“Of course,” Eric said. “The prom queen and king should go together, don’t you think? It’s only fitting.”
He slammed the locker shut, and I didn’t move. I stood perfectly still. He hadn’t noticed me, but Charlie had. Charlie tried to get Eric’s attention, but Eric kept talking about his big plans for me. Charlie closed his own locker door and one more gestured, trying to let Eric know I was standing right there.
Then I saw someone behind Charlie.
David.
David was there and had heard the entire thing. He’d seen the exchange. He’d listened to every word they’d said, and he was staring at Eric. Suddenly, Eric stopped talking, and he looked at David. He still hadn’t spotted me.
“You got a problem?” Eric asked. If David saw me, he didn’t reveal anything. He just stared at Eric. Charlie noped the fuck out of there, scurrying past me without a word, and I stood there like a broken statue just watching them.
Eric hadn’t just used me.
He hadn’t just dated me to make me look like a fool.
He’d also dated me to make me look easy.
That’s what I was to him: easy. I hadn’t had sex with him. That didn’t matter. Even if we’d had the best sex of our lives, I wouldn’t have expected him to tell anyone about it. Wasn’t that the entire thing about sex? It was supposed to be a secret. It was supposed to be this personal, private thing, but it didn’t seem like Eric thought that way.
“Yes,” David said. It felt like a century had passed. “I have a problem.”
“Get the fuck out of my face,” Eric said, taking a step toward David. He moved his arms as though he was trying to scare David off, but it didn’t work.
David punched him.
Hard.
In the face.
Eric went down fast. He just fell right to the ground, crumpling in a pile, holding his obviously broken nose. David made eye contact with me, nodded, and then turned and walked away. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t say, “That was for you.” He just left.
Eric rolled around on the ground, obviously in pain. He didn’t see me looking at him. His hands were over his face. Apparently, his nose hurt pretty badly. He rolled around, grabbing at it, uttering curses and promising to kill David as soon as he could.
I turned and left, too. My feet felt heavy, as though it was this huge burden to try to lift them up. I went into the girl’s bathroom, and I went into the very last stall, and I locked the door.
I closed my eyes and leaned against the wall, and I wished for my dead mom. She’d know what to do. My mom always knew what to do. Only, she was gone, and I was here, alone. I was stuck in Kansas with people who despised me and who thought I was easy just because I was new. I didn’t care if they thought I was easy or not, but if they were going to think I was, then I should probably be getting something out of the deal. I didn’t want guys to look at me and see an easy target.
I needed to be better than that.
Hell, I needed to be better than them.
“You are not weak,” I whispered to myself. That was something my mom had told me every day. “You are not weak.”
Today was the last day that anyone was ever going to view me as less than a threat.
Today was the day that everything changed.
1
David
Thirteen years later
“A birthday party? How old are you, man? Ten?” I shook my head and threw the dart. It hit the center of the dartboard easily. Felix laughed and took a sip of his beer as he watched me.
“It’s not just a birthday party,” he said. “It’s my 30th. It’s a big deal.”