Faith and Despair

Chapter 1

         Wonderful. As if today couldn't get any worse.
        I'm standing in front of Ethan; my best friend since kindergarten and for tonight, my date. We're at the Valentine's Day Dance at our school. It was going great until I had to go and spill punch down the front of my dress. He is trying to help me wipe it up but it's no use. I could hear a couple of girls snicker but they are shortly silenced when I shoot a glare in their direction.
         "Oh Abby, I'm so sorry" Ethan says still trying to wipe up my dress.
         "Don't worry about it it's not your fault," I reply. I can feel how hot my face is and I'm pretty sure it's as red as the punch.
         "No but I asked you to come," Ethan says furiously working to get the punch out.
         "And I'm glad you did" I reply trying to remain serious.
         The thing is I like Ethan, as a lot more than a friend. I've known for 11 years. However, I have felt this way for the last five years. Roughly since we were getting ready to enter middle school. I've done a pretty good job at keeping this a secret but when he asked me to the dance my enthusiasm was hard to contain.
         "Well I'm glad you came, how about we get out of here. You get changed and then we can go out to dinner?" he asks as he finally decides to stand up right and give up trying to fix my dress.
         "You seriously want to go out with this klutz?" I ask him bewildered.
         "Did you really just ask me that? We've known each other for how long? I can deal with you being klutzy for one night," Ethan says smiling devilishly.
         "Well, I'm pretty sure I've just embarrassed myself more than I ever have before."
         "Oh well," he says shrugging his shoulders. "You have a change of clothes in the truck right?"
         "Of course," I say and do a sarcastic eye roll.
         "Then go grab them, get changed in the bathroom and then we can go," he says holding out his truck keys.
         I give him a sideways look as he holds out the keys. He shoots me a smile and I cave. I grab the keys and turn to walk out the door. I walk out to his truck and to grab my clothes. With them firmly in my arms, I walk inside; handing Ethan the keys on the way to the bathroom. I see that all the stall doors are open and pick the closest one.
         I strip off my dress and put on my regular clothes. My favorite pair of light blue jeans and a light pink strapless top completes my casual look. I put my dress into the bag I took my clothes out of. I check my hair in the mirror. My blonde hair is a little messy but not bad. The curls have started to go slightly flat but I run my fingers through it slightly to give it more of a natural look. My makeup still looks good and still brings out my blue eyes. I am definitely ready for a dinner with Ethan.
         Just as I go to leave; Jessie Adkins and a bunch of her friends walk in. She walks straight up to me and gives me the once over. Her friends lurk behind her and I know I should be wary. After thoroughly looking me over she decides to make her move.
         "So I hear that you and Ethan are heading out," she says in a disgusted tone.
         "Yeah kind of spilled punch all down my dress; so he decided that we should head out to dinner instead. What's it to you?" I ask.
         "Well I think the whole school knows that I like Ethan and well I want you to just leave here and not go with him tonight."
         "Not a chance. Look just because you're one of the most popular girls in school doesn't mean that you can push the rest of us around and get what you want." Bad move on my part, I should have just kept my mouth shut, but it's too late to do anything now.
         "You're so pathetic. How could anyone like a girl like you?" she ask.
         "I don't know Jessie. How could anyone like a girl like you? I'm sure you've slept with every guy at school besides Ethan, and you just want something new."
        "You know nothing," she says glaring at me.
        "Really, because I think I know plenty. Who was the last guy? Alex? Jake? I've seriously lost track," I say with a smirk.
        At first she seems shocked but she quickly regains her composure, "Then I guess I've done my job right."
        "How can you be so... nonchalant about that stuff? Or do you really enjoy putting on a charade for everyone? Don't you ever just want to be yourself?" I ask seriously. I genuinely mean it. I always wonder how she does what she does.
        "Why? It's not like you care. Besides this is about you and how worthless you are."
        "You know sometimes I feel bad for you."
        "You shouldn't. You should feel bad for you," she says and my brain freezes. At least it must.
        I don't see her move her arm or hand. I don't see her twist her hips and face me head on. I certainly don't see her fist hit my face. She hits me really hard on my lower jaw and sends me to my butt. I can't see. I can't hear. I can't register anything. My brain has literally stopped processing things. Except for pain. I feel the pain in my jaw and vibrating through my teeth. I feel the pain from falling on my butt. For some reason my head hurts and I can't figure out why.
        Before I can think about anything I'm being lifted up off the ground. I make my eyes focus on whoever is holding me. For a moment I think I see Ethan but it can't be because it's the girl's bathroom. I focus a little harder and realize it is him. How? I don't know, nor do I care at the moment.
         "Thanks for the save," I say. My mouth is still throbbing and my teeth ache. None of that matters though.
         "You're just having all sorts of issues tonight huh?" he says sarcastically.
         "I guess so. So how about you get out of the girl's bathroom and I'll get cleaned up, again. Oh and you should get changed too."
         "How about I stay, watch to make sure Jessie doesn't come back for more, and you get cleaned up first?"
         "You know what will happen if you get caught in here right?" I ask him as I walk over and wet down a piece of paper towel.
         "I know. So I guess you better hurry huh?"
         "I guess so. Oh and Ethan?"
         "Yeah?"
         "Thanks for the save. I mean it. But you have a lot of explaining to do."
         "Don't worry about it. That's what friends are for right? "
         "Yeah," I say smiling as I wipe off some of the blood from my split lip.
         "Hey are you sure you're okay?" he says walking over to me, glancing at my split lip.
         "Yeah. Look if you don't want to go out with me all you have to do is say so."
         "No that's not it; it's just a lot of things have gone wrong tonight and I feel like it's my fault."
         "What? How is it your fault that I spilled punch all down my dress? How is it your fault that Jessie came to beat me up?"
         "Yeah well if Jessie didn't have a crush on me she wouldn't have punched you or come after you."
         "But did you know that she was going to beat me up?"
         "No... but."
         I cut him off, "No buts."
         "You know not many girls would be so calm about this."
         "Who says I'm being calm? Maybe I'm just waiting for the right moment."
         Ethan laughs, "I guess you would wait and plan everything out."
         "Yes I would. Plus I ended up with you as a friend and we had some pretty wild childhood days," I say remembering the way things were.
        "I definitely wasn't easy to get along with," he says agreeably.
        "And whose fault is that?"
        He chuckles slightly, "Anyway are you ready to go? If I stay in here too much longer we risk the chance of being caught."
        "Yeah I'm so ready to get out of here," I say as I throw away the paper towel, now covered in blood.
        Ethan walks over to the door and holds it open while I walk through, "Where do you want to go then?"
        "Surprise me," I say smiling widely.

*Yay chapter one! I hope you guys love this and don't think it's too cliche. I promise my writing style does get better as the chapters progress. Anyway thank you all for reading this! I don't think I can say that enough!