How The Sun Rises

5: A Lie and a Secret

The second my locker opened I heard someone behind me start to laugh. A puff of smoke exploded in my face and I coughed relentlessly from the attack. My hand wove back and forth in front of my face to try and disperse the smoke. Unfortunately, the attempt failed.

"Better be careful, Rabbit," a feminine voice cackled.

I took a deep breath and tried desperately to feign a smile as I kept my eyes trained on the door of my locker. It was much harder than usual because the sound of Barbara Donovan's voice was enough to make anyone pray for hearing loss. She had a tolerable sounding voice most of the time. It was when she started laughing that it turned high pitched and nasally.

That was usually the point in time people began to plug their ears. No one wanted to have to tell Barbie, the aspiring singer she didn't actually have a nice voice. It was much easier to plug your ears and let her keep hope.

My thoughts were disrupted when a dark hand reached out across my face. Ray snatched something from inside my locker and quickly tossed it back at Barbara - or as she preferred to be called, Barbie.

"Back off, Barbie. Just because she's prettier than you doesn't mean you need to be a little bitch."

I choked upon hearing her words, my face going bright red at the compliment. As much as I tried to hide it, a smile broke out across my face. I was grateful for Ray's presence and her foul vocabulary at that moment. The relief I felt was enough to make my shoulders slump and a breath of relief escape my lips. I could hear Kyle laughing from a distance away and I knew it was him because, much like Barbie, his laughter was distinct. It almost sounded like a combination of snorting and wheezing, something like a pig's oink mixed in. At the sound of it, the students filling the hallway all busted into their own fits of laughter.

"Don't mind her," Ray rolled her eyes. "She's just mad Jackson rejected her last year."

I smiled in return, "I'm alright." Then the words registered and suddenly I felt a lot more confused. "Why is she mad at me for that?"

Ray bit back a smile and Kyle snorted as he approached us.

"Jackson and Bunny sittin' in a tree," he started to sing and Ray elbowed him in the gut, effectively silencing him. He sputtered as Ray offered me a tight-lipped smile, "Who knows?"

As Kyle tried to regain control of his lungs and breathe correctly, they both quickly changed the topic and asked if I had heard anything about Jackson. When I admitted I saw him at the hospital, Kyle became visibly upset. By the time I finished my tale on why he was there he was nearly bursting with rage.

"That bastard!" He shouted, "I hope he goes to prison for the rest of his miserable life."

Ray tried to calm him down but it didn't work. Kyle was upset that his best friend was in the hospital for three whole months without him knowing, and I couldn't blame him. Even with all of the injuries accumulated, Jackson had never once needed to go to the hospital. Once in a while he was injured beyond the scope of a couple bruises and a cut lip, but those were rare occasions. He was too good at defending himself to be seriously injured.

One of the few times that happened, he came to me. That had been why he was so freaked out. His father had never gone beyond one punch before, so when one punch became two and then three, it had freaked him out. So he had gone to the only place he could think of to go - the house next door.

Or at least that's what he told me that night we first spoke to one another – only in a lot less words.

But besides that fact, I knew Kyle was hurt because he didn't know. As Jackson's only real friend, it was obvious even to me that they depended heavily upon each other. Kyle was the only one Jackson freely expressed himself with and I knew Kyle was hurt by his lack of knowledge on his friends life because he felt it was his job to know. I could see it on his face.