Scarred Knees

eleven.

serena

eleven

I sighed slightly looking at myself in the mirror. The one piece wasn't suiting my body well. I knew as soon as I would take my top and bottoms off and reveal the suit, people would laugh.

Maybe I shouldn't go. There was many reasons including the incident that happened in last period.

I laughed sadly before covering my face with my bare hands. My mind was filled with hatred towards myself for giving Kyle the satisfaction of letting his hurtful words make me surrender.

Pulling my hands away from my face, I stared at my body again before walking to my shared bedroom and pulling my normal clothes over the swimsuit.

My ears perked up at the sound of the door opening and the faint voice of my mother talking. I walked out into the hall to see Richie. He was clad in a white shirt that contrasted to his dark skin with blue swimming trunks. He waved slightly at me.

My mother walked away before me and Richie walked out the door. A smirk was etched onto his face. "I'm waiting for you to ask me to the party." My brows furrowed before I let out a small laugh. "Oh Richie, will you please come with me?" I intertwined both of my hands together and batted my eyelashes at him.
He genuinely laughed before accepting.

We walked together to the party.

I didn't see a problem with him coming with me. At least people would know I had a so called friend.

A street away from the pool, we could hear the loud music booming making me stop in my tracks. "Maybe we shouldn't go."

"Are you scared of what people will think? That's bullshit Serena." Richie scoffed. He rolled his eyes and continued to walk forward, me slowly regaining the confidence to go as I caught up with him. I hope he wasn't mad at me.

The venue that held the pool was ridiculously big. I saw many classmates from school with their significant others enter the building easily, so why did my feet feel like lead all of a sudden?

Richie glanced back at me before his eyes flickered behind me.

"Are you Serena?" I heard a girl inquire. My head slowly peered over my shoulder to spot a girl with beach blonde hair smiling widely.

"Yes," i turned around fully tucking my hair behind my ear. "is there something you need?"

She giggled. "No. Kyle told me to apologize for him about what happened in his advanced math class."

My face went blank. "Why couldn't he tell me himself?"

Her smile was swept off her face when she felt a hand on her back. She gulped loudly. It was Kyle. He had a look of regret in his eyes.

"Great job Val!" Kyle exclaimed through gritted teeth. "Now off you go!" He pushed her forcefully into Josh, a boy in my English class.

"Hey Serena about-"

I didn't want to hear him talk to me ever again. I walked away slowly and grabbed a surprised Richie's arm entering the party.

As soon as we set foot in the building, everyone's eyes were on me and Richie. People turned to the ones next to them and started to talk to each other. We were cautiously walking towards the cooler that held the drinks when I overheard a conversation between two girls.

"Are you serious?" One exclaimed. "No! I was getting into my car when I heard the argument between Kyle and Daniel. I couldn't really hear what Kyle was saying but Daniel flipped out at the last part of what he was saying and yelled out 'well did you do it to Serena' in front of everyone." The other explained. "He almost beat Kyle up over a worthless slut."

Ouch. My eyes started to water, a few tears escaping to roll down my face.

Richie peered over his shoulder to look at me, face painted with worry while he clutched his phone tightly. He grabbed my hand and pulled  me out of the building, everyone's eyes closely watching. I hated being watched by everyone. Everyone must've been thinking the same thing : Serena's an ugly slut. A red head stopped us at the door asking us to donate money before she caught a good look at me. "Serena, right? My name is Summer! Do you have a minute so we can talk? Are you okay?" She chirped, smiling until her eyes caught Richie's as he peered suddenly. He pulled my arm through the crowd and onto the street quickly, glancing at me once again until he ran into someone unknowingly.

"Watch it man." I heard a familiar voice groan. Richie apologized. "Sorry." He let go of my hand. "Let's go Serena." He walked fast and I ran after him only to stop as I caught a glimpse of the man Richie had run into. It was Daniel Mathis, schools most feared junior. His widened light brown eyes caught mine and we stared each other down before Richie swiftly grabbed me and snapped me out of my daze.