Kissing Her Scars

Liar

The next day at lunch, Brooke was sitting with Jake and Jasper as usual. Jasper sat closer to her than he normally did and he kept reaching over to poke her when she least expected it. "Stop it already!" She said, choking on a mouth full of food. "Stop what?" He asked innocently. "Stop poking me! I'm trying to eat," she replied, mock frowning. "But you're so easy to tease," He said, grinning. There was a glint in his eye. Brook swallowed her food. "Oh no you don't!" She hollered, scooting away. Jasper grinned even wider. Brooke screeched and ran out of the room with Jasper right on her tail. He grabbed her and wrapped her in a hug instead of tickling her. Brooke nuzzled her face into his chest and took a deep breath, enjoying the scent of his cologne. "Hey, stop trying to inhale me," Jasper said, chuckling. Brooke's face turned bright red. "What?" She said wide eyed. "I-I wasn't--" Jasper clamped his hand over her mouth. "I'm just teasing you, relax." He said. The lunch bell rang and she ran inside to grab her things. 

Brooke was giddy for the rest of the day. Everyone looked at her funny. "What's up with you?" Her history teacher asked. "Huh? What do you mean?" She said trying to make a straight face. He just shook his head and passed out papers. Brooke giggled and got to work on her study guide. 

Next class she had study hall. She wanted extra review for history so she signed out and returned to history class. She sat down, looking through her notes and felt a presence behind her, but didn't look up. "What are you doing here?" Someone whispered, making her jump. "WHAT!?" She yelled jumping up. Jasper took step back. "Dang, jumpy much?" He asked. "Don't EVER do that again!" Brooke said sitting back down. "You scared the crap out of me." Jasper laughed. "You're fun to mess with, you know that?" Brooke rolled her eyes. "Sh! I'm trying to study." Apparently Jasper had history this period. Brooke knew she would be coming back more often, but under the guise of wanting to review.

***

When Brooke got home, she was tired. She had had a long day, but it was a good one until her mom came home. Her dad had been in an irritable mood and snapped at her mom. She got mad and snapped back. Oh great, another wonderful fight Brooke thought. She didn't have any homework so she went to her room. She could still hear them fighting and she thought she heard her name. Brooke slowly got up and walked over to her door, slowly cracking it open. "I don't care!" Her dad was saying. "She needs to take responsibility. Have you seen her grades?" Her mom was hysterical. "I understand, Will! But you have got to realize that she's under a lot of pressure! Grounding her isn't going to help!" Brooke raised an eyebrow. Thanks mom, she thought to herself. "No! She's not going to homecoming." Brooke gasped. She was really looking forward to that. "Yes she is! She has to play for pep band anyway," her mother overruled. Brooke knew what was going to happen next. Her father blew up and started yelling and sputtering in anger. She hated being the center of their arguments. It made her feel really down inside. Her thoughts suddenly turned on her and she broke down. She knew it was going to be a sleepless night and that it was not going to end well. She checked her CD case to make sure her razor was still there. She stared at it for a minute with glassy eyes. "Brooke?" Her mom said, coming into the room. She slammed the CD case down. "W-what?" She asked guiltily, but her mom didn't seem to notice. "I'm going to take you to Jill's house for a while so that I can calm down. I don't want to leave you here alone, so hurry and get your shoes on." Her mom said shakily, with tears streaming down her face. Brooke hated seeing her mom cry. Jill was a family friend. Brooke's razor would have to wait till later.

They didn't get home until her father was already snoring in bed. They tiptoed in, careful not to wake him up. Her mom went into the spare bedroom and Brooke went to her own room. She was still feeling down and she wanted to numb the emotional pain. So she opened her CD case and trudged to the bathroom in a hypnotic state. She didn't remember what happened after that. Just that when she woke up the next morning, there was a new cut on her wrist, running across the older scars.

***

Brooke was really tired. She didn't bother with trying to match anything and just grabbed what happened to be on top in her drawers. Most of her clothes were pretty plain. She grabbed skinny jeans and a black T-shirt with white writing on it. Warsawa it said. Her dad had gotten it for her on a trip in Poland. She completely disregarded her scarred arm.

She was sitting at lunch, not her usual happy self (atleast since she had met Jasper) He tried to make her laugh but she just smiled weakly. Somehow, he caught a glimpse of her arm. "Hey what did you do to your wrist?" He asked loudly. Brook sucked in a breath and immediately retracted her arm. "W-what? Oh that? Haha, mean cat next door. Hates me." She said, hoping she sounded believable. Jasper said "oh" but he didn't seem convinced. Liar liar liar, she gulped to herself. Brooke pulled on her sweater when he seemed preoccupied enough. She hated lying to people, but what else could she do? She certainly couldn't tell him what really happened.