Good Girls Can Be Fun

4. Dazed By Dallas Ryker

CHAPTER 4- DAZED BY DALLAS RYKER

       I dropped my tray of food on the lunch table and plopped down onto my seat, still angry from my encounter with Austin, "What's gotten into you?" Lily asked.

       "Nothing," I growled ripping off a piece of my roll with my teeth and angrily gulping it down.

       "Okay," Dean said, slowly scooting away from me. I glared at him, "I said I'm fine. Stop acting like I'm some bomb about to explode."

       "Well it's kind of hard not to," Avery stated, picking at her nails. I sighed. She was right. I was acting like Miss Carr.

       Suddenly everyone in the cafeteria started clapping and cheering loudly, distracting me from my thoughts. My eyes searched for the cause of everyone's enthusiasm and noticed Dallas and the rest of the soccer team, excluding my brother and a few others, had entered the cafeteria. My mood instantly lifted and a smile made it's way to my face, "And there you have it ladies and gentlemen the infamous 'dazed by Dallas Ryker' smile." Dean announced clapping his hands sarcastically. I ignored him and kept my eyes in Dallas' direction.

       He sauntered across the cafeteria with the rest of the soccer team to their usual table. My smile momently disappeared when I caught sight of Chris and Blake and my frown deepened further when I made eye contact with Austin. He held my gaze with an intense stare until I couldn't take it anymore and turned my attention back to Dallas. As he walked by tables, people would slap his hand or back and congratulate him on his big win. And he would humbly thank each person for their support and grace them with his charming smile.

       "Gosh everyone in this school is so pathetic. He can kick a ball around whoopty do," Avery deadpanned.

       "It's more to it than that, Avery," I said defensively, "Soccer's an art and Dallas is good at it. I don't see why you have to be so bitter towards him just because he's good at something that you're not."

       Lily and Dean snorted, "Looks like she told you, Avery," Lily said, nudging Avery with her elbow.

       Avery raised her eyebrows causing them to disappear behind her long bangs, "I guess," she said, shrugging her shoulders carelessly, "Hey, Max, you know you never filled us in on what happened with Dallas last week. Care to share," she said, her tone innocent, but I saw through her façade. Well played, my friend, well played.  

       I gulped nervously and squirmed underneath Avery's unrelenting stare. My heart clenched painfully in my chest, hating the fact that it was being reminded of the embarrassing encounter with Dallas. I had tried to do everything in my power to sweep it underneath a carpet, but it kept resurfacing, "We're waiting."

       "Well, it wasn't anything special," I answered in a little voice, suddenly feeling small. My eyes flickered to Dallas. He was laughing at something and his smile was such a beautiful sight I didn't want it to ever be wiped from his face even if it meant I had to paint it on myself.

       Avery cleared her throat, drawing my attention back to her. Her lips covered with blood red lipstick curved up, making her look all the more intimidating, "Enlighten me. What exactly happened last week?" I sighed exasperatedly then told them my embarrassing story from the beginning when I called Dallas' name, to the moment when I choked. Then ending my story with a detailed description of how Chris and Blake poured salt onto my open wound by talking about me behind my back. Literally.

       "Oh you poor thing," Lily uttered. Dean laughed. I eyed him disdainfully and punched him in his shoulder only making him laugh more.

       "It's not funny," I pouted. Avery joined in with Dean's laughter, "It kind of is. I mean, that's it, that's all there is to the story? That's why you've been moping around?" she exclaimed,  "You are such a drama queen."

       I frowned. I wasn't a drama queen. That encounter with Dallas was truly a tragic one. I tuned out Avery and Dean's laughter and looked over at the Dallas' table and to my utter disgust my eyes connected with Chris'. He smirked at me and wiggled his eyebrows. I scoffed and turned my eyes away from him. He and Blake had been the bane of my existence all week with his subtle jabs at me and other simple acts he did to annoy me. I would always ignore them and move on with my day.

       "Everyone listen up!" a voice called. My eyes were on Blake and Chris once again along with the majority of the people in the cafeteria, but this time he wasn't looking back at me and instead of sitting Blake was standing on his chair. The lunchroom immediately quieted.

                  "For the past week I have noticed that we, populars haven't been giving enough attention to the losers of this school. It has come to me and my buddy Chris' attention because one has come up from the shadows and has been constantly crying for our attention. But I think it's about time that I set things straight and put things back the way they should be," He started. Blake's eyes roamed around the cafeteria then finally settled on me, "Max Carey, I'm talking about you."

       "That jerk, what is he doing?" Avery growled getting up from her seat. I grabbed her arm and pulled her back down to her seat.

       "Don't," I said sternly staring each of my friends in the eyes for a good moment each, they nodded their heads reluctantly, but trusted that I could handle this. I didn't know where Blake was heading or if I could handle it, but whatever it was he was doing I wouldn't bring my friends down with me. Dean put a protective arm around me.

       I looked back up at Blake and noticed Dallas was focused on me. I stared back at him sending him a pleading look. He had the power to stop Blake. He could stand up to my bully like I stood up to his. Did he even remember that? The recognition on his face when his eyes connected on me told me that he did in fact remember, "Stop him," I mouthed. He looked at me emotionlessly then turned his eyes downward and began to twiddle his thumbs. My heart sank. Everyone else remained silent, with shock or fear written across his or her faces.

       "You are nothing, but a waste of space, especially you Carey, and the sooner you losers realize this the better. Your purpose is to make us populars feel better about ourselves by reminding us that life could be worse if times get a little bad for us," Tears began to prickle in the back of my eyes, begging to be released. But I held them back. I wanted to yell, scream, fight back, but I didn't.  I remained motionless.

       "That's it!" Avery shouted. She shot to her feet and stomped towards Blake. I didn't hold her back.

       But before she could reach him, Dallas stood up from his seat, snatched Blake down from the chair and brought him to his eye level. I watched, still frozen, as Dallas threw a punch at Blake and then marched out of the cafeteria, leaving Blake sprawled out on the floor with blood dripping from his nose and with Austin rushing after him. Some students rushed over to Blake and others remained seated and began whispering to one another and shooting looks at me. I felt Dean's arm tighten around me and Lilly tried to sooth me with comforting words, but it didn't work.

             The damage was done. I didn't understand why Blake's words affected me so much.  They were just words. I had brushed this sort of thing off countless times. I would just throw the insults into a corner in the back of my mind. The pile had grown over the years bigger and bigger. Words began to tumble through my mind.

           "Stupid, Ugly, Teacher's Pet, Poindexter, Four Eyed Monster, Useless," they were the weapons the bullies used to stab me and finally I acknowledged the scars that the words had left. I had reached my breaking point and it's Blake whom had pushed me off the edge. I was falling into a deep pit. The pressure to cry had reached its climax. But I didn't want all of these people to see me do it, to allow them to think I was weak. So I did the only thing I could do. I ran.

*Picture on the side of Avery