Safe & Sound

Chapter 9

He whips around. 

"Are you picking for a fight, you damn freak?" He yells at me. I realize that this boy is one of Owens 'friends'. 

"Yeah! Maybe I am!" I yell back, wiping the blood from my nose. I look at where I punched him in the face. His left eye looks pretty bruised, and his nose is bleeding lots.

Owen steps in between us. "No more fights. Chris, calm down." 

The boy- Chris- turns to face him. "Are you defending the freak?" Chris spits at Owen. "You hang out with her and her messed up friend. You wanna become their friend club now? Become apart of the loser group?"

Owen looks at me, then at Chris. "Sure."

Chris looks shocked for a second, then laughs. "You kidding me. You gotta be kidding me. Your going to sabotage your social life to defend her?" 

"Yeah." Owen says, then walks through the people and out of the circle. I look over at Sandy, who is still trying to take this all in. I grab her arm, and follow Owen to a circle table.

"Thanks about that." I say to Owen.

"No problem." He laughs, "I wasn't just going to let him beat you up."

 I nod, and start trying to stop the study blood coming from my nose. I try to stop it from destroying my dress. 

"You okay?" Sandy asks. "He punched you pretty hard."

I nod. The only thing that was affected by the punch was my nose. 

"Your punch was pretty great though! Chris'll have a black eye for a while!" Owen says, laughing. "You showed him who's the boss."

I laugh. I'm pretty proud of that punch. I might of even broken his nose. I know I'm going to get heck from Mom later for it, but it still was pretty great.

"So, you've been officially kicked out of your friends group?" Sandy asks Owen.

"I'd hardly call them friends, but I think so. I hope so. I hated them." 

I remember what he said a while ago about how it's hard to escape that group. 

"Well, that one way of letting that group go." I say sarcastically. 

We talk for a bit. Over people shouting and blaring music, it's pretty hard to hear.

"Isn't this better than just rotting away in your hospital room!" Sandy says.

"A lot better!" I say over the loud music and people talking. "I'm surprised I haven't gone crazy yet."

"I wouldn't be able stand that." Owen says. "Sounds like torture."

I nod. "It is. I don't know whats worse; knowing that your going to die soon, or having to spend you last few months alone in a room."

I sit back down at the table. I feel out of breath. Maybe it's all the people.

"You okay?" Owen asks me, sitting beside me.

I nod. "I don't know what's wrong." I explain. "I suddenly feel so out of breath."

"You should go talk to Jennifer. This might be bad." Sandy says, worriedly.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want my night of freedom to be cut short. I need to fit in as much action as I can." I say. I can't leave yet.

Owen looks over to a group of boys about my age all huddled in a corner. "Those idiots. There sneaking beer in here. There going to get dead drunk and pass out." 

"Why are they bringing beer?" Sandy asks, then she raises her bottle of coke. "Coke's enough for me." 

I laugh. "They probably just want to look cool. There not going to feel cool tomorrow though when they have a hangover." 

"Doubt half the class will be at school tomorrow." Owen says. 

We walk around and Sandy finds some cups, so we decide to play beer pong. But without the beer. Or ping-pong ball. It's not really even beer pong. We all have a small crumpled up piece of paper and we try to throw it it the farthest cup. If you get it in, you drink one of the cups. Of coke. Not beer. It's a dumb idea, but it's fun to play. 

Sandy, Owen and I all hang out for the rest of the time. High school is better when you actually have friends. Sandy talks about how she's insanely excited about her 16th birthday, which is a week, a few days after mine. She's so excited about it that all her words blend into one big word.

"I'mgoingtohaveahugepartywithmyfamilyandweregoingtohaveablastandimgoingtomakemyowncakesincebuyingoneistooexpensiveandIalsolovetobakeImgoingtodecorateittolookliketheoceanisntthatagoodidea?" She says, jumping around. She's on a caffeine high. They were selling little glasses of coffee at the canteen, and Sandy went full out and bought 9 glasses of them. She drank them all. Now, she's crazy.

I can't help but laugh at how different Sandy is when she's crazy. Normally she's relatively quiet and keeps to herself. Now she's basically bouncing off the walls. 

Owen and I try to calm Sandy down, but it's hopeless. Soon she start to slow down, then she crashes. The caffeine high's over. Now it's like a coffee hang over. 

Owen find's Sandy's coffee hangover entertaining, and completely gives up on trying to make her sane again. 

Sandy looks down at her phone. "My mom just texted me. I have to go now." She says sadly. "Mack, promise you'll come to school as soon as you get better?"

I nod. "The moment they let me out."

Sandy smiles. "See you Owen! Bye Mack!" She grabs her coat, then runs out of the gym. 

I look at the clock on the wall. "I better go now too, Jennifer's probably waiting for me."

"Okay, I'm should leave soon too. It's nearly 11." He says, looking at the time.

"See you soon." I say, getting ready to leave.

"Bye"