Ten Things

Ch.11-Looks Can Be Deceiving

Grace

I don’t think I’m better than anyone else. I’ve never thought that. Even as a child, before I knew of the cancerous cells eating away at my body, depleting me of life, I put others before myself. I guessed it was the fact that I never gave myself enough self-worth. Or self-respect. I always saw everybody else as more important and so I wanted their lives to be better. You could only imagine it got worse when I found out I was going to die anyway. There wasn’t a moment when I wasn’t doing something for somebody else, or contemplating it.

That, I reasoned, was why I felt so bad about what I said to Cole. I shouldn’t have said any of it. It was a bad day, yeah, but that was no excuse. I had taught myself that, hadn’t I? That excuses were for the weak?

It had been eating at my conscience all weekend, and so I was going to do something about it. He had driven me home Saturday. That had to mean there was something genuine inside of him, right? Something more than what I was seeing?

I could only hope.

“Halo!”

I glanced to the side to see Tiffany running up to me, her fingers latched around the arm of a boy I hadn’t seen before. I closed my locker door gently, turning to face her. “Hi, Tiffany.”

She was breathing hard, but there was a huge smile on her face. “I want you to meet Dustin.”

The boy cast me a shy smile, his hands stuck deep in his pockets. His blond hair was long, hanging over his ears and slightly in his eyes. “Hi Dustin,” I greeted, smiling warmly.

“Dustin is my cousin,” Tiffany explained, bouncing on the balls of her feet. “He moved into his house over the weekend and he’s attending here now. His parents are divorced and all that and his dad lives here . . . Gosh, I’m just telling her your whole life story, aren’t I?” she laughed at herself. Dustin sent her a withering look.

“It’s nice not being the only new kid,” I stated, pulling his attention from his eccentric cousin. “Where are you from?”

“Kentucky,” he answered, and I realized he had a bit of an accent. I found it adorable, considering he was a bit on the shy side.

“Cool,” I answered. “I’m from Tennessee.”

“Cool,” he parroted, and grinned. Tiffany glanced between us, a sly and mischievous smile dancing at her lips. I could only guess what that meant, and I hoped she didn’t pull anything. I had enough on my mind dealing with Cole.

“I have to get to the office,” Dustin spoke up out of the blue, shifting his feet. “I’ll catch up with you guys later, okay?”

I nodded and Tiffany gave him an encouraging slap on the back that looked like it hurt. He shuffled off, heading in the direction of the office. I noticed people didn’t give him a wide berth. They didn’t turn their heads and whisper about him. I tried not to let that get to me, not to let it bother me, but it was kind of hard.

“So what do you think of him?” Tiffany jabbed, nudging me with her elbow. “You think he’s cute?”

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. “He seems nice,” I answered truthfully.

“Nice? He may be quiet but he kicks ass on the baseball field. And he’s a hell of a cow milker. You know he broke some kind of record in his home town back in Kentucky? I thought it was hilarious.”

“Good for him,” I said, nodding. At least he had a respectable background to start off a new school with. Something to get him into a group securely, not wandering around waiting for death to come knocking.