SAM

| 2 |

*
s a m u e l
*

"Your silence will not protect you."
- Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches.

"Thanks for helping me out last night." I shrug towards Samantha. She rolls her eyes and ignores me as we enter the halls of the stone-cold building we call school. I yawn and rub the sleep away from my eyes as we saunter through the doors. We walk in an impractical line, exactly in the middle of the hallway. I look towards Samantha and her head is down, she doesn't like the attention that I bring when we walk together. But she's not a stranger to such attention, with an opinion as loud as hers, she receives a lot of it. She seems to have sensed my gaze because she looks up to me and sends me an annoyed look. I don't take it personally, she just hates school and people. Being distracted by me was not a good idea as she trips over something, most likely the flat ground, which would be impossible for some people and unexpected but she's just that clumsy and it was expected. But before she could face plant, which I would have laughed at until I was on my death bed, someone grabs her hand and spins her around. She looks up at this boy with a distressed facial expression.

"Woah, there. You're more clumsy than you look. Are you okay?" The guy with blond hair whispers, enough for me to hear him. She pushes herself off of this guy.

"I'm fine." She says.

"Oh, sorry, I'm Cameron," He extends his hand which Samantha hesitantly takes. He smiles while she raises an eyebrow.

"So, I'll see you around, Samantha," He creepily responds, both our faces retort at the sudden realisation that this stranger knows her name. 

"Yeah, we'll see you around." I interject, threatening, while Samantha places her gold earphones into her ears, under her curly hair. He sends a forced smile in my direction before moving away from both of us.

"Did that boost your level of testosterone?" She groans, rolling her eyes while she scrolls through a Spotify playlist.

"It was very much needed." I innocently say to her. She sends me a 2 finger gesture, as a goodbye, as she makes her way to her locker which is at the other side of the building. I stand there for a while, watching her vanish into the crowd.

~~

"You, Samuel!" A booming voice echoes behind me. As I turn, the body whom the voice belongs to throws football at me. I catch it effortlessly.

"What do you want, Kyle?" I toss back the ball and the rest of Kyle's crew follows behind him. I used to be friends with Kyle but then I met the friends I have now and Samantha hated them.

"Don't you want to do something for me, Sammy?" I growl at the childish way my name is used. I have the urge to punch Kyle in the face when he starts smirking, and the rest wear smug faces too.

"No." I state and spin myself around, walking away from the group.

"It's about Samantha." I immediately stop in my tracks and turn to him, bored. He always talks about Samantha. He always has something to say about Samantha.

"Did you see what she was wearing today?" He licks his lips disgustingly. She deecided to wear a skirt today. She choose to wear it because she has the right to and people like Kyle decided that it's his right to sexualize her like that, "Maybe I should visit her sometime. I heard you're just friends, so you won't mind." He turns arounnd and looks at his  friends, giving them aa foolish nod. He turns back to me, raising his eyebrows suggestively. I clench my jaw.

"You even think about getting your dirty hands 5 feet of her and I will-"

Kyle steps forward until we both are face to face, me staring down at him because of my advantageous height.

"You'll what?" He smiles slightly, challenging me.

"I will kill you." I say with my voice drenched in anger. He steps back and I leave. I take out my earphones, I need to block out the endless noise that resonates around the school hall. I look aeound and see the usual glances and stares from guys and girls. I'm used to it, not to sound totally arrogant, but why wouldn't they look?

I walk into our history class and follow my routine. I casually walk up the row and shrugg off the hands of girls who want me to sit next to them. I'm late as always. I sit down in my seat, I notice that the seat next to me is vacant.

"Thank you for joining us, Mr. Parkins." Mr. Winter's annoyed voice fills the class.

"Anytime." I smile before placing my head onto my desk, yawning in the process. After a few minutes, I'm in the place between sleep and awake. I sometimes hear the droning on of Mr. Winters but other than that everything is going smoothly. A bit too smooth. Normaly, at this point of the class, I would be awoken by Samantha and then she would proceed to scold me. I lift my head to the desk next to me, I don't know why I didn't think to wonder where she was. She's never late.

"Miss Perkins? You're late?" A stunned Mr. Winters stands facing the door. I follow his gaze. She looks like a complete mess. Her collar is turned up, her skirt is crumpled and she is one strapping her bag. She never one straps. Something has happened. She frantically tries to fix herself, patting down her frizzy hair. She keeps her head down as she makes her way to her seat. She plops herself into the seat, putting her arms on the desk and laying down her head. I fixate my gaze onto the back of her head and it stays there for about  10 seconds before is see Kyle and her friends saunter into the classroom, those disgusting smirks still plastered onto their faces. She shuffles towards me as though she could feel their presence.

"Sam." She gently says my name. I watch her head raise and see tears. I hate seeing her cry. I hear laughter coming from in front of us and I am met with the amused face of Kyle, looking back at us.

"Silence." Winter says.

"What did they do?" I mouth at her. She takes out a notepad, her hands trembling as she does so. I watch her hands carefully write on the paper. When she finishes, she passes the note to me discreetly.

"I was running late as I had a meeting with the Headmistress. Kyle and his friends cornered me by my locker. They told me that they wanted to speak to me quickly. They said it was important. Kyle is just like Reggie and Connor.

"And I never want to be hurt like I was with Reggie and Connor. Kyle asked me out but I said no but they all started laughing and I don't know why they all started laughing. I pushed past them, only to be pulled back. They continued to laugh as my back connected with the lockers. Kyle pushed my hands to the sides of me and held them there.

"He said I was going to be his one day, whether I would like to or not. I tried to push him off of me, Sam. I tried so hard but he held me down and then Principal Roan came down the hall and they let me go."

I didn't notice it before but my hand was clenched into a fist, my knuckles turning white. I'm going to kill them. Each and every one them. What made them think that touching her without her permission was okay... My attention is taken when Sam places her hand onto my fist and mouths 'it's okay' while smiling through her sadness. Immediately, confusion crosses my mind. I don't know what to do. She would normally jump at the opportunity at revenge, at someone who would do something like this. She might have a short-temper but she's always been the bigger person. The good person. Oh, Samantha Perkins. You are too good for this world.

~

maya