The Two of Us

Violence

The last five minutes of lunch was filled with Leslie trying to convince Blair to let her come along when she decided to talk with Mari, Blair repeatedly shooting her down, and Bon-Bon loudly complaining about something. I'd tell you what exactly, but I don't know because I completely tuned him out. I was too busy listening to Leslie and Blair.

"C'mon, man. Are you sure? If he decides to be stupid I can pop him in the fucking face for ya."

"I appreciate the offer, but that's not necessary. And if you do that you're going to get a detention."

"I already have two detentions this week. What's another?"

"Is that a joke? Tell me you're joking. It's only Tuesday."

"You know how I am, dude," Leslie said. "Don't try to change the subject."

"I'm not trying to change the subject." Blair rolled her eyes.

Leslie shot her an incredulous look.

"I'll be fine, Leslie. This won't be like the last time."

The lunch bell rang, and Blair disappeared the very moment that it did.

Fallon turned to Leslie as the rest of us slowly started to follow Blair's lead. "Why do you always want to punch everyone in the face?"

"I don't want to punch everyone in the face. Just the people that are dickheads to people I care about."

"Violence isn't the answer to everything," they said. 

"Maybe not, but I can't help it. I see something wrong, I get angry, and then I want to hit something."

"Is that why you have two detentions this week?" Bon-Bon asked.

"No. It doesn't happen that often. Damn."

He muttered something.

"I'm not crazy," Leslie replied indignantly. "You just think that 'cause you don't actually care about anybody." She turned to me. "C'mon, Baby. Back me the fuck up. If you witnessed some asshole trying to hurt Blair, wouldn't you want to deck them in the face?"

"Yeah," I responded a little too quickly. "I mean, I'd probably break my hand on their face, but I'd still try. I wouldn't want to see her get hurt when I could do something about it."

"Exactly. You get it." Leslie clapped me on the back. "Anyway, see you losers later."

"BYE, G-GUYS!"

With that, Freddy and Leslie parted ways to head to their next class. That left just me and Fallon since we had the same fifth hour.

"Let's just hope that Blair is right and Leslie doesn't have to get herself a third detention this week," they said more to themselves than to me.

And I thought about that (and the rest of the conversation the mention of Mari had sparked) for almost all of class.

Was I worried?

Perhaps.

I mean, if this guy had Leslie wanting to fight people, he must've been bad.

When the bell rang, I walked to sixth hour a bit faster than usual.

Blair and I shared the same sixth hour, so if she decided to talk to him after lunch (or after fifth hour) and something happened, I'd know.

But, as it turned out, I'd know even sooner than that.

I spotted them as I was making my way over to the staircase.

Rather easily, mind you, because they're both so tall.

I couldn't hear a word of what they were saying to each other, but I will note that neither of them looked like they were having a particularly pleasant time.

Blair was stood with her arms crossed, not even fully facing Mari, who looked like a six-year-old that just got denied an overpriced toy at the store and was about to throw a tantrum.

He said something and started pointing his index finger at her face. Like, inches from her face.

Blair somewhat lightly pushed his hand away as she responded.

He said something else, and right as I started to approach, he stalked off angrily with his trenchcoat billowing dramatically behind him.

I had to step out of the way so that he didn't ram right the fuck into me.

Blair leaned back against the side of the staircase and sighed.

I spared one glance back at Mari before walking over to her.

"You alright?" I asked.

A look of slight surprise crossed her face as she probably didn't expect me to appear.

"I am now that you're here," she replied after a moment, a slight smile replacing the frown that was on her face. "Walk with me to our sixth hour?"

"Sure."

"And hold my hand?"

I took her hand, and we went to class.

------------

This may have seemed like an anticlimactic end to the return of Blair's ex-boyfriend, but don't worry. He'll be back. And he'll really show why he's worthy of being called the king of douchebags.

Because I'm a meanie who wants the characters to suffer a little.