Mood Ring

Rehabilitation

               Rebecca didn't come to school the next day. Needless to say, I failed my first AP Bio project. There was no more Mood Ring, and no Rebecca.
            I served my after school detentions every day (which interfered with science club, which I was the captain of).  Going home on Friday, there was a pit of guilt in my heart.
Becky never came back.
          For the first few weeks, her friends would talk about her and wonder where she was, but after a while all that talk faded. I pretty much avoided anything that had to do with her. I hadn't even gone in my backyard to retrieve the remnants of her things, or the ring.
         Weeks turned to months, and months turned to... the end of the school year.
        I was a complete wreck at that point. I stopped taking care of myself. Some days I didn't eat, and sometimes I just slept all day long. My once neat, trimmed face was now occupied with an unkept beard, and my haircut grew out into a matted mess. I stopped hanging out with my friends from science club. I sat in my room alone, thinking of any new ideas, new projects, anything I could develop in the name of science, but my whole life was just one big brain fart.
         "Jude, your father wants to know if you would like to go to the gym with him. It would be nice to get out of this room for a change sweetie," said my mom through the crack of my door.
          "Okay mom. I'll be down in a minute."
      I wasn't trying to be the way that I was. I really wasn't. I wanted to get out and hopefully find something that made me feel happy. Before, the only thing that made me happy was.... her.
       My dad made me interested in a whole new life; the gym life. All the anger and depression I felt, I put it into a punching bag, a crunch, a squat. Pretty soon I also had a part-time job working at the gym's juice bar. I learned that not only am I good at mixing chemicals in a lab, but I'm also good at blending proteins and berries. I also began investing more time in the science club summer competitions, eventually demolishing all our competitors from rival teams. Not only was I improving mentally, I was also improving physically, and I was being noticed.
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"One!...two!....three!"

I paused my workout and looked up, disturbed by someone who was counting obnoxiously loud. I could hear their voice over my headphones.

"Ugh," I groaned. It was Jessica.

Jessica was one of her friends.  She was always calling me names in school, but she hasn't said a word or called me anything at all this summer.
She had dark brown hair worn in a ponytail that flowed down her back, blue eyes, and olive skin. She also had a thin, athletic frame from being in the gym. And-sorry to say this- despite all her weighted squats, she still had no ass.
I tugged the headphones from my ears. I noticed Jessica wasn't even in the proper squat position. She had her butt stuck too far up. I rolled my eyes and sighed.
       "Jessica? Could you please keep it down? The whole gym doesn't need to hear you."
         She came up and got close to me, close enough to kiss me.
       "Oh, well I was just making sure that you did," she said, twirling her hair with her fingers.
          She grabbed my thigh, and I jumped back, startled.
          "Feels nice. Keep up the good work!" She said, winking at me and walking away. Never had I felt so violated in my life.