INCENDIARY | ✓

degausser | brand new

He had been ignoring me since I helped him after his fight.

Not that it mattered to me, but Harvey McDermott actually went out of his way to avoid me, something that made my raise my eyebrows.

I turned in the project (we passed with a 90) and after that, Harvey McDermott made sure to stay out of my way. It had been three weeks solid, and curiosity was burning in my lungs. I don't know exactly what I was curious about, but it was bothering me.

"Hey!" I was walking to my locker in the middle of the hallway after third period when I heard it. "Hey! You!"

I turned around, hand clutching the strap of my backpack tightly. "What?" I furrowed my eyebrows, weed-guy in front of me.

"You're the girl that was with McDermott that one day, right?" He huffed, hands on his knees. I nodded reluctantly.

"What do you need?"

"Well, I've never seen McDermott with anyone other than you, so I'm letting you know there's a fight behind the south wall- McDermott and Corey are going at it, dude."

"I don't understand why you're telling me this?" I inquired, my tone frosty. I didn't care what Harvey McDermott did in his free time; he was irrelevant to me.

"Listen, girl-"

"Arwen," I interjected.

"Arwen," the boy looked confused for a second. "Listen, you need to stop that fight."

"I don't even know McDermott," I snorted. "Get someone else to stop the damned fight if it hurts you so."

"But you do know Corey Rutt, weren't you a cheerleader?" he grabbed my arm. " Screw that, you know McDermott's gonna tear that bitch ass up; Corey's good as gone."

"I don't know Corey, either," I ignored his claim of my past as a Vanderbuilt High School cheerleader. "I know of him. Isn't he the football star? Even if he is beaten up by McDermott, he won't get in trouble because the school needs it's precious athlete." Towards the end of my sentence, my tone got nasty.

"Look, I don't know what crawled up your ass and died, but I need you to stop that fight because if you don't, McDermott's going to jail."

"It doesn't matter to me," I shrugged off his hold on my arm. "And McDermott most likely doesn't care either."

"See ya 'round," I stiffly smiled and began walking away from weed-guy.

"You're the only person he's tolerated for longer than five minutes. His family'll be in trouble if he gets locked up again; you gotta help, man. He didn't even start the fight! Corey baited him!"

Hearing that, the frozen parts of my cold soul began defrosting. I pretended to be heartless and careless, but inside, I couldn't ignore a person in need. Sighing in annoyance, and with a heavy feeling in my heart, I turned around and closed my eyes.

"Lead away, weed-guy."

Ignoring my nickname for him, weed-guy jerked his head to the side. "C'mon!"

He began running and I followed him, my breath leaving me with stings. How could weed-guy outrun me? I was the one who didn't partake in drugs, yet he wasn't even out of breath! Once I caught up to him, he pushed past the crowed that had formed around the duo, creating a path for me to follow him through.

I got elbowed more than I wanted to, but once I entered the eye of the ring, my eyes widened.

McDermott was bleeding from his lip, and there was slight bruise forming under his left eye; Corey, on the other hand, was far worse. With his nose bleeding, a black eye, and his mouth bloody, he looked worse for wear.

"That all you got, McDermott?" Corey sneered, wiping the blood from his nose. McDermott growled in response and squared up, slightly bouncing from foot to foot.

"That's the sound your mother made to me last night, too." Corey was a disgusting, disgusting boy. By insulting McDermott's mother, he succeeded in his venture in making McDermott so mad, he began blindly lashing out. 

"You piece of shit," McDermott snarled, "I don't care about that old bitch anyways."

"Then why the emotional reaction?" Corey smirked. Instead of replying, McDermott hurled himself at Corey, hitting him anywhere he could.

This caused the crowd to go out of control, some idiot screaming something that sounded like "WOORRLLDDDSTAARRR" with his cell phone in hand.

"Give me my money, you leech!" McDermott straddled Corey, punching his face in. There was the shrill sound of a whistle being blown, the noise causing McDermott to hesitate. That was his mistake- McDermott hesitated and Corey managed to push him back, punching McDermott with the same rigor, his face bleeding.

McDermott staggered back and Corey got him in a headlock, jabbing his elbow in McDermott's head. McDermott managed to push Corey back, barely able to stand on his two feet, he sluggishly attempted to fight back.

I couldn't stand seeing McDermott looking so weak and the tugging in my heart caused me to want to help him, so I did the stupidest thing I could.

I jumped in front of Corey's punch that was meant for McDermott.

Feeling fire erupt where his fist made contact with my jaw, I was flung away from the fight. Getting the air knocked out of me was something I never wanted to relive, but at the moment the only thing going through my mind was why did I do that?

. . .

I don't know how long I blanked out for, but I woke up to light shining on my eye.

"Careful, Dear," the croaky voice of the school nurse commanded. "You hit your head pretty hard there, and that jaw is a shiner." She came into my line of sight, her face worried. "It's a good thing that nice boy brought you in! I told him I'd be with him and he disappeared, face bruised and all!"

I groaned in response, ignoring her. Once I struggled and sat up, she handed me a bag of ice.

"You're not well enough to go to class, so I will call your guardian to come pick you up."

I stared at her, my face stony.

"I feel fine," I rasped out. "I'm not going home." I'd do anything but go home.

"Honey, you're not well," the nurse patronized. "You need to go home and rest."

"No," I stood up on wobbly legs. "No, I'm fine." I repeated and took a moment to stable myself. "What period is it?"

"It's fifth period," the nurse reluctantly answered. "But you're still not going back to class. I will call your parent or guardian."

"You can call," I scoffed. "She won't come; probably spreading her legs," I twisted my lips in disdain. The nurse looked appalled, her eyes wide.

"Now, now," she began in a hurry. "I'm sure-"

"Listen," I cut her off. "I can't go home, so instead of wasting time, I'll just go to class."

It took a few seconds, but I finally was stable enough to walk. "Thanks for putting up with me," I grinned a little to appease her. "I'm fine."

With that, I wobbled my way into fifth period.