The sight of seeing Rowan run off like that broke me but what had even happened?
I turned to face my group of friends, questioning them.
"She just came here to drop off the notebook she stole from you" Dana said.
I crossed my arms, "Rowan didn't steal anything from me, I let her borrow it".
Noah looked up at me and laughed. "So you guys do have a project together? Why would you want to work with someone like her?".
"Don't say that".
Dana laughed. "You think she has a crush on you? Any girl who dresses and acts like that has to be a lesbian".
The words that came out really hurt me, it felt like a dagger to my stomach, Rowan didn't deserve to be talked about like that.
No wanting to put up a fight, I grabbed my things and left to follow Rowan, I had to talk to her.
I followed her out to the corridor and saw her turn into the girls' bathroom. I chased after and walked into the bathroom, looking under the stalls to see Rowan's converse peeking out.
"Rowan?" I said in a soft voice. I stood in front of the stall. "I'm so sorry about what happened, I just want to talk to you".
Suddenly, the bathroom stall door unlocked. I carefully opened it and saw Rowan sitting on her ground. Her face was shiny from tears, her eyes and eye makeup had darkened and most of her face became a dark red color. Strands of her short blond hair was sticking to the sides of her face.
"Can I sit down?" I asked.
Rowan nodded and I scrambled over her to sit down in front of her. Rowan didn't look up, as if her eyes were glued to the ground.
"I'm sorry about earlier, my friends, they can be really mean sometimes, even to me".
Rowan looked up, wiping the tears from her face. "Its not your fault, Zoey".
"I just wish I could've been there to stop them from saying anything, you didn't deserve to hear any of that".
Rowan pressed her legs against her chest, wrapping her arms around them and pressing her chin onto her knees.
"I'm quite used to it" She spoke. "People usually treat me like that, like some kind of weird sensitive outcast".
"Is that how they treated you at your other school?" I asked softly.
Rowan nodded.
Unexpectedly, I found myself sitting up and leaning forward, hugging Rowan tightly.
At first Rowan raised her arms up in confusion but eventually she hugged me back and for a moment, it was like the world had gone silent, it was just her and me.
YOU ARE READING
Outside the lines
Romance"Outside of the lines" is a short story about the exploration of identity and sexuality, represented by two characters who fall in love, Zoey Patterson, an 18 year old cheerleader attending Westfield Academy and her opposite, Rowan Sinclair, a flun...
