Brown Eyed Boy

Lab (Jessie POV)

Jared didn’t bother me very much after Carlos showed him up the first day of school. He gave me the occasional dirty looks, but other than that, made no contact. Carlos and I sat as far as possible away from him in classes we had in common and by the time Friday came, I was sure that I would have a majority uneventful week. Then my week took an unwanted turn during chemistry lab.

Carlos and I had gone to the back of the room, planning to partner up for the class when the teacher walked in and dropped a bomb on us.

“Good afternoon everyone,” Mr. Danvers said from the front of the room. “I’m glad to see no one decided to skip out on your first lab class of the year. Now before we begin on a review of the lab rules, I will assign you all partners.” We all groaned and as he began to call out names in the class, I realized how it was he was pairing us. He was placing us in boy- girl pairs but the worst part of it for me was that it was being done alphabetically. I crossed my fingers and hoped that Carlos would still be my partner.

“Jared Masters and Jessie Morrison.” I almost thumped my head on the lab counter as he said our names. Carlos lowered his head to the counter and quietly said “Hey, it’s only fifty minutes once a week. You can handle it.”

“Are you kidding me?” I said back. “Dude was just given the most perfect opportunity to kill me and make it look like an accident.”

“You really think I would let him get away with that?” Carlos asked.

“You have your own labs to focus on,” I answered. “You can’t exactly keep an eye on him. Besides, I’m seventeen and I don’t need a babysitter.”

“You don’t, but he does,” he replied.

“Mr. Rivera, Ms. Morrison, if you two would like to go to your assigned stations, the rest of us would like to begin class,” Mr. Danvers said. We both looked up and realized that the rest of the class had broken up into their partners. Jared smirked at me as he shook his head in mock disappointment and I groaned again at the thought of him being my partner for the year. Nicole Prescott was the only other person besides Jared, standing alone so it wasn’t hard for Carlos to figure out who his partner was. And when he saw that their station was directly across the counter from mine, he couldn’t help but turn and smile at me.

Hurrying over to our stations, I didn’t notice that Jared stuck his foot out and I tripped over it, going head first towards the counter. Carlos quickly went around the short station so that he was on our side and stopped me before my head made contact. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine, thanks,” I said. His brown eyes turned hard as he looked behind me to Jared. “Seriously Carlos, thanks. I was being a klutz and tripped over my own feet. I’m fine.” Carlos continued to glare at Jared and I was sure he was going to push me out of the way and punch him in the face.

“Is there a problem, Mr. Rivera?” Mr. Danvers sighed. Carlos stood silently for a second before looking down at me with the same angry eyes.

“No sir,” he answered. “Just helping Jessie; she tripped.”

“Well she seems to be on her own two feet now,” Mr. Danvers replied. “I’m sure you can continue checking on her from your side of the desk, can you not?”

“Sure,” Carlos said as he walked back around the counter. “Sorry.”

Our teacher nodded and continued on with his lecture of our lab rules as I tried to avoid meeting Carlos’ eyes again for the rest of the period.

*          *          *          *          *         

Carlos left the class almost as soon as we were dismissed but I hung back until everyone else left. He knew that Jared had been the one to trip me, just like he knew I was trying to cover it up. I could tell he was angry about it and decided it was better not to confront him about it. I stayed in the class for about five more minutes, hoping he had decided to just leave but was disappointed to find he hadn’t. He stood patiently outside the classroom and didn’t say a word to me the entire walk to our lockers and then to pick up Cassie. His silence bothered me so much that I almost wished he would just break on me. He could yell at me about how stupid I was and anything else he wanted, and I would find it better than this silence.

When we got Cassie, she made almost no effort at all to make him smile; it just happened naturally and I was glad. The last thing I wanted was his bad mood to transfer to her. Usually when we reached their house we would go our separate ways, but when we got there Carlos stopped Cassie from running to their front door. “Cass, do you mind if we walk Jessie all the way home today?” he asked her.

“Nuh uh,” she said happily and ran ahead of us. I had a sudden feeling that Carlos’ kindness for walking me home had an ulterior motive behind it. He still didn’t speak a word to me the entire two blocks to my house and I couldn’t help but feel like it was the longest walk I ever had to make; almost as if I were on death row. When we finally reached my house relief seemed to flood through me but the look in his eyes when I turned to say bye made it stop cold. Taking his iPod out of his pocket, he handed it to Cassie.

“Here, go sit over there and listen to this while I talk to Jessie, okay?” he said.

“Okay,” she said as she eagerly took it from his hands, put in the headphones and danced her way to my porch steps. Carlos waited until he heard Cassie singing along with a song and then turned his eyes on me.

They didn’t look as angry as they had before but I could see it buried under the irritation. I had thought he was quiet for the entire walk because he had no plans of speaking to me but apparently it was for the opposite reason. He was silent for so long because he was trying to think of what to say to me.

“Do you really think that low of yourself that you would feel the need to cover for Jared?” he asked me seriously. “Because all that does is give him permission to keep treating you like trash. To treat you like you don’t deserve to exist. Is that really what you want? Let me know right now Jessie, because if it is then I won’t keep trying to defend you to him.”

His eyes seemed to burn into me and I couldn’t help but feel stupid for covering for Jared. It was beyond me as to why, but some part of me still felt protective of him like we were still friends. I obviously needed to get over that or I would end up losing Carlos as a friend too.

“It’s not what I want,” I answered. “It’s just what I’m used to.”

“Because you let it happen,” he replied. “Jared treats you like crap and instead of standing up for yourself you just take it. The guy threw a football at you purposely and yet you turned to me like nothing happened.”

“It goes farther back then that!” I blurted out. “I’ve been treated like this for years before Jared.”

“That doesn’t make him doing it, okay,” Carlos said.

“I know it doesn’t,” I said, looking away from him. “It’s just what I’m used to.”

“Well stop being used to it,” he replied. “Start standing up for yourself and fighting back. Whatever it is that they say about you, just let it bounce off of you because it isn’t true.”

“How do you know?” I asked, turning back to him with my eyes stinging from awaiting tears.

“Because people only put so much effort into trying to hurt someone and make them feel worthless when they’re intimidated by them,” he said. “Why do you think Jared hated me so quickly?” I didn’t bother arguing that much with him because I knew that Jared was intimidated by him. It just didn’t make any sense that Jared would be intimidated by me too.

“Even if what you’re saying is right,” I said. “What am I supposed to do about it? Jared knows everything about my past and he uses it against me. Even if I could ignore him, there’s only so much I can let go.”

“You know stuff about his past too don’t you?” Carlos said. “If it becomes necessary you could just use that against him the way he does to you.”

“And until then, what am I supposed to do?”

“Stand up for yourself,” he answered. “Don’t let him or anyone else walk all over you. If they do something to you then fight back. And don’t cover for him anymore.”

“What if I can’t do all of that?” I asked.

“You can,” he answered. “And if you need help doing it, I’m here. You just have to trust me a little.”

“Okay,” I said, meeting his eyes. “I trust you.”