Hey... It's Me

Chapter 3.

*next day at lunch*

I grabbed my food and sat down at my regular table but instead of sketching, I rolled an apple under my fingertips. I looked at the people around me and saw that they were whispering about me. Nothing surprising. I couldn't find anything to distract myself from everything so I took a piece of paper from my math notebook and began to sketch. That sketch began to turn into a drawing. It was Josh. The image of him had been burned into my mind so much that I could draw him from memory. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stop thinking of Josh and his bright purple hair.

What's wrong with me? 

Then he walked up to me.

"Is this seat taken?" He asked.

"Knock yourself out." I replied, putting the drawing back into my folder and taking another blank page out of my notebook.

"What are you drawing now?"

"Does it concern you?"

I kept my eyes on the paper and didn't look up at him.

"Should it?" He said. "Like your last drawing?"

"I'm not a stalker." 

"I never said you were."

My head shot up to look at him and I noticed something. He had a black eye.

"What happened?" I said, I couldn't help worrying about him.

"Got this for talking to you the other day."

"This is how your friends treat you? You let them?"

"If I do something they don't like."

"Then why are you talking to me now? They're looking." 

"It doesn't matter." He said. "None of them matter. Hey let me get your number. Maybe we can hang out sometime."

I felt something inside me. Something growing. It was as if I had been wanting something for my entire life and I'm just now getting a chance to get it. It confused me. It worried me. I put all that aside and put my number into his phone.

"Josh I think i'd better go, I don't want them to do something to you."

I was getting so anxious that my nails cut through the outside of the apple I was rolling a few minutes ago.

"Stay for a little." He said.

"Yea Tyler, stay." One of his friends said as he walked up to us.

"Ryan? What are you doing here?" Josh asked.

Ryan huh?

"Well I saw that you two were talking and wanted to come over and join the conversation." Ryan said.

"Really?" I asked, doubting him.

"No not really." He sad with a laugh. "Man you really are stupid."

I rolled my eyes.

"So what are we talking about here Joshie?" Ryan asks. "About the pictures?"

My heart started to beat rapidy.

How did he know about the photos?

"What pictures?" Josh asks. "The one Tyler drew?"

"You know his name too? Oh god Josh." Ryan adds.

I stood up, ready to run away if I had to. I can't see Josh after he looks at the photo's I took of him yesterday. 

What if Ryan has them?

"Where you going Troy?" He asks, forcing me to sit back down.

"It's Tyler." I say.

He drops the pictures onto the table.

HOW DID HE GET THESE?

Josh looks at them, I can't see his expression just yet. I hold the apple in my hand, tightening my grip with every heartbeat. 

"T-Tyler?" Josh asks.

I kept my head down, finally loosening my grip on the apple in my lap.

"Why don't you teach him what happens to stalkers like him." Ryan said, dragging me out of the seat by my hoodie. 

I coughed when he finally let go, trying to catch my breath again. Ryan could kill me if he wanted to.

Ryan lands a punch across my face, another, and another. Five punches later. The entire school is gathered around us. I can't see Josh. I can't see anything, my vision is too blurry.