It's A Dance

It's A Dance (10)

"You ready for this?" Landon asked as we walked inside the school with Iliana Monday morning. I was confused by his question and gave him a funny look.

"What are you talking about?" I asked him. He wrapped an arm around my waist as we walked down the boring white halls. The only colour provided was from the posters and our silver lockers. The rest of the hall was fairly boring.

"Him," Landon said while nodding slightly to our left. I looked and saw Daxton with an angry face. I moved closer to Landon and Iliana mimicked my movements to make sure I was kept in between them. I could feel the anger and it had me on edge.

"I can't do this," I whispered in Landon's ear. Everybody was staring at me, judging me. I needed to get away. My fight or flight instinct kicked in and I took off running out of the school doors. I heard laughter behind me as tears blurred my sight. My sneakers hit the ground hard as I ran down the street and to a small park just down the road.

When I reached the old park I climbed up the swing set pole and sat on top of it. My shoulders shook slightly with a sob as I let the tears fall. Those people were judging me though they never knew my story. They would know what Daxton told them about our breakup and what they saw themselves. The anger and hate directed towards me from Daxton made me shake with fear. His anger was equivalent to my mother's. It frightened me.

"Ebony?" I looked down and saw Landon looking up at me. His hands were on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. "Will you get down here? I can't climb up there."

"Just so I can be laughed at? No thanks." I wiped at more of the tears trailing down my face. I wasn't usually this weak towards people. When I was around Landon though, my vulnerability shone through.

"What's the worse they can do Eb? Laugh at you? Make you cry? It just shows that they have nothing better to do with their time. People pick on people they know are stronger than they are. So all you're doing up there is giving into those jerks." Landon was finally standing straight and with a grimace he began trying to climb up to where I was perched.

"Are you seriously going to haul your fat body up here?" I asked with a shaky laugh. He grinned at my attempt to be funny.

"I am not fat. And if that's what it takes to get you down then you best believe I will."

"Okay, okay I'm coming down. Don't hurt yourself."

Once I reached the bottom he pulled me into a giant hug and kissed the top of my head. I felt bad for making him worry about me. It was obvious he cared. I decided to open up more to him in that moment.

"I used to cut myself," I whispered to him with tears in my eyes. I didn't want him to think any less of me. I wanted his attention and affection. I needed it at this point. He and Iliana were all that were holding me together.

He pulled back and grabbed both my wrists before rubbing his thumbs slowly along the scars. His eyes never left mine as he just ran his thumbs over them again and again. I was afraid of his reaction. Thoughts of him leaving me for being too weak filled my head. He was only a friend but it was a friendship I wasn't willing to lose.

"You're beautiful," he said. "These scars show how strong you are because you clearly haven't done it in at least a year."

"It's been about that," I whispered before tears began falling again. His reaction was not what I expected and it was confusing me. It made me wish he had yelled and gotten angry. This calm acceptance was unusual. He stared at me before swiping his thumbs under my eyes and removing the salty tear tracks.