing me. I was in the corner the entire time, watching the whole thing unfold.

Heading back to the band room after seeing Mr. Jazler head there, I saw Sebastian go up to him. "What just happened there?" Sebastian asked him. "It's nothing for you to worry about." Mr. Jazler told Sebastian before heading into the band room, telling himself, "I knew this was bound to happen". Snow now walked by. "What was going on there?" She asked. "You don't want to know." I told her before heading off to class. Well, I tried. Snow had grabbed my arm. "Are you sure that everything's all right? You haven't been acting right these past few days." She asked me. "I am fine." I told her, taking my arm from her grasp. "I will see you at lunch."

After band class, I headed to dance class, where the aftermath of this morning's beating would be revealed. Once I entered the dance studio, I saw Sophie with Jack, holding a bag of ice over his eye. Hayley was with Nadia, holding a bag of ice on her side with her feet in a bucket of water. "What happened to you guys?" Allison asked, as Anika and Alexa walked in with her. "We were beaten up pretty badly this morning by some of the band kids in grade 10." Jack told them. "Cashmere, do you know anything about what happened earlier?" Mrs. Dan asked me. "No. The people who beat you up are friends of mine." I told them. "Did you ask them to beat him up?" Mrs. Dan asked. "I would never ask someone to do that. I had just told them about some stuff going on in my life, and they assumed that it was the right answer." I told her.

"Where are they?" Elaine asked me. "I don't know. I'm not in the same class as them." I told her. "Why do you ask?" I ask her. "Fight fire with fire." She tells Mrs. Dan. "Elaine, no. We don't fight back. This is a Catholic school." Mrs. Dan tried to tell Elaine. "So are we just going to let them get away with this? No. We are not." Elaine tried telling her. "This is not up for discussion." Mrs. Dan tells her before the awkward tension broke in from Jack saying, "Cashmere, you knew that this would happen. Did you pay them?" He asked, standing up and walking towards me. I knew I would never answer that. "What are you talking about?" I asked him. "Answer me already! Did you pay them?" He yelled at my face, me backing up. I tried not to cry. "I would never pay someone to hurt another person!" I tried telling him, holding back the tears. "Admit it! You paid them to hurt me!" He yelled at my face again, the tears were now falling. "What do you want to hear me say? I would never pay anyone to hurt another person, and you know that!" I screamed back in his face before he backed off.

"Is there something going on here that I should know about?" Mrs. Dan asked before Jack tackled me to the ground. "Jack! Apologize to Cashmere right away." Mrs. Dan asked him. "Fine. I'm sorry Cashmere," He told me sarcastically. "Like you mean it," Mrs. Dan requested. "Look, I'm not going to say it like I mean it, because Cashmere has done nothing but ruin lives." Jack said out loud, realizing he shouldn't have. "Realize you shouldn't have said that out loud now, right?" I asked. He grabbed me by the neck and took me to the ground again. I grabbed onto his hand holding my neck, and tried telling him, "I can't breathe." "Good. Then die already." He told me before I blacked out. The last thing I heard was Mrs. Dan screaming at Jack, "What are you doing?"