Same Difference

~ Chapter 3 ~ Saving His Ass ~

I still stand before the boys, trying to figure out what to say next. I try putting a bunch of words together in my mind. It doesn't really matter what I say next, though, all I need is to get this to stop.
Outrage wove through my body.
"Whats up with this?" I ask, snapping at them. It felt like fangs had grown out from my gums.

They still look at me in shock, like a deer in headlights.

"What are you even doing?"

One of them snaps out of their surprise, and answers my question. "What does it look like we're doing?" he says, as if the answer is obvious.

"Something you're not supposed to be doing." I reply. "Something that you have no reason to do. Something completely cowardly and idiotic. It's ridiculous."

At my choice of words, the boys look at me with wide eyes. I never talk, and now I'm using these words?
"Look," another one who I believes name is Bradley says. "The only thing that's cowardly and idiotic here is Alex, over here," he says as he whacks the back of Alex's head too hard. I wince. "Now go back to your friends, please. Just accept that this is the way that it is. I don't really know why you're here, because this is Alex who you are telling us to stop bothering."
"Yeah, I know that. I told you to stop." I felt like ripping their throats out with my imaginary fangs. Bradley in particular.
He raises his eyebrows in surprise. "What?"
"I told you to stop." I stare at him hard. I don't think that I blinked once.
"Wow. You've got some guts to come up here. What's your name again?" He looks pretty confident about his statements, thinking that he was unstoppable, but I'll stop him. I know I will.
"Wren," I snarled, answering his question. "Now stop."
"Why?" Something about his tone seemed different now. More quiet.
"You're asking me 'why?' What about you? Why are you doing this? It's so stupid. I hate this. I hate all of you for this." I didn't yell it, but I felt so mad that I thought I might cry, but I'm going to have to hold it in for now, which made me shake slightly.
He looked at me like he got slapped in the face, hurt, but I don't really see why. I mean nothing to them. Why would it matter if I said that I hate them?
"Stop it," I don't really know if I mean to stop bothering Alex, or to stop looking at me like that. Maybe I mean both.
Now he looks like he has been defeated. He looks exhausted. I couldn't understand why considering he had the nerve to do what he had.
He didn't say anything. It didn't look like he could say anything.
The other guys looked at Bradley, and they looked confused. They looked as confused as I felt.
The one who has been holding Alex then knees him in the balls from behind, making Alex curl his body forward slightly with a crinkled face, a groan escaping his lips. It hurt to see him hurt.
"Stop!" I shriek. "You're such an asshole!" I was furious and desperate. My blood boiled.
I then do something that surprised him, and even me. I kick him from the front making him curl like Alex did, and he lets Alex go. I grab Alex by the arm, and guide him out of the cafeteria as he limps, leaving my lunch and 'friends' behind. Those things weren't important right now.
Just before I get through the doors, I get a glimpse of the boys over the crowd that stares at me. Bradley still looks into blank space, and the others help up the one who I injured. I quickly look ahead, never wanting to see them again. But obvilously, I will. Somethings are hard to get away from.
Once we are through the red heavy doors, I take him out of the school and to a small corner at the outside of the school where we are safe with some bushes around us. We sit on the little end of the curb.
"What was that for?" I ask. We are both breathing slightly heavy from running over here.
"What was what for?" He asks, repeating me, completely clueless.
"What were they doing that for?"
He shrugs. "I don't know."
After a few moments, he speaks again. "Thanks for that. For saving my ass."
I smirk."Well, you still got kneed in the balls. Are you alright?" I give him a pat of comfort on his back and shortly chuckle.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It hurt like hell though."
I grimace and suck in some air. "I bet it did."
We don't talk for a few moments, then he asks a question that is somewhat stupid. I wouldn't blame him though, I probably would have asked the same question if I were in his position. "Why did you stop them?"
I look into his bright green eyes. "Because they shouldn't be doing that. You obviously wouldn't like it, so I decided to save you and stop them. I don't like seeing that kind of thing." My heart started pounding harder again as I thought of the situation.
We've never talked before, but he seems nice, just like I thought he would be.
"Uh, thanks." Silence. "Why did you do it, though?"
"I just told you."
"I mean why would you save me? Everyone would probably hate you now. They probably think that you're a loser like me now." He looked at me in disbelief as he thought of everything I had at steak.
I haven't really thought about that, but, "I don't care. They suck. We'll be losers together then."
He laughs. "Okay."
"Did you eat lunch yet?"
"No. It's hard for me to get a chance to." I know what he means. Probably difficult to do a lot of things around here for him.
"The struggle. I get it. You want to go get some lunch at the diner down the street instead?" I suggested.
His eyebrows shoot up. "What about your lunch inside the cafeteria? I saw that you had it."
"That doesn't matter. Someone probably ate it already, anyway."
He chuckles at that. "Okay. Let's go then."
We stand up, and start walking down the street to the little diner. "You seem like an unlikely person to befriend me," he says as we walk.
"Oh, I never said I was befriending you." I was joking but he didn't seem to get that. He looked let down and it looked like he probably thought that I'm the worst person in the world, but he wasn't angry, just dissapointed. "Aw, I was joking. I was joking. Don't look so sad. You're by best friend now."
He looks pretty normal now. "Really?"
"Yes, really." I grin widely.
"I barely even know you. Your names Wren, right?"
"Yeah. And you're Alex, right?"
"Yeah. Did you know that your name is an actual word and it's a small song bird? It's a nice little bird, actually."
"I knew that my name meant something to do with a bird, but I didn't know that. Is it really a nice bird?"
"Yeah. And I like how whenever I hear or say your name I'm going to think 'song bird'."
I chuckle. "I wonder if anyone else thinks that."
"Maybe they knew. It's a nice name."
"Aw, thanks. I like yours, too. I've always liked the name Alex."
"Thanks. What's your favourite name?"
"I don't know. I don't think I have one."
"Same."
We don't really talk that much the rest of the way, which was awkward, but the awkward silence didn't last long. We ended up chatting after we got our burgers, fries and cokes.