Just a Dare

Chapter Two

I slammed my bedroom door closed angrily and hobbled over to my bed. I had just gone to the doctor's office because of my mom's insistence after seeing me limp around after I came home from school the day before, so I begrudgingly made the appointment, and ended up returning home with my left leg encased in plaster and red gauze up to my knee.

Why, you might ask?

Because dear, sweet Melody Scribner broke my fucking pinky toe. And, apparently, if I didn't get a cast immediately, it would heal weirdly and affect how I walked in the future.

Wasn't that just lovely?

The stupid thing had been on my leg for about three hours and I had already reached the point where I wanted nothing more than to rip it off and stomp all over it like a petulant child throwing a temper tantrum before chucking the damned thing somewhere far away where it could never see the light of day again. It was itchy, uncomfortable, and hot as hell. In the short time it had been since I had gotten it put on, it had glued itself to my leg with my own sweat.

Oh, and there was also the very real issue of going to school the next day. How was I supposed to explain that to my coaches? If anyone found out about what Melody did to me, I was screwed.

Wasn't hurting my ego enough? She just had to go and injure my pride, too.

All I could think about was how her one little act of anger landed me in a pile of shit up to my eyeballs.

I was going to be the laughing stock of the whole school, and it was all thanks to Scribner. I would forever be know as the "Sissy Who Got a Broken Toe from the Good Girl", forcibly shunned and forced to live the last few months of senior year as a social outcast. My image of being an irresistible ladies' man with a slight bad-boy edge was ruined.

I threw my crutches across the room, where they hit the wall and fell on top of each other on the floor with a metallic twang. That crazy woman was out to get me, I just knew it.

I fell onto my bed in a heap, ignoring my stiff left leg and stomach's complaints of hunger and fell asleep, exhausted after a long, tiresome day, dread settling in my bones at the prospects of what the next day would bring.

--

I approached the school building tentatively.

Had anyone found out yet?

My palms grew slick with sweat at the thought, causing my grip on my crutches to slip. I stepped inside, crossing the threshold nervously. My anxiety at what awaited me was beginning to make me go insane.

I was Trey Joseph Williams, damn it, and it was just unnatural for me to be so edgy.

I even went to school early for once, which was something pretty significant for me since I usually avoided school like the plague until the last possible minute. All that aside, I was thankful for my punctuality just this once - it gave me a few moments of peace before it was all over.

I hung my head in shame, already preparing myself for what was certain to come, before suddenly snapping it around when I heard footsteps.

Light, swift; there was no mistaking who those feet belonged to. And sure enough, Melody came barreling around the corner, running as quickly as she could. Her eyes locked onto me where I stood, and what appeared to look suspiciously like relief washed over her face.

What the hell did she have to be so damned relieved about? I inconspicuously gave my surroundings a once-over to see if there was something or someone else she was heading toward before coming to the horrifying conclusion that she was, indeed, giving me that look.