Waiting For Nothing

Chapter 9: You've Been Living Under False Presumptions

Chapter 9: You've Been Living Under False Presumptions

As Chase led me out of the school building I felt a heavy weight pressing itself down on my chest. Looking up from the ground, my eyes focused on the familiar black car that rested beside my truck. Once we had reached our vehicles, Chase turned towards me biting his lip nervously.

"What?" I demanded looking at him. I was about ready to go back to Sal's and knock out for the rest of the day after I took about three painkillers.

Looking down at me, Chase fiddled with his thumbs before he cleared his throat. I raised his eyebrows and began to speak once more, but he promptly cut me off. "I told Trish about us. She was cornering me in the parking lot earlier asking why were seemed like such good friends. I just told her that you used to go to school here not too long ago. She seemed pretty upset that you would lie to her."

Shoving past him, I yanked open the driver's door to my truck and began to climb. I slammed the door shut and turned on the engine. Chase stood there staring dumbfounded as I began to drive off.

Trish finding out about me through Chase was the last way I wanted her to find. Of course there was worse ways that she could have found out, but I was wanting to tell her on my own since what had happened left me emotionally scarred. In all honesty, she was the only friend I had next to Chase. I wasn't even sure what Chase and I were, but I was going to get to the bottom of that after I talked to Trish.

As I drove through traffic and through lights, I made my way across town to where Trish lived. She lived in the nicer and obviously upper class neighborhood of the town, completely opposite of where I lived now with Sal. Turning down her street as smoothly as I could, I ignored people's disgusted looks that they gave my heap of a vehicle.

Parking swiftly in front of her house, I was halfway out of the truck when I heard anger footsteps stomp down the paved pathway that led up to her house. Shutting the door, I looked up to meet Trish's anger filled eyes staring back at me.

"You missy, have some explaining to do." I began to open my mouth, but she grabbed my wrist and towed me off towards the porch of her house. We sat down on a wagon wheel swing that was latched onto the small roof of the porch.

She stared straight forward and I felt uneasy as I fidgeted in my seat. "Begin when you want to." Her tone was sharp, but I could still hear the slightly curiousity in her voice. Without waiting any longer, I dived into my riveting tale of being bullied.

"I was the fat kid that nobody bothered talking to. They avoided me like my overweight position could slowly attach itself onto them. Slowly these guys started picking on me and I felt like... They were picking on me because they had a crush or something on me. Of course they were all too gorgeous and I quickly realized I was just being naive. The name calling was first and then next came the pushing and the shoving.

"Being a push over wasn't really a thing of mine and it still isn't. So being the idiot I was, I promptly threw what they put in my back back into theirs. Eventually this one guy really started to stand out from the rest as he went out of his way to make my life a living hell. That one special guy was Chase." Trish gasped quietly next to me, her eyes meeting mine and I smiled at her slightly before continuing.

"One day it just got too out of hand. Chase had already been in a bad mood but I just had to go and stick my fat nose where it didn't belong. I remember running from Chase as he shouted threats to my back. It was stormy that night and the farther I ran the faster the rain fell from the sky. Eventually he caught up to me because he had his car. From there we caught into a really bad fight.

"I'm not going to go into details because I highly doubt you would like to hear them. Anyways, after the fight, well after I promptly lost, Chase didn't spare one glance at my limp body that laid in the mud. Instead, he got into his car and drove away. Just drove away like that; no second glance or anything. I remember waking up in the hospital and my parents were demanding to know what happened to me. I just told them that a wild dog attacked me.

"Nobody ever pushed the issue. To this day I don't know why I never told somebody that it was Chase that left me for dead that stormy night. After I was released for the hospital, I moved away from here. I couldn't bring myself to stand in front of the judgmental eyes of my peers again. My aunt welcomed me with a big hug as I moved in with her temporarily.

"As I was over there my aunt signed me up for school. I didn't have to write until the office handed me a pass to go to class. When I went to simply write my name on the slip, I couldn't. At all. My handwriting came out in scribbles and my wrist had actually begun to throb. Worried about me, my aunt took me to the doctors and he told me that I had nerve damage in my hand.

"Instead of backing down, I tried day after day to write but I couldn't. Eventually I gave up and began to grow depressed. I dropped weight easily but that was because I made my aunt hire a trainer so that I could finally lose weight. I trained as though somebody was about to rob me of everything I held precious. I bought a laptop and from there I used it as a essential for school.

"As soon as I was beginning to feel good about myself, I received a dreaded phone call. My parents needed me back because their marriage was falling apart. I came back here, but the abuse I faced from my mother was unbearable. I was kicked out a few days ago and now I'm staying at my bosses house." I hadn't realized it, but at some points tears had began to fall out of my eyes. Trish looked at me with wide eyes.

She turned away focusing on something in the distance as she picked her words carefully. Turning back to me, she offered me a small understanding smile. "So... I'm guessing that you didn't want to tell me that you used to go to the high school you do now is because you didn't want people to recognize you?"

I nodded and wiped the tears off of my face. Trish leaned against the back of the swing breathing out with surprise. "I never thought that Chase would do that kind of thing. Then again I came here last year. That was plenty of time for him to quickly change his image."

Reaching over, she grabbed my hands in between hers and gave me a bright smile. "I'm here for you, girl. Don't ever be afraid to tell me anything. To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about Chase right now.." Her voice trailed off as though she was debating on something.

"That makes two of us." I laughed lightly as she elbowed me in the ribs.