“It sounds like that’s implied to me, too?”
Kota’s eyes looked toward the others across the driveway and he tilted his head toward me. “I’m sorry, Sang. I didn’t want to involve you at all but it looks like you still ended up being in the middle. They shouldn’t be asking you but I guess they’re associating you with us.”
I brought a finger to push at my lower lip. Flashes of Victor’s elegant face bruised and Nathan unable to pull himself out of bed crept through my mind. “Is this why you don’t tell me anything about what happens? So I can honestly tell people I don’t know?”
Kota’s cheeks flushed and he nodded. “Yeah, that’s pretty much it.”
How strange was it that before I had met Kota, I wanted nothing more than to blend in with the other students, but here I was with the strangest set in the whole school.
Nathan never made it to the bus. At the school, Kota and I were the first of our group to arrive. We picked up our books at the school bookstore and waited for the others at the bench in the courtyard. Kota perused the textbooks, his and mine, inspecting the material. I was standing near the bench and leafing through a book when hands popped over my eyes and I felt a warm breath by my ear.
“I have something for you,” Gabriel sung in my ear.
“Don’t scare her, Gabe,” I heard Victor say. There was an underlying command in Victor’s voice. A warning?
Gabriel’s hands fell away from my face. “What the fuck? I wasn’t scaring her.” He pulled out a sheet of paper and put it in my hands. “I fixed my stupid poem.”
I blinked at him, blushing. Fixed it?
It was about the same princess in the tower, the prince throwing apples to her. A witch tried to make a bargain with him. She would give him the sweetest apple that would win over his love’s heart if he traded his voice for it. He agreed, won over the princess, and together they tricked the witch to get his voice back.
I laughed when I got to the ending. “You changed it? What happened to winning the girls over with the sad part?”
“What? I don’t want to make girls cry. Girls look all crazy when they cry.”
“I like it,” I said. “It still sounds like song lyrics.”
“Right,” he said. “It might make a good song.” His lips pressed together and he hummed a few bars.
I glanced up at Victor, who only looked bemused. The bandage was blatant, but his bruise looked almost gone. I leaned closer to him, my eyes squinting.
Victor took a step back. “What?”
“What happened to your bruises?”
“Oh,” he smirked. “Nothing.”
They couldn’t have healed already. I was sure by today they would look worse. My own bruises always looked worse the following day.
I floated a finger toward his cheek to trace where one of his bruises had been.
“Hey, hey,” Gabriel said, poking at my hip. “Hands off. You’ll smudge my work.”
“Make up?” I asked.
Victor grinned at me. “Don’t laugh, okay?”
“Yeah,” Gabriel said. “I couldn’t just let him walk around looking like a moving target all day.”
I sighed. At least they were thoughtful. I handed the poem back to Gabriel. “You hang on to it.” I dropped my bookbag off my shoulders. “I’m going to the restroom. Would you watch my bag, please?”
Gabriel picked it up, pulling it closer to his own.
Victor dropped his bag, too, and started following me.
“Victor...” I said, gazing back at him. “It’s okay. You don’t have to walk me over there.”
He paused, frowning and glimpsed over his shoulder at Kota.
“Do you guys have to follow me to bathroom?” I asked. That really seemed awkward.
“I suppose not,” Victor said. He moped but he stuck his hands into his pockets and went to stand next to Kota.
I felt their eyes on me as I walked away.
I walked over to the main hallway and stopped short just inside the doors, hesitating. I wasn’t really sure where the restrooms were. Walking alone down the hallway that was already getting crowded wasn’t making me feel as confident as I had been when I was with the guys. It amazed me at how comfortable I had gotten at relying on the boys for something as simple as directions and their company. Last year at my old school, I was alone and had to rely on myself so much. It felt like a million years ago.
I found some bathrooms down a hallway. When I was finished, I checked my blouse and skirt in the mirror. I smoothed them out, taking my time. I wanted to prove to them it was okay for me to do something alone. In a way I guess I wanted them to worry less about me. They had so many problems as it was now.
Back out in the hallway, it was more crowded than before. Kids were sitting on the floor, their legs stretched out. I had to step over calves and shoes to get by as they refused to pull back and out of the way for people walking through.
A cat call sounded and echoed. I remembered the boys from the day before and this time I focused on the path ahead of me. They were just goofing off. I wanted to avoid eye contact to not draw attention to myself.
“Sing!”
I reacted because I recognized the voice. I cringed when I recognized it as Greg, sorry that I had responded at all.
An arm plopped around my shoulders. Greg’s big lipped grin rocked close to my face. The smell of smoke was heavy as if he had just put out his cigarette. “Hey,” he said. “Where are you going?”
My heart thundered. I had to get rid of him and get back to the courtyard before the guys came looking for me. I remembered the last time Greg and his friends ran into Kota, Victor and Silas while we were at the mall. The last thing I wanted was to lead him straight back to Kota and start another fight.
“I’m going to the cafeteria,” I said. “I’ll see you later.”
He held on to me by my neck, tugging at me. “Don’t go so soon. You’re always so busy when I see you in the hallway.” He towed me around until I was facing a group of guys. They were all dressed like him, baggy jeans, and oversized shirts. “Guys, this is Song.”
“Sang,” I said.
“Sang,” he repeated.
The others bobbed their heads at me. One of them mumbled something but his words were so mashed together I couldn’t understand him. The others around him laughed. I couldn’t help but blush and they laughed some more.
“I need to go,” I said again.
“What? Is your boyfriend waiting on you?” Greg said, swiveling his head around to look. “That reminds me, I still owe him something.”
“I don’t...” I wanted to say I didn’t have a boyfriend, but I wasn’t sure exactly what to say. Saying no might encourage more attention and saying yes might make for additional trouble for Kota and the guys.
“Sang!” Luke’s voice echoed through the hallway, drawing the attention of not only the group of boys around me, but everyone else in the hall. Luke and North stood together at the start of the hall. North shoved his fists into his thighs. Luke dropped a hand on his arm, like he was North back. Luke waved at me.
“I have to go,” I told Greg again. I could see this getting ugly.
“What are you, his bitch?” He squared off his shoulders, sizing them up. “Why is he calling at you like that?”
I wanted to point out how he called for me in a similar way but I didn’t want to get into that. I wrenched myself from under his arm and started backing off. “Don’t worry about it.” It was probably a stupid thing to say but at that point I just wanted to get out of there.
“Where you goin’ girl?” he called after me as I hurried down the hall. “Greg’s shortie doesn’t just walk off without a kiss.”
I shivered and didn’t look back. Laughing echoed behind me.
“You okay, Sang?” Luke said. He had a few blond locks framing his face, but the rest of his hair was in the clip he had borrowed from me yesterday. He reached out when I got close, putting an arm around my shoulder. “What’s going on??
??
“Apparently I can’t go to the bathroom alone,” I said, my heart thumping. I sought out North’s eyes. He zeroed in on Greg and his friends, his hands pressed against his legs. I brushed my fingertips across his hand, tugging him in the opposite direction. “North...”
His grumbled and dissected me with intense, dark eyes. “What did he say to you?”
“He was teasing me. I don’t want a fight. Please? He’s not following.”
He glanced back at the kids. He turned around, dropping a hand on the back of my head, his fingers massaging at my scalp. “I hate this school.”
To my relief, North and Luke didn’t say anything about Greg when we got back to the courtyard and as we waited for the first bell to ring. Homeroom was quiet. Greg said nothing, completely ignoring us. Still, as we waited there for our first class, I got the feeling things were bubbling under the surface. I noticed how the other students looked at us. Were we really that different? Some part of me wished we blended in more than we did. Whispers with our names hovered around us like mosquitos.
Hiding in the shadows seemed so much easier. With the boys, I stood out so much more and drew so much attention.
I was no longer invisible.