Him & Her

Ch.28

Ch28

Elizabeth and Cole walked onto the school grounds, the morning sun shining through tree branches and warming them when they walked under a patch of sunlight. Elizabeth thought that the day couldn't get any better.

By the time they were walking towards the front doors of the school, Cole was breathing hard. He let go of Elizabeth's hand and sat down on the closest bench. He took in a deep breath and immediately clutched at his chest.

"Hey." Elizabeth rested a hand on his shoulder.

Then he coughed loud and hard. Elizabeth noticed then how pale his skin looked. At first she thought it was only the morning light that made him look like that, but as he sat in a warm circle of sunlight, he looked like a ghost.

Elizabeth unzipped her backpack and handed him her water bottle. Cole coughed once again then took a long gulp of water. He chugged down half the water in the bottle then slowly breathed in short breaths of air.

After a few seconds, Cole calmed down. That's when Elizabeth started talking.

"You didn't go to the doctor, did you?" she asked, "You are so stupid! You're getting worse and worse! I'm taking you to the doctor today. Right now. Get up."

Cole smiled up at her, "Thanks, but no thanks."

"I'm not asking you."

Cole groaned, "Fine, but after school."

"You should've gone a week ago!"

"So a few more hours won't hurt." he stood up again.

Elizabeth studied him carefully. He was slightly hunched over, like he could barely stand up. His chest rose and fell faster than it should have, but the scariest thing was the color of his lips. They weren't red, or pink, or anything close to that. They were a very light shade of blue. The color was so faint, Elizabeth almost missed it. It scared her the most because it reminded her of the color of a corpse. Pale and blue.

•••

Elizabeth was the only person in her family that believed in karma. She believed that if she was good, she would get good things in return. That's why she left the people who bullied her alone. She knew that one day, they would get a taste of their own medicine.

Today was one of those days. Someone who had bullied her was being bullied. That someone was Cole.

When Cole and Elizabeth walked into the school, they noticed pictures hanging all over the school hallways. You would have to be blind not to see them. They were big and there were millions of them. Kids were whispering to each other and pointing at the pictures, some of them were snickering.

Elizabeth stopped at the first one she came across and stared. She recognized the boy in the picture as Cole. He had the same dazzling eyes, same ruffled hair, but that's where the similarities stopped. The boy in the picture had braces, pimples, and a black eye. Cole had none of those. The boy in the picture looked like he was shrinking away from the camera, trying to disappear into thin air. It was obvious he had no self confidence; the total opposite of Cole's personality. The boy in the picture was a little chubby, while Cole was fit.

The picture looked like it was Cole from another world, where everyone was the opposite of who they really were.

Elizabeth looked back at Cole, who's eyes were wide and face was red. "That's you." Elizabeth said slowly.

"N..." Cole sighed, "Ya, that's me. In grade 7. But that's impossible, the only person who's ever seen that picture is-"

Suddenly laughter erupted from down the hallway. Elizabeth and Cole looked over and saw Dixon and his posse looking at one of the pictures and laughing.

"I'm doomed." Cole murmured.

The group of boys looked over at Cole and Elizabeth and Dixon began to walk over to them, a wicked smile on his face. The other boys followed him, but kept Dixon a few steps ahead of them.

Dixon stopped in front of Cole. He crossed his arms over his chest and said, "Well, I thought you were joking about liking Elizabeth, but after seeing these pictures..." Dixon laughed, "You really are just as much a loser as she is."

"Liz is not a loser." Cole snapped, "By the way, I thought we were friends. Why are you saying all of this now?"

That made Dixon laugh again, "Friends? No Cole, I was only pretending to be your friend. I hated your guts. You can't believe how long I've been waiting for a day like this to come. I tried to get close to you so I could dig up some nasty secret or something embarrassing about you, but you didn't let me get too close, you didn't tell me any dirty secrets." Dixon looked at the closest picture of Cole, "Luckily, someone else did it for me. I guess everyone hates you Cole." he smiled.

"Not everyone." Elizabeth said.

"Shut up." Dixon snapped at her.

Suddenly Cole grabbed the collar of Dixon's shirt and said, voice dripping with poison, "Don't talk to her that way. I may not be on your stupid little cool scale anymore, but I still remember how to punch an idiot like you in the face."

Dixon pried himself loose of Cole's grip and backed up a few steps. The look on his face clearly stated that he was still afraid of Cole. He tried to defend the last bit of pride he had left. "Careful Cole, I'm the new you now. And trust me, you don't wanna mess with the most popular guy in school." Dixon warned, "Watch your back." Then he and his group of friends walked away.

Elizabeth sighed, "Well, that went well."

Cole stared at one of his old pictures with a burning rage in his eyes.

"Who would do something like this? You said only one person could have seen these pictures. Who?" she asked him.

"You really wanna know?" Cole asked. Elizabeth nodded. Cole tore down the picture and ripped it in half. He threw the pieces to the floor and looked up at her.

"Brandon Lloyd." he said.