He Was A Ten

Les I'm Miserable

Hattie walked with me to my locker, sensing that I wasn't eager to go alone. That girl was the best friend I could ever ask for.

As soon as I got to my locker, Marcus tried to talk to me. "Paige, please listen to me, you need to know-"

"Gotta get to class," I interjected, slamming my locker shut and racing to class.

I took a seat and Hattie sat down in her seat right behind mine.

She leaned over her desk and whispered, "You could've just heard him out."

"Ugh, I know," I groaned. "He just really freaks me out."

Marcus walked into the room then and sat in his seat. Turning to me, he pleaded, "Just hear me out. Believe me, I don't want to talk to you either, but I feel like I should let you know."

I sighed. "Alright. Sorry for cutting you off early."

Marcus blinked, as if he wasn't quite sure what to do with that response. "Yeah, well, in case you haven't guessed, Chase wasn't too happy about yesterday."

"You mean when he got his ass handed to him?" I questioned, a small smirk tugging at the corners of my mouth.

Marcus smirked too. "Yeah. And since he's so smart, he's decided that you need to pay for making him look like an idiot."

"You'd think he'd realize everyone already knows that," I muttered. "Speaking of knowing things, how do you know that he's after me?"

Marcus' face fell and he turned away. "I can't tell you that."

I rolled my eyes. "Can you tell me why I'm not surprised by your answer?"

We didn't say anything else for the rest of class. As I was walking out of the classroom though, I could've sworn I heard Marcus murmur, "I'm sorry Paige."

I looked over my shoulder. Marcus was walking towards me, although that wasn't surprising considering I was standing in front of the exit. Shaking my head, I walked to my next class. Why was Marcus so hard to figure out? He was a 10, and he acted like it most of the time too. But there were also those times when he seemed nice. Like someone I wouldn't mind hanging around. And then he'd go and be his usual self again. Ugh. Boys.

I was doing my English work, when a paper hit me in the back of the head. I looked behind me to see one of Chase's friends, Logan, laughing. He was nudging Marcus, trying to get him to laugh too, but Marcus just glared at him and told him something I couldn't hear. I reached down to grab the paper. Flattening it out on my desk, I tried to read the messy handwriting scrawled on the crinkled paper.

As far as I could tell, it read; Watch Your Back.

Seriously? What, were they in kindergarten? I mean, sure, Chase probably almost broke my wrist the last time I saw him. And he had gotten suspended once or twice because he got into fights with other students. But 'Watch Your Back'?

I glanced behind me just as another paper was thrown at me. I was about to throw it back at Logan when I was distracted by the bell ringing. Logan and Marcus both left, although Marcus spared me a look before he left. I uncrumpled the ball and looked at the words written there;

We need to talk. See you at your locker.

As I was walking to my next class, I wondered what Marcus wanted to talk about now. That is, assuming that it was him.

'It could just be Logan messing with me,' I reminded myself. 'He was the one who threw the first one after all.'

I decided to ignore the note. Whoever it was wanted to meet at my locker. So I don't think there was a lot choice in the matter anyway. That didn't stop me from wielding my pencil as a dagger as I approached my locker though.

"Jeez, I guess I should've signed the note," Marcus teased, taking the pencil out of my hands.

"Nah, I would've just gone straight to lunch if I had known it was you," I replied, taking my pencil back. "Didn't you talk to me this morning?"

"Yes, well," Marcus said, messing with the lock on his locker. "I was just curious-I mean, I have a proposition for you."

"Okay?"

"Well, what if I was there to make sure Chase didn't mess with you?"

"Oh, so you mean during lunch, you'd sit at our table?" I asked, heading downstairs to the cafeteria.

Marcus grabbed my arm and spun me around. "I actually meant, like, you know-"

"No, I don't," I interrupted, a little nervous about where Marcus was going with this.

"I meant, like, while we're in school, I'd hang around you to make sure he didn't try anything," Marcus elaborated. "I mean, I'm sure he'll forget about it sooner or later, and then we can go back to avoiding each other."

I had to admit, I was touched. He was obviously going out of his way to be helpful and make sure I was okay. I felt really guilty for not giving him a fair chance.

'Maybe it's not too late to give him another shot,' I thought to myself before asking Marcus, "Why are you doing this for me? I mean, I appreciate this, I really do, it's just, I don't understand why you're doing this for me."

Marcus looked away. I thought I saw the same sadness I saw in his eyes earlier, but then he looked back at me with the usual playful glint in his eyes and his classic smirk.

"I'm wounded Paige. Why wouldn't I help out my Precious?" Marcus answered with a wink.

"Alright."

"Alright?"

"Alright," I repeated, walking over to my usual seat where Alice and Hattie were already waiting for me. "You can stick around in case Chase tries something."

Marcus grinned and looked like he was about to say something, but before he could, I added, "But don't call me Precious."

"Anything for you Precious," Marcus said before putting an arm around my shoulder.

I rolled my eyes and shrugged his arm off of me. "Also, please don't touch me. Got it?"

"Got it."

Now hopefully Alice wouldn't freak out too badly about this...