LaMelo Ball - By Ari

Twenty

The Fight
LaMelo's Perspective

I couldn't stop thinking about her.

I had no idea why, but it was particularly today that she crossed my mind over and over. I had remembered her smile; the way her lips curled up into a perfect grin as a small but noticeable dimple danced across her cheek at the same time. It was similar to a sunrise, it happened slowly and then the colors started flashing at you vibrantly and suddenly, you had a masterpiece. I missed her.

I missed Cori.

It felt like we were strangers again. Every time I saw her in the halls, she seemed to be another  unknown face in the crowd and I longed to witness the way her eyes lit up every time she saw me. But now, it felt as if we had never even talked in the first place. As if she hadn't even dropped her books that one day and I hadn't rushed to pick them up for her as we introduced ourselves in the mix.

Good job, Cori, you got what you wanted. We are strangers and I hope you're happy that you got your point across.

As I rose from my seat on the bleachers after the assembly concluded, my friends were talking about something that wasn't even the slightest bit important, so I took this as a chance to completely zone out and scan the crowd for Cori. I saw absolutely no sign of her which disappointed me because I wanted to watch her. It sounded wrong and creepy but I didn't care. I loved just the sight of her even though I couldn't get close.

The faint smell of her perfume seemed to be lingering in the air and I knew that it wasn't real. My mind was tricking me into thinking she was somewhere near. Her scent was so vibrant now.

That was another thing I missed; she always smelled so good. It doesn't even matter to you but it does to me, somehow. It's just another thing that I got to experience firsthand with Cori and you didn't. So there.

I walked out of one of the many exits of the gym with my friends and Gelo behind me. They were being so annoyingly loud that I had to walk a little faster to get ahead of them so the distance could drown out the sound of their voices. I walked up the hall a little before turning around and watching the 4 boys approach me.

"Hey, I'll catch ya'll later," I said and each of them gave me confused looks.

"You don't wanna come hoop with us?" Even LiAngelo seemed a little surprised that I was passing up the opportunity to play basketball with them. What they didn't know was that hooping was the absolute last thing I wanted to do right now.

Shaking my head slowly, my brother shrugged and my friends and him walked off, probably to go change and to head to Synergy. After they were gone, I continued my journey through the cluster of students before I noticed the halls began thinning out, as people probably were heading to their classes.

I just watched.

A girl with glasses laughing it up with her friends who looked similar. They were probably nerds since they had their textbooks clutched to their flat chests as if they were some sort of treasure.

Careless football jocks putting each other into headlocks and yelling for no apparent reason.

I hate the football players here.

A fairly skinny girl walking in the direction of the girls' bathroom with a pep in her step that seemed oh-so-familiar and the hair on the back of my neck stood up instantly as I recognized that girl to be the very person I had been looking for for the past few days, but never seemed to see anymore.

Cori.

Mine.

All I could do was stare as I saw her push open the door gently and step inside. It was right then when I spotted another group of girls heading towards the bathroom and I was about to look away but I recognized another body in the cluster.

Nevaeh.

I suddenly put 2 and 2 together and realized what was probably going to happen. But what was I going to do? I couldn't just barge in there...it was the girls' bathroom. What if someone saw me go in?

But I had to save Cori, and fast.

But what move was I gonna make?

I stopped in my tracks and it seemed like concrete had replaced my feet and I couldn't move. Several students pushed past me but I didn't care. Nevaeh and her little squad stepped inside the bathroom and shivers shocked my spine, making me jolt slightly.

Come on!

Move!

I hated myself for staying put.

After about 2 minutes, the concrete that had replaced my feet seemed to melt away and I took slow, heavy steps towards the girls' restroom as Nevaeh stepped out first, followed by 3 other slutty-looking students. I glared as they all had sneaky smiles on their disgusting faces and I knew what they had done. Cori didn't come out and I then expected the worst as my fingertips came in contact with a door handle.

As I peeked in, I saw nothing but some sinks, stalls, and a body laying on the floor.

I didn't even care if any other girls were in there, I threw open the door and ran inside, instantly kneeling down by Cori. I tried to shake her to get a response but she was as limp as a rag doll. They had knocked her out!

Panicking, I scooped her small frame into my arms and struggled back to the entrance of the bathroom, lifting up my foot to hook the toe of my shoe around the handle and opening the door again, stepping out.

"I need a nurse!" I yelled pretty loud, and received many confused stares instead of some help.

"I also need to workout more, damn," I muttered to myself and glanced at my shaking arms, but that was beside the point. I had the girl of my dreams unconscious in my arms and I needed to get her medical attention, fast.

Beginning a light jog, I ran down the hall and into the west wing. I knew the nurse's office was somewhere around there, but I was pretty unsure because I had never been. After looking around some more, I finally saw a door that had the name "Mrs. Montgomery" printed across a small sign next to it and I realized it was the nurse's name. I pushed my shoulder into the door and thankfully it opened, and I came face to face with Mrs. M.

"What happened?" she instantly jumped up from her seat at her desk and gestured to a bed-thingie in the corner, so I laid Cori upon it.

"Some girls ganged up on her," I was still trying to catch my breath. "I don't know everything that happened but she's knocked out."

"Alright." She picked up a phone and began dialing a number that I didn't know and looked at me sadly. "Thank you so much for helping her, but I'm going to need you to go to class and let me take matters into my own hands."

"I'm her boyfriend," I said quickly and received another pitiful smile from Mrs. Montgomery.

"Look, kid, I know that she's important to you but you really need to go. I'm sure people will be keeping you posted outside of school."

I didn't have anything else to say so I bit my lip, took one last glance at Cori, and walked out.