Cole

Death

Following the party the next few days were pretty quiet. Amy was especially nice to me for saving her from those bums. She was both curious and scared about what happened to me, though. There were a lot of whispers and odd looks from classmates wondering why or how I would be speaking in Arabic. I think Manda wondered or worried about that too, but she could tell it bothered me so she did not press me on that. She knew me very well, but actually she didn't. She knew the fake me well. I needed to tell her everything, but I was afraid to do it.

When I first knew Manda she sometimes melted down and would exclude me from her life when her high sensitivities were triggered. The more we knew each other the less that happened, but one day when I met her in the cafeteria she was very melted down. She wouldn't tell me at first what it was, but then I figured out there was some guy hitting on her that was new to the school. I figured that out quick because he came at her again while I was sitting there.

"Hey Amanda Westbrook.", said this blond guy with hair just over the ears and side burns that were trimmed at the bottom of the ear and came forward toward his mouth a bit. "I've been watching you. Your pretty cool. I really want to get to know you."

He came up behind her while we were sitting eating our lunch in the lunch room, totally oblivious to the fact I was sitting next to her. Manda put her head down on her arms in front of her tray.

"I understand your a little shy. That's okay. Maybe we can study together. I'm really good at math. I also play the guitar pretty well. I could show you, or maybe you'd like to play video games with me?"

"No Rick, I don't want to do that. I'm with Cole", she said.

"Who's Cole?", said Rick.

"I'm Cole," I said and stood up, all six foot two of me.

Rick glanced at me for only a second.

"You married to him or something?", he asked looking at Manda.

"She's my girl. Go find another," I said.

"Cole, you don't own girls. I just want to get to know her a little. I am sure if she knew me she would dump you. I just started going to school here and I looked around, I don't know anybody, but Manda caught my eye because she is easily the prettiest girl in the school. I think it's only fair that she can know other people. Maybe she would stick with you, and maybe she won't. We will see."

I was starting to get pissed off and grabbed the guy's forearm. The guy offered no resistance.

"Cole, I'm not going to fight you. I know you could kill me in an instant. I am not a fighter. I guess I am more of a lover than a fighter," said Rick looking me in the eyes with his blue eyes twinkling and then smiling at Manda. I could see Manda looking up at him with interest.

I put his arm down. Rick started smiling at Manda more broadly and I could tell she was having trouble suppressing her smile as well.

I felt like crap. I was a shy guy, especially with girls, and I finally found my girl that was a lot like me and then this guy comes along with great looks and all kinds of social skills, and flirts with my girl and gets her interest right away.

Manda then looked up at me and I could see her having trouble suppressing her smile so she put her hand to her mouth and then looked back at Rick and gave him a big smile.

"Manda, I think I am going to be in your English class. That will be cool. Someone told me you like to write. So do I. Maybe we can do projects together," said Rick with another smile, a cheerful voice, and what looked like a wink.

I was rapidly going into depression. Manda looked at me and I felt like she could see my pain and was about to laugh at me.

I looked over at Rick and glared at him. The terrorist part of me then thought of ways I could kill him in less than a minute. Rick looked at me and made some clicking sound in his mouth, and giggled. Manda covered her face with her hands. I suspected she was laughing at me some more.