12 Years Young

Chapter 13

"It's the dweeb and his little girlfriend!" Said the unmistakable voice behind Gordie and I walking down the street.

I clenched my fists and kept walking next to Gordie who was smiling at me a little sadly.

"Hey dweebie I'm talking to you!" Pete said shoving Gordie from behind.

"Hey don't do that!" I said spinning around to Pete.

"Gonna kick my ass now Chambers?" Pete asked smirking.

"We aren't at school are we?" I said giving him a smirk of my own and punching my fist into my other hand.

The first day of school was done with and I was just walking with Gordie down the street and back home.

"Jo come on its fine." Gordie said grabbing my elbow.

"No it's not fine! He's doing what everyone in this town does to Chris and I! They don't even know us but they peg us as something bad. I'm not letting that happen to you too." I said yanking my arm away and pointing at him.

Gordie smiled at me making me smile back even if I didn't want to. Pete made a gagging noise and I spun back to him.

"Maybe if your family wasn't so screwed up-" Pete almost didn't get he sentence out before I punched him across the face. He stumbled backwards shocked. I shook my hand out. That hurt more than I thought it would.

"Son of a bitch!" Pete said rubbing his jaw.

"I swear to God, if I ever hear you call anyone a name again, especially my friends, I will do much worse than that." I said cracking my knuckles trying to look intimidating. I flinched at the pain that spread through my hand when I did it. Luckily Pete didn't notice.

Pete nodded and turned to walk away. I turned back to Gordie to see him holding in his laughter.

"What?" I asked looking from him to Pete.

"Pete likes you." Gordie said laughing.

"Bullshit." I said rolling my eyes.

"No he really does." Gordie said chuckling.

"Then why are you laughing? Shouldn't you be like, mad, or something?" I asked watching him continue to grin.

"Nah, I'm not worried about Pete." Gordie said talking my hand and leading me down the street again.

"Sometimes I worry about Ben and you though." He said looking at me.

"Ben?" I asked laughing. "You're worried about me being with Ben?" I asked swinging our hands.

"I guess it is kind of dumb." Gordie said using his other hand to rub the back of his neck nervously.

"No it's not, if you were hanging around a girl all the time I would be a little worried too." I said smiling at him.

We were about to my house when he stopped and grabbed my other hand.

"Thanks for understanding." He said scanning over my face.

All I could do was nod. I didn't know what to say. Then we started leaning together. Our lips met and it was like all the world shut out but us. That's when I noticed how long it had been since we kissed last. The last time was under the treehouse before my mom showed up.