The Girl Next Door

Chapter Six: You're Gonna Be Okay

"Matthew!" Nick called as he jogged up to my locker. "Have you seen this?" He handed me a purple sheet of paper.

I read it. "She didn't."

Nick nodded. "It's was Alice."

I crumpled up the flyer and threw it on the floor. "Damn. Where is she?"

He laid a hand on my shoulder, "Come on, man. We'll deal with this after class. The tardy bell is about to ring."

Against what you may have thought, we didn't cut class or anything. We all, actually, did well in school. Well maybe not Johnny but that's beside the point. We did our best so we could have a better future. Cause this life in this town sucked.

Just as the tardy bell rung, Johnny came sprinting down the hallway.

"Matthew!" he rasped out of air, skidding to a stop in front of me, "I just saw," he took a deep breath, "a couple of guys," again another breath, "taking Shaina towards the gym. Like one of them was carrying her."

"What?! Who was it?"

"The only guy I recognized was Kyle."

Nick picked up the flyer and stared at it, "You don't think...?" he trailed off.

"That's exactly what I think." I said snatching the flyer and tossing it in the nearest trash ben. "While I'm dealing with these guys, can you guys try your best to get as many of the flyers as you can and get rid of them."

"Yeah of course." Nick answered.

I nodded and jogged off in the direction of the gym.

As I got closer I could hear Kyle, "Listen here. You are just a slut. Nothing else. You can keep up this stupid good girl act but no one buys it anymore."

From the distance I was at, I saw Kyle reel back and kick Shaina in the stomach. I heard her cry out. He circled her menacingly.

I sped up. "Shaina!"

I saw her uncurl and her eyes met mine as I jogged up.

"What did you do to her?" I demanded.

"Relax, Matthew." Kyle told me, "We were just having a little fun with Shaina here. Right, Shaina?"

She just whimpered and curled into herself tighter.

"I'm going to ask you again," I said through clenched teeth, "What did you do to her?"

No one answered me, which just made me more mad.

I clenched my fists and socked Kyle right below his ear. It dropped him. I whirled kicked one of the other guys on the stomach and then punched him below his jaw. He groaned and fell to the ground. The third one looked at me then ran off.

I turned my attention to Shaina. I knelt down beside her and gently brushed the hair from her face. "Shaina," I said gently.

She moved her arm away from her face and peered cautiously at me.

She had a large red welt on her cheek bone. I gasped. "That son of a-" I stopped not wanting to cuss in front of her. "He slapped you?" I confirmed.

Shaina nodded. "And he kicked me," she gasped out and then whimpered again.

It was the saddest thing. She was like puppy that had just been kicked.

"Oh, Shaina. Come on." I gently slid an arm under her knees and my other around her lower back and lifted her from the ground.

Shaina wrapped an arm weakly around my neck in an attempt to hold on and burrowed into my chest. She whimpered again. "Sh, Shaina." I tried to calm her down. You're going to be okay."