Paper Weight

Mural Support

After we ate, we went straight to the game. I'll admit, a lot of those guys were kind of hot, and sweaty. Just as Sydney predicted.

The whole entire time, Jayce kept looking at me. When he did a thing where he jumped up and held onto the thing holding the basket...I think it's called a slam dunk or touchdown, I would never know. But of course, we ended up winning, 68 - 4 against the Charlotte Bears. So I guess that's it for the basketball game, now I get to sit in a tiny room with a bunch of smelly boys. Great.

I had to be there by 8:15 and it was 8:13, I had to run to the other end of the school in two minutes. Sydney and I got up ad dashed out the gym doors, we had to before the every fan got out and the halls would be crowded and no way in HELL would we be able to get through to the art room in time. Once we get out into the main hallway, we cut through the locker room and guess who I bump into. You guessed it, Jayce Bennett. At that moment I wanted to break my fingers off, and just to make things more awkward he was wearing a towel. ONLY a towel. All I did was smile nervously and darted out the door at the other end.
"Holy shit," said Sydney as she jogged with her heels on. "Are you sure he's a high school student with those rock hard abs?"

I rolled my eyes and laughed softly. "Even if he wasn't you wouldn't have a chance with him."

We were so close to reaching the art room when we heard the foot steps of what it sounded to be like a million people. "Shit." I thought. Here comes the basketball team.

"Hurry!" I yelled out to Sydney who was behind me, looking through her purse for her phone. The team turned the corner fast with their sneakers making that horrible noise on the tile floors of the school. Sydney and I made it into the art room on time and we avoided the packed hallways. In my opinion, that was pretty impressive for a girl in heels and a girl who has never played a sport in her entire 17 years of life.

My mural was up on the wall and my other sculptures were set up near it. Here we go, the most important night of my high school career was about to kick off.

By the end of the night all of my sculptures sold for about $40 a piece, pretty good, right?!
It was almost time to leave when my neighbor, Landon Phillis walked in, looking around at all the art for sale.

Landon is very comical. He has dark brown hair and gorgeous green eyes. When I was three, he moved into Ms. Chester's home directly across the street from our home. Whenever I was playing in the backyard, he would run across the street, jump the fence and play with me until he got caught my my older sister, Matti. He would get grounded for a few days, but he would always come back. Until one day when we were 14, Landon was caught drinking in his backyard with a few of his friends. I saw two police officers take him away in handcuffs from my bedroom window. All he could do was look up at me and my disappointed expression. Once he got out of Juvie, all he kept trying to do was explain to me about that night, but I wouldn't forgive him. He was no longer the Landon that I knew.

Landon walked up to me and placed his hand on the wall I was leaning on. "Did you miss me?" He said grinning and looking down at me.

"No, not really." I picked up a box of unsold art and walked over to another table, filling it up with more homeless works.

"Ouch, babe." He held his chest as if he was just shot.

"Don't you dare call me that." I said trying not to make eye contact with that creep.

"So, I see you're still pissed at me." He said bringing his face more toward mine.

I could practically smell the whole bottle of alcohol he most likely just consumed. "Landon, just leave." I began walking away from him as he grabbed my wrist tightly and spun me around.
"Look, I know I fucked up, just please, Willa give me another chance. I promise I will make things better."

At this moment tears were coming out of my eyes. I wanted to believe that he would change, but I just couldn't.

Jayce came into the room and saw Landon and his tight grip on my wrist. He also had heard me tell Landon to leave me alone. Jayce could tell Landon was hurting me, so he immediately pulled me away from Landon's grasp and pushed Landon back a few feet.

"She said leave her alone." Jayce said in a stern voice, looking at Landon directly in the eyes.

Next thing I knew, Jayce was lying on the ground as his head and his lip were bleeding and Landon had ran out of the room. Landon had hit Jayce in the face with a stone block that another girl had made in the class with a Chinese quote on it. Landon knew he didn't have a chance against Jayce, so he used the stone to his advantage. I had Jayce's head lying on my lap as I used a table cloth to try to absorb all the blood streaming down his face. His eyes opened slowly until he sat up quickly looking around.

"Where is that bastard?"

"The bastards name is Landon, and he is long gone by now." I said pursing my lips a bit as I looked at him. "You maybe stronger than him, but he is the fastest kid I know, and I do know that you would never be able to catch him, no offense."

He gave me a warm smile as he sat down and laid his head on my lap once again. "It's nice down here, I think I'll stay here for a while more."

I laughed and rolled my eyes playfully. "You do that."

About 20mins passed before we got up. I looked down at my phone and read a text message from Sydney saying that she left and I needed to get a ride home. So, Jayce offered to drive me home.

Once we got into his car, I thanked him for standing up for me.

"Thank you, again for saving me back there."

"You're welcome, and thank you for not letting me bleed out all over the floor." He smiled at me, then turned his eyes back to the road. "You know, we make a pretty good team."

"We do..?" I said with of confusion in my tone as we pulled into my driveway.

"Yeah. I'm the hero and you're the trusty nurse lady. You know, just incase I get stabbed or something." We both laughed softly as I got out and leaned on the window.

"You know that guy that hit you?"

"Landon?"

"Yeah," I said pointing at the house across the street. "That's his house right there."

"Really?"

"Yep."

Jayce then stuck his hand out his window and stuck up his middle finger.

We laughed for a bit until he asked me something I would have never saw coming.

"Hey, um, can I have your number?"

"Uh, uh sure." He held out his phone to me and I grabbed it, creating a new contact and putting my name and number in. After that, we said our goodbyes and he left. I went inside and told my sister Matti the miracle that just happened.