Bitter

five - lydia

   The stains were pretty much gone. I was holding up my sweatshirt after I'd taken it out of the dryer, inspecting every inch of it to see if there were any hints that I'd fallen into a mud pit. It was good as new. That was one good thing that had come out of running into Cal Warrick. I loved that sweatshirt and it would've been a shame if I ruined it all because of Cal. The bad thing was I would have to remember how miserably I'd failed to throw the mud at the car. It wasn't even that much and I felt terrible about it. Everything always went as planned in my head, but when it came to reality, that was a different story.

   I threw my sweatshirt on and made my way to my room, eyeing my Mom who was watching TV, the colorful light dancing across her face as a late night rerun of some show she liked played. She wasn't even aware of what had occurred hours before. She wasn't home yet when I had walked through the front door with mud caked onto my sweatshirt. I wasn't entirely sure what I would've said if she had seen me like that, but I was lucky enough that I didn't have to think about it. I knew I'd be able to come up with something if I ever found myself in a situation like that. I always did.

   It wasn't like I liked lying to Mom, but sometimes, situations called for it and things were better left unknown. Cal was the one that liked to lie, not me. Cal and his idiot friends.

———

   It was eight in the morning and I did not need to be reminded of what had happened yesterday. Yes, I was wearing the sweatshirt and yes, all the stains were completely gone. And no, I did not need to see Cal Warrick and Jason Miller give me side glances as they ambled by me in the hallway. I was almost sure Cal had told his friend about me and the mud and the car.

And I was almost sure he'd get me back for it. As I watched him and Jason walk away, I knew, just from the way they both slowly strode on by, that they wanted me to see them. Jason even looked back once, right at me, dead in the eyes.

   Luckily I didn't have any classes with either of them, but that didn't mean anything really since Cal's other two friends, Zach Houghton and Marco McCoy, were both in my math class, my first class of the day. Zach, the boy who threw a baseball in the direction of a window during a school dance and was surprised when it broke, and Marco, the boy who chewed gum one time and stuck it on the light switch of the classroom when no one was looking. These were the people I would have to deal with.

   When I got to my class, the first thing I noticed was Zach and Marco were already in their seats near the back. They were never early. Both were sitting right beside each other, their fingers flying across their phones as they texted rapidly. I ignored them and headed for my seat near the window, trying to focus on how it was going to feel to leave school. I was just waiting for that bell to ring at the end of the day and for me to walk outside and feel that September air.

Students began filing in around a minute after I arrived and soon Mr. Lyon has begun his lecture and everything seemed normal. It was a little weird not hearing any whispering coming from Zach or Marco, but I barely thought about them as Mr. Lyon talked about analyzing data and graphs. I guess I should've found it more suspicious, especially when I heard Zach's laughter erupt from the back corner of the classroom. Everyone looked back at him.

"Zach, is there something you find funny?" Mr. Lyon asked, his blue marker squeaking to a halt as he held his hand in the air, about to finish writing the word "axis". "I'm sure we'd all like to know."

Zach tried to contain himself as he answered with a, "No, sir," and continued to giggle. Marco was avoiding Mr. Lyon's stare as he covered his mouth, a smile creeping on his face.

I was stupid not to think anything was going on. I had thought at the time that Zach and Marco were just messing around again, texting Cal and Jason in another class, or even just sticking more gum underneath the desks. I hadn't thought that they would do what they did. I hadn't even felt it.

It was when I got home that I heard Mom ask me what I had on the back of my sweatshirt. Of course, I had no idea what I had on the back of my sweatshirt. She came over and examined it as I stood still. "It looks like...ink," she finally said. "Did a pen explode on you or something?"

As soon as Mom told me it was ink, Zach and Marco's faces appeared in my mind. "How much is there?" I asked hesitantly. I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

"Well... it's probably a little more than you think and it's dry so...it's going to be harder to get out," Mom explained. I let her turn me back around to face her. "How did this happen?" she questioned. "Please tell me this wasn't that boy again because if it was, I swear..."

I didn't know how to respond. It was definitely Cal's idea. There was no way Zach and Marco just decided to break a pen and spray me with ink during Mr. Lyon's lecture. It was all planned. I knew when Jason looked back at me in the hall, something was going to happen later that day. It was because of Cal, but I didn't tell Mom that. This had to be settled the right way, with just me. "No, Mom. It was probably just an accident. I probably leaned against one of the art walls at school that wasn't finished drying or something. It's fine," I was somehow able to say with composure. This was not what I wanted to say.

It wasn't fine and it was all because of Cal.