Watercolors and Black Ink

Wakes of the Past

“When are you going to make a guy friend?” Anna had asked Callan while they were both in line for lunch. Callan and Beth had become good friends, but he never talked to any of the guys.

“I prefer girls over guys. Their conversations are more interesting.” He teasingly replied back.

“I think you should talk to that guy in your art class. Gary. He seems nice.”

“He is. But he’s too quiet, I guess I can try. I’ve gotten used to you, haven’t I?”

She playfully nudged him, and he laughed. They grabbed their trays and headed for the table Beth had saved for them. She quickly signaled to them in her direction.

“Hey! Did you bring me the painting?” She asked Callan. Callan had told Beth that he would make a portrait of her cat, Pixie, after Beth had given him a picture of her.

“Yeah, it’s in my art classroom. I’ll give it to you on the way out of school.”

Anna broke in the conversation, “Has that boy asked you to the winter dance yet?”

Beth’s eyes lit up. She could talk about guys all day long if you asked her too. “No, but he has given me some hints. He kept asking questions like ‘Are you going with anyone to the dance?’ and questions like that.”

“Who is this guy I don’t know about?” Callan asked.

“Jeremy Philips. This guy Beth likes.” Anna replied.

“Oh! I know that guy; I sit with him in math.” He responded.

“Put in a good word for me! Please!” Beth begged.

He laughed and took a large bite of his chicken sandwich.

“What’s in it for me?” he asked jokingly.

“I’ll tell you embarrassing stuff about Anna! Like one time when we were walking her neighbor’s dog this cute bo-”

“Beth! Don’t tell him!” Anna quickly retorted.

“Oh. A funny embarrassing story huh. I would like to hear, and I’ll give you a good word for Jeremy.” Callan said.

Beth looked at Anna with her large round eyes.

“Fine, you can tell him.” Anna replied.

“Okay so Anna and I were walking Scooby-“

“Scooby? What an original name.” Callan interrupted.

“Let me talk!” Beth yelled.

“Okay go ahead!” He chuckled.

“So there was this cute boy walking by and, to play around, he threw a stick in the mud. The Great Dane playfully went to get it and Ana couldn’t get her hand loose of the leash and she fell in the mud. The boy could barely look at Anna without laughing.”

 Callan nearly choked on his food. “Tell me more stories when Anna isn’t around.” He replied secretly, but made it loud enough for Anna to hear.

She shot him a look, but they both just laughed. Lunch period was over and Callan left to art class, and Anna to write. While they both walked to their classes together, they were both stopped by a fight going on in the hallway. Callan pushed through the crowd of people and saw two jocks beating Gary up.

“Hey! What the hell are you doing? Leave him alone!” Callan yelled. He grabbed Gary out of the circle and pulled him up. Anna was scared; she was scared that the big husky guy was going to beat Callan up too. So she called him over, but before he could go to her one of the guys grabbed his shirt and through him to the floor. They started kicking him and cursing through their breaths. Anna was still, she was in shock. What could she do? All of a sudden her body started to function and before her mind knew what she was doing she saw herself trying to push the large guy away from Callan. While he turned around to see what she was doing, Callan was able to get up on his feet, but before he could do anything the guy pushed Anna off sending her to one of the lockers. She slightly cried when she hit one of the locks and fell to the floor. Both girls and guys crowded around her trying to help her up. She kept calling for Callan, but he wasn’t seen in the whole crowd. A nice girl helped her up. She silently walked across the hall trying to get away from the students, and that’s when she heard the screaming. Callan was on a rampage, he was punching the guys and telling them fuck off, but she had to stop him. She didn’t like this Callan, not at all. “Callan! Stop! Stop!” Anna grabbed his shoulders and pulled him away from the crowd and saw all his purple bruises and cut lip.

“I had to do something! He hurt you and I wanted to kill him! I wanted to kill him Anna.” He stopped talking and saw Anna’s face. She was crying. He had never seen her cry before. She turned around to look away from him, not wanting him to see her cry, and that was when he saw the blood on her back. It was from the lock that Anna had fallen against.

“He did this to you? Anna I can’t believe this I am so sorry. I wish I could’ve been around. I’m so sorry I let this happen to you.”

She saw the hurt in his eyes, as if he had been shot in the chest multiple times. “I’m okay.” She lied.

“You’re lying. I know your aren’t okay. You’re bleeding Anna! Don’t you see?” Callan had read her mind. She wasn’t okay, she wanted to go.