The High School Fairy Tale

Bruise

Completely catching me off guard, I looked at him with puzzlement. I didn't know how to answer.
"Everly, I asked a simple question. Did I cause it?"

He was clearly upset. He thought that HE did it. I didn't feel like telling him that the girl he loved hit me. So I did what seemed to be a habit now. I lied.

"Ace, it's nothing. I just ran into a pole."

I don't know he knew I was lying, because I didn't look at him. I kept my eyes on Layla's beautiful and fluffy face that had fallen asleep. I smiled at her innocence. After a long silence, Ace finally spoke again.

"I'm sorry."

I knew what he was sorry about, he was sorry for everything, but I wanted to hear it.

"What are you sorry about?"

I looked at him and he was still lying down, he got up and leaned his tall and big back against the wall. Layla woke up due to his movement and glared at him, then went back to sleep. I'm going to have to give her a treat later for putting up with our human bullshit.

Ace grabbed my hand, not looking at me, and held it for a while before he started speaking.

"I'm sorry for taking your first kiss without your permission. I'm sorry for whatever happened to your face that you're lying to me about. I'm sorry that I haven't been the greatest best friend and have been using you for my drunk nights. And lastly, I'm sorry that you have to be sorry about a situation that should have never happened."
He wasn't looking at me and all I could see was the side of face. He was still holding my hand and it had became clammy. He was nervous. Hell, I was nervous. Holding his hand felt right, but it probably didn't feel so right to him because he let go.

He looked at me, sadness obviously in his expression. I wanted to make him smile again, but I didn't know how. And then I thought of a grand idea.

"Hey do you still want to watch a movie?"

It seemed he had already forgotten about the movie, or figured that we weren't going to watch one. I could tell he was a little happy about it.

"Star Wars?" He asked.

"Star Wars."

I popped in "Return of Jedi". We stayed silent through the movie.

Things were never going to be the same.