The Ones That Got Away

Give me a medal

Henry's brown eyes glared into my green ones. "Okay." I say. "Before you tell me where you 'remember' me from," I made air quotes on the word remember. "Could you please give me a lil personal space." Henry backed up about two inches. Still uncomfortably close but whatever. "You're a criminal." He whispers to me. "I saw you hijack a car a while back."

  Give the kid a medal.

  I yanked my arm back. A look of hurt spread across my face. "I don't know what you're talking about." I tell him, sounding scared. "Why are you accusing the new kid of being a criminal?" I pick up my tray, shaking. "I thought you were going to be a friend." I whisper and turn. Henry runs a hand through his auburn hair as embarrassment washed over him.

  No, give me a medal.

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  While I'm waiting for my next class to start I put my dark hair into a messy bun. As I'm putting the ponytail holder around the bun the last time as I see Henry walk in. Quickly, I tear the ponytail holder out and let my hair down to the side so it covers my face. But it's too late.

I hear heavy set footsteps getting louder the closer they got to me until they came to a sudden stop near me. Then I hear the sound of someone taking the desk next to me. Dammit. I thought I could escape him until tomorrow. I move my hair away from my face, trying to make it look natural, and glance at the seat to my right. Only there's a girl I've never seen before sitting there. I sigh in relief and look to my left to look out the window.

"Hey," I look up to see Henry sitting in front of me. "I'm sorry about earlier. I thought you were someone else." He continues. I look at him closely trying to decide if I should fake forgive him just like I faked feeling hurt. "Okay." I decided not to forgive him. "And I'm sorry about hurting you." Henry apologizes. Can't he shut up and leave me alone already. "Okay." I say again. "Rome, please forgive me." He begs. "I don't want you to be mad at me." He even added puppy dog eyes and a pouty face. "Fine, whatever. I forgive you." I grunt as I roll my eyes. When I look at Henry again he's facing forward and tapping his pencil on the desk waiting for class to begin.

For the whole class, Henry and I didn't speak to each other (thank God). Now it's the end of class and the bell is about to ring. My plan is to get my stuff and leave as fast as I can to my next class. I can't handle another awkward situation with Smart-But-Gullible. My things are all ready for me to quickly grab and leave so, unless this kid has ninja like reflexes, I can avoid questions from Henry.

Rrrrrrriiiinnnngg
I quickly sweep up my belongings and practically run towards the door. Halfway to the door I feel a tug on the back of my shirt. Not a gentle "turn around" tug, a "you will fucking fly backwards, break someone's leg, blow up a bomb and kill a cat" tug. Okay, so someone tried to murder me from behind. I stumble backwards and hit a desk, falling on top of it and rolling backwards off of it. I landed on my feet though, stuck the landing like an Olympic gymnast. The person who pulled me is the same guy from this morning. I know it's him because I could see him laughing while I was rolling. When I landed it his smile dropped and he looked a little mad. Then he turned around to leave.

"Are you okay?" Dammit Rome! You had one job! I look up at Henry and smiled. "Yeah I'm fine." After I answer him I grab my stuff and head towards the door. "So what's your next class?" Henry asks walking next to me. "Art." I start walking faster. "Me, too!" Henry says matching my speed. Why can't I escape? "Great." I give him a fake smile. "Can I ask you something?" I ask as glance at him. "Yeah, sure. Shoot." He replies with a smile. "What's the deal with Sam and Laura?" I ask putting a cautioning tone on my words. "Um..." He thinks about his answer now. "Not that it's important. It's just... She appears to really like him and... Yeah..." I add. "Well," Henry starts. "Laura's been crushing on Sam for years. She's never been so obvious about until this year." Henry sounded sad. "Sam either doesn't notice because he likes someone else or he just doesn't care." Henry adds. I look at him. "What about you?" I ask. "What about me?" He asks back. 
"Where are you in all of this?"
"Me?"
"Yes, you!"
"Well... I watch as Laura likes him more and more every day, and Sam comes nowhere close to realizing it. And Laura hits on him and Sam doesn't realize it."
"Okay, so Sam isn't the brightest lightbulb in the box." Henry laughs at that. "It's just," Henry starts. "It's hard watching Laura try so hard to get Sam to notice her." "Because you like her how she like Sam." I reply.