Him. // Martinus Gunnarsen

3

Monday morning. Favorite day of the week. Hooray. And if you didn't already notice, that was sarcasm.

I get up from bed and head to the bathroom. I take off my clothes and turn on the shower. I let every muscle relax as the warm water hits my skin. I stand under the water for about five minutes and then get out. I put on some clothes and makeup. I look in the mirror.

I hate myself. The girl staring back at me is hideous. Ugly green eyes, brown hair, ugly too. I'm fat, I have fat arms, face, everything. I hate this. All of this. I have an ugly cut on my cheek, thank to dad.

I feel a tear roll down my face. I quickly wipe it off and take my school bag. I go downstairs and check the living room and the kitchen. Dad's not home. I leave the house and start walking to school.

I go to class and sit on my place in the back. Soon everyone else comes in too and the lesson starts. I just doodle in my journal because I don't have any motivation for biology.

"Okay so we are gonna work in pairs. Marcus is going to be with Emily, Alex is going to be with Maria, Matt with Elise..."

"... and since Aurora isn't here today Martinus is going to be with Jenny." the teacher finally finishes his long list of pairs.

No. This can't be happening. But of course I have to work in pairs with my bully because this is my life after all. I would blame Aurora about this for not coming in today but I can't. You can't always blame someone else for everything.

I hear Martinus groan as he gets up from his seat. I sigh and take out my books. This is gonna be great. Martinus sits next to me and bangs his books to the table.

"So here's the thing. We will do this and only speak when it's necessary. I don't wanna be working with you and I'm guessing you don't wanna be working with me either." he says. I just nod quietly and start writing important things about the assignment to my notebook.

"Hey Gunnarsen, come here for a sec." Alex yells from the back. Martinus gets up and goes there. He starts talking about something with Alex and Julia.

"So you in?" Julia asks after some whispering.

"Yes, totally!" Martinus says and comes back next to me. I quickly turn my head back to the notebook.

"What were you guys talking about?" I ask curiously.

"Hey what did I jus- I-I mean, it's nothing important, just if we should go play football after school with the guys and Julia." he says. Well that was strange, he actually spoke to me nicely.

"Oh okay." I just say and go back to writing.

"So how are we going to do this? On powerpoint or something?" Martinus asks getting out his stuff. "Maybe we could do this together after school some time too?"

"I thought you said no speaking unless it's necessary?" I say not raising my head from the paper.

"Yea I know what I said but I would like to get a good grade from this." he snaps. I look at him a bit terrified. "Oh sorry I didn't mean it. But I would like to get a good grade because if I'm not doing well in school I won't get days off and that mean no concert so you know."

"Yeah I know what you mean. But I don't know if I can come over because of my dad." I sigh.

"Why?" Martinus asks. He seems curious.

"It's nothing." I try to shake it off.

"Hey Jenny I know what your dad is like. You don't have to worry, I can protect you if you need any help." Martinus says placing his hand on my shoulder. I raise my head from the paper and look at him. This is the first time I'm looking him in the eyes. They're the most beautiful shade of brown.

"Thank you Martinus. How are you suddenly so nice to me?" I can't help but smile a bit.

"I realizes that I have been a complete dick to you. You don't deserve that, I'm sorry for everything, all the name calling and physical stuff. Will you forgive me?" He sounds genuinely sorry. Wow.

"It's gonna take some time to forgive everything but this is a good start." I say. "But hey let's just focus on this project."

For the rest of the lesson we try to get some work done but it's hard because Martinus keeps checking his phone all the time, he's a bit addicted may I say. The lesson ends and me and Martinus part ways.

"Bye Jenny, see you tomorrow!" he says before he disappears behind the corner.