Nameless

1. My Boyfriend's a Bully

So this is a story that I originally wrote in 2010. I've just recently started to re-write it, so here it is so far.

I was roughly shoved to the ground. My hands got scraped and cut where they collided with the pavement.

"Don't talk to me like that." Terrance stood over me and yelled angrily. I held back tears as I slowly picked myself up.

"I-I'm sorry, Terrance." I murmured to the ground. He wrapped his arms around me and buried his face in my hair. My breathing hitched and I was frozen to the spot, standing stiffly, with my skin crawling and breaking into goose bumps from his touch.

"Me too Lori. I'm so sorry." He choked. "Let's run away, get away from here." He pulled away to look at me, battered and bruised as I was. The suggestion was what had started the previous argument.

"I-I can't." I flinched and looked down as soon as I said it, afraid of his reaction. He reached out and touched my face. I flinched again.

"At least promise you'll think about it?" I looked in his eyes. They were soft brown, not the hard and angry of just moments before. I knew I didn't actually have a choice; I'd comply or get hurt. I nodded. He smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he leaned in and kissed me. The bell rang inside and we jumped. We grabbed our backpacks and ran from the parking lot to the school building.

I felt safe in homeroom, because Terrance wasn't there. My friend Chris plopped in the desk next to mine.

"Hey Lori," he beamed. "How's it going?"

"Great." I gritted my teeth in a forced smile. The class clown, Zack came in the classroom and exchanged a look with the teacher, Mr. Alzescar, before they both started laughing at some unknown joke. I shook my head; those two were at it again. Zack sat in the seat in front of Chris. I watched as they exchanged words. The next person I saw bounce into the room was Angie. Perfect popular girl stereotype: long tan legs, long blonde hair, and blue eyes. She batted her eyes at Chris and glared at me before perching in a seat in the front of the class. Homeroom lasted only fifteen minutes, but with Mr. Alzescar as the teacher, it seemed more like five. By the end of class, I'd almost forgotten about the incident with Terrance this morning and my stomach hurt from laughing.

The bell rang, signaling the end of homeroom. I groaned at the abrupt end to my favorite class, but gathered my thrift store backpack and shuffled toward the door. I didn't want to leave the class, because I knew Terrance would be waiting for me outside.

"Hey, Lori, are you okay? You look unusually... terrified." Chris came up behind me.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm alright." I smiled back at him weakly as I reached the door. Terrance was standing outside. The terror must have flickered across my face, because Chris glared at Terrance, but Terrance had his eyes on me. He kissed me softly.

"How was class?" Terrance asked, grabbing my hand and walking off with me down the hallway. I glanced apologetically back at Chris and waved slightly, not wanting Terrance to see. Thankfully, he didn't notice.

"It was alright, I guess. You weren't there, so it kind of sucked." I muttered the right answer, the answer he wanted to hear. He squeezed my hand.

"Did you think about it?" the question I was dreading came into play.

"I haven't decided yet." I watched his face and readied myself to block any blows coming my way. His eyes clouded over, but someone called his name. He smiled and raised his free hand. When we passed, they exchanged a high-five, and then Terrance's attention was back on me.

"Have a decision before lunch, okay?" he kissed me and walked toward his friends.

"Slut." Someone behind me said. I whirled around to find Angie and her army of skanks.