No Turning Back

Are We Cool?

"Danny," I heard Melanie's voice say as her footsteps made their way into my room. I was lying on my bed with my face buried inside my pillow. I wish that I could have been sleeping but I had way too many other things running through my mind. These past couple of days had been rough for me. After Melanie had driven me home the day I had my face pounded in, she once again tried to clean me up. She even used makeup to try hiding my eye's swelling and the cut on my lip. I was grateful for her help but I knew that my parents were going to be able to see right through the concealer. Especially my mom since she knew everything about makeup. Plus, they knew how my face normally looked. So, of course, they noticed my bruised up face and I got a lecture about how I had to stay out of trouble so that none of the college admissions counselors would change their mind about me being a perfect student. My dad also yelled at me about not knowing how to defend myself. He kept telling me that he had raised me to be a strong man, not a weakling. If only he knew what I had gone up against. I never told them exactly what happened or with whom I got into a fight with but I did give them hints that the guy could still kick my ass even with his hands tied behind his back. Eventually, they did stop talking and left me alone but they didn't drop the subject. My dad kept giving me indirect looks that showed his disapproval while my mom tried not to look at me. I could tell that they were disappointed but I honestly didn't know what else they wanted me to do. The only way to get Jayden off my back was to let him pound on me. That was going to happen no matter what.

"What's wrong," I heard Melanie ask. She walked over to my bed. I heard her sit down before I felt her hand on my back. "Are you alright?"

"Yea," I murmured into the pillow. "I'll be fine." I rolled over to look up at her. Her face was hovering over me, her brown eyes warm. I noticed that her hair was now a honey brownish-blonde, causing her eyes to glow. She looked pretty.

"So there is something wrong?" I sighed and pointed over to my desk. She looked over in the direction I was pointing and raised an eyebrow. Yet, without question, she got up and opened the middle drawer. Her eyes widened as she pulled out a stack of letters. "Dartmouth...University of Pennsylvania...Brown...Cornell, Princeton...Columbia...Yale...and Harvard. Danny, you got accepted into all of these Ivy League schools!"

"Keep going. There's more where those came from." She put the letters on the desk and continued to pull out the rest of them.

"Stanford...Duke...University of Chicago... Daniel, you have so many acceptance letters! Oh my gosh, I'm so proud of you," she yelled as she jumped onto my bed. Her slender arms grabbed me into a tight hug.

"Thanks," I murmured as I wrapped my arms around her as well. Melanie pulled her head away so that she could look me in the eyes. She tilted her head at me as a frown came over her face.

"What's wrong? Why aren't you happy about this?"

"It's just...my parents...they can't find out about those letters."

"Why not?"

"Because you know what they're going to try do it. They're going to try to force me into a college that I don't even want to go to."

"You don't want to go to an Ivy League school?"

"I do but I want it to be my decision of where I want to go. Knowing my parents, they'll try to influence my decision and I really don't want to deal with that. I just wanna have some time to really think about it, ya know. Maybe I'll visit them all over again and see where I think I'll belong best at. And if I don't pick an Ivy League for undergrad then maybe I'll go to one for my medical degree. I just...I want to do my own thing."

"I understand," Melanie said with a soft smile. She lay down beside me, her brown eyes looking at me with admiration. "I know that you'll make the right decision." I sighed.