The Boy

*Part 1*

She thought it was funny... they all thought it was funny...

I was only 15 and a sophomore in highschool. I was the one that the "popular" girls bullied and teased. It was a small school, so you were either known as one of the slutty girls, the bitchy popular girls, the sporty girls, the ones dating the sports guys... or the quiet girl involved with only anything that the "popular" girls didn't like or bother to look into. Unfortunately I was one of those girls... the only one. As being the only "loner" I was always picked on because I had no friends to back me up, no boyfriend to tell me it was going to be ok or that he would be there to protect me.

It was on a thursday when he finally started to talk to me... Ryan Von. He was a football player, popular, constantly flirted with. I never really had conversations with him, just a simple exchange of "Hi" and "Hello". But now that he saw me crying behind the gym, phone on the concrete, my scraped up bloody hands on my knees, and the other girls leaving, he sat with me. "Are you ok?" he asked, sniffling I meekly replied with "y-yes... I'm fine... why are you here with me?" he didn't answer me. He just smiled. We sat in silence for a while... he lifted my chin and wiped my tears away, I gave him a confused look and he smiled. I looked down at my phone, the shattered screen read 4:38 pm and I knew that I had missed the bus. Sighing I roll my eyes and get up, "What's wrong?" he asks in a quiet voice, "Nothing really... I just missed the bus and they shattered my screen is all." I said forcing a smile and slight laugh. He gets up and tells me that he can give me a ride home, "No that's ok Ryan... I can walk home." "But isn't that like a 45 minute walk?" "Yeah... it is isn't it..." frowning I look up at him I hesitantly. He giggles and says "Oh come on, I don't bite outside the bedroom." winking at me he jokingly pokes my abdomen I look at him seriously for a minute and he says "It was a joke little miss ghost".

He gently takes my hand and I hesitantly follow him to his car. He showed signs of chivalry and opened the door for me, we get in and buckle up. He leans across me picks up a half empty water bottle, and opens up the glove compartment. Watching him with curious eyes I notice he pulls out a roll of duck-tape and a cloth. He takes my hands in his, and tells me "It may sting a little." wincing, he pours some water on the base of my palms, I bite my lip and let out a little sigh of pain. He looks up at my face and sees me biting down, I heard him mutter under his breath that it was "sexy" but chose to ignore and pretend that I didn't hear him. Blushing now we sit in the car and he puts "bandages" on my cuts and exclaims "All better!" He starts his car and we start to drive, I start to tell him the directions and he cuts me off with "Oh, I already know where you live miss ghost, I'm your new neighbor... I saw you leave this morning for the bus." I had never seen the people who were moving in next door but I knew it was someone from school because of the bumper sticker off the Toyota in the driveway. It was a picture of our mascot and a small banner on the bottom that read "Cougar Pride".

Once we get to my house he walks me up and asks if I wanted a ride in the morning. I agreed and we sat on the porch talking. I had said "Thank you for cleaning up my cuts... you didn't have to." smiling lightly he says "No problem, I felt like I ha- let me rephrase that, I wanted to. I felt bad for you and can't stand to see a beautiful girl like you upset." I blushed extreamly and opened my mouth to speak but I couldn't; instead I stuttered like an idiot and looked to the floor. He laughs a little bit and stands up, I get up with him and go inside. He lingers on the porch and leaves.

It's Friday morning, he honks his car horn and I leave the house. As we drive to school, he asks me if I had any plans for the weekend. "Not really... Just a date with youtube and my bed." I responded, he says "can I change that?" "What do you mean by that?" "Nothing really, just going to the park for a soccer game with a few of my friends... I thought you might like to go..." sitting in the passenger seat slightly stunned, I ask him why he asked me. "Because I thought you might wanna get out of the house and be social." The next thing I know, we're sitting in the school parking lot with people curiously glaring into the front windshield as they pass us by.