[one]
The last bell rings and I quickly run to my locker.
"Eden!" my best friend, Alexa, runs up to me, "Are you going to the party this weekend?"
"Yeah, probably." I say, and see Matt a few lockers down. He's taking everything out of his locker, and bringing it home.
"Who are you looking at?" she turns her head and sees Matt. "That loser? Don't talk to him, unless you want to be on the same level as him." she rolls her eyes.
"What's so different about him anyway?" I ask.
She shrugs her shoulders and waves her hand at me, "Gotta go, love ya, bye!"
Matt slams his locker closed and exhales. He won't be able to carry all of those books home. I can't go help him, I don't want to be like him. I start walking home and can't get him out if my mind. What is his life like? Being tortured all the time by everyone who is breathing?
"You worthless piece of shit!" I hear someone yell from behind me, and I turn around. Matt is on the ground, surrounded by three guys all attacking him. His books are scattered around the sidewalk and grass. He doesn't deserve this. My heart goes out to him and I run over to the guys, knowing that any of them could easily hit me at any moment.
"What the hell are you guys doing?!" I yell.
"Us?" one of the guys say, "Beating up this worthless piece of shit. You want something?"
"Yeah, I want you to back off of him! What'd he ever do to you?!" I push his shoulders back hard, making him move away from Matt. "Get away!" I yell at the other two.
"Looks like he's got a girl!" the one I pushed back yells, as he pushes me on the ground. They all laugh and walk away.
"Hey, I'm sorry you have to go through this Matt." I say, gathering all of his books.
"Why do you care?" he says, staring into the sky.
"Look, I'm sorry I haven't been here the entire time, but I do care. I've just... never had the courage to do anything."
"You don't have to carry my books, you know." he says, sitting upright.
"I'm going to." I stack them all up and pick them up. It's pretty hard to carry six textbooks. "Why are you bringing your books home on a weekend?" I ask him, and he's picking up the things that fell out of his backpack.
"I don't know." he shrugs, and stands up next to me.
"So, where do you live?"
"At the turn there and the third house to the left. 608."
"I live down there too." I smile. "Why haven't I seen you around there?"
"I'm not like you, Eden. I'm not popular. I don't hang out with people or go to parties or anything you do."
"Then what do you do?"
"I spend a lot of time inside, I do have this one friend, his name is Carter. He moved away a while ago but we still talk. When he was here though, we used to play football together everyday."
"I'm sorry he left."
"Don't be sorry, it's not your fault."
"I still should've been there for you." I say as we turn the corner. "Hey Matt, come over to my house."
"I-I'm okay."
"No, come on Matt."
"Fine. Which one's yours?"
"602." I say, pointing to a large blue house near us. He nervously sticks his hands in his pockets, and we're silent for a moment as I try to think of something to say.
"Have you ever been on a football team?" I ask.
"Um, when I was younger, 9, 10."
"Why'd you stop?"
"Well, you know, money issues and bullying." he says, looking down at the ground.
"Hey, let's not grieve over our pasts, let's be happy!" I smile, and wrap my arm around my shoulder as we walk up my front steps and into my house.
"Hey Eden!" my mom says when I walk in, "Who's this?"
"Him? This is Matt, he was being beat up by some kids and I helped him."
"Oh, honey!" she says, running over to Matt and placing her hands on his face.
"I-I'm fine." he says nervously.
"Who were these boys?" she looks at me concerned.
"I don't know." I lie.
"Eden, you're popular at you're school, I know you know who they are."
"Fine. Chase, Kyle, and Tyler." They're the kids. You know how you see the movies and see those bad group of guys the school who beat up every kid that you don't think are realistic? That's them.
"Oh, those boys are always getting into trouble!" she yells. "Okay, Matty, stay away from them." and away she walks.
"Sorry about her, she's kind of, weird." we laugh. I start running up the stairs to see he's still standing at the bottom. "You coming?"
"What? Oh, yeah." and starts running up behind me.
