Wiping the sweat off my face with a towel, I looked up to see Jason sitting in the waiting room waiting for me. He was just sitting there staring off into space. He looked like he was in pain. I hurried over to him. “Jason, what did the nurse tell you?” I asked, startling him a bit. He jumped and then groaned in pain. “Did you break a rib?” I placed a hand on his shoulder and tried lifting up his shirt, but he pushed my hand off.
“I’m f-fine, Eli, n-nothing to worry about. I-I have my d-doctor’s appointment in a c-couple of d-days, so you d-don’t need to w-worry,” he assured me as he tried to stand, but with a broken rib, it would hurt to do just about everything.
“Why are you two taking so long?” my father bellowed as he came through the sliding doors. Great, now he was going to find out that we were getting bullied on a regular basis. He saw me huddled over Jason. “What’s wrong, Jason?” When I told him he had a broken rib, he continued yelling at me, “Eli, what did you do?”
I stood up straight and threw my hands up, “I didn’t do anything!”
“That’s exactly my point! You were supposed to watch over him, to keep him safe in school. What if his parents came home right now and saw the state he was in. Do you have any idea how bad that make us look?” he asked.
I frowned. “I think they’d be more concerned about their son than your reputation, Dad,” I countered crossing my arms across my chest. I wasn’t going to back down from this even though I felt what my dad said was right. I hadn’t been able to do anything; I had let this happen. Jason was hurt because of me.
He ignored my comment, but I saw that it just made him angrier. “You are responsible for him. You are supposed to be keeping him out of trouble, not getting him into it. I am very disappointed in you, young lady,” my father retorted. The disappointment always cut deeper than the anger, and this was no different. It hurt worse every time.
“Did you ever consider that I was being pushed around, too? That Jason isn’t the only victim here?” I asked. My father’s look softened, and he took a step forward as though to touch my shoulder, to comfort me. “Don’t touch me!” I cried out. “Just leave me alone.” With that, I walked towards the door.
“Elijah! Get back here!” When I didn’t even turn around, he asked, “Where are you going?”
“To fix this!” I yelled over my shoulder, and as soon as the doors opened, I ran out into the street. I ran as hard as I could down the street before taking a left. I was going in the opposite direction of home, so it’d be a pain in my ass to walk back later, but if I could fix this, it would be worth it.
Connor lived on the edge of town. His mother had died last year about this time from a drunk driving accident, and his father worked at the lumber yard overtime to try and make ends meet. So, I understood why Connor acted out, but that didn’t make it right. He had been a better person than who he was now. I still remembered that person. He used to smile and make jokes. He had had a great sense of humor. It still saddened me when I thought about the drastic change he had done.
I knocked on the door twice before Connor opened the door. “What are you doing here?” he asked. “You know I’m even more pissed because your boyfriend sent me to the principals office. Coming here alone wasn’t a smart move on your part.”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I commented before continuing with what I really wanted to say. “I came here to ask that you leave Jason alone. He’s a good kid that’s had a hard life; I don’t want you to make his life hell like you’ve done to me.”
“A hard life, huh?” he looked out at the fields over my head. “What would you know about it? The worst thing you’ve ever dealt with is your torn ACL. Well, that can be fixed. You act like your life is so hard. But, it’s not. His life probably isn’t that bad, either. He has both his parents, doesn’t he?”
“Yes, but they are complete strangers to him. They were separated from each other when he was four. He doesn’t know them, and he grew up thinking they didn’t love him. Sounds pretty harsh to me,” I replied.
“The punk deserves to get his ass kicked. If I were to leave him alone, I’d need some form of payment.” I frowned, waiting for whatever despicable thing he’d want me to do. “Kiss me.”
“What?” I asked, shaking my head. There was no way I had heard that correctly.
“Kiss me,” he repeated.
“Connor, I know we used to date, but that was a long time ago. And-”
“I miss you,” he admitted, cutting off my sentence. “I want to be with you again.”
I shook my head, “Connor, no. You have Molly.”
“Molly’s a bitch that doesn’t really care about me. She thinks that by dating me, we’d be the ultimate power couple that could rule the school. She doesn’t care about me. Not like you did. You were so good for me, but I blew it. And I want to try again. If we can try again, I’ll leave Jason alone, and I swear I’ll change.”
“Connor, you don’t want me. You’ve been mean to me for a year. You can’t just keep switching your emotions like this.”
“I never hated you. I was just mad that you left when you did. I see now that you couldn’t handle me anymore. I had blown my chance to be with you, but I can change. I can be different.”
I didn’t know what to think, what to say. Connor and I had gotten together when I was fourteen and dated for three years. And for two and a half of those years, it was the happiest I’ve ever been in my life. He understood me and was sweet to me. But, after his mom died, he became harder to handle. He snapped at me, lost his temper, and shoved me a few times. Enough was enough, and after he nearly pushed me down a flight of stairs, I left for good.
He never forgave me for abandoning him when he needed me most. He thought if I had stayed we would have been able to work through it all and gotten better. Maybe I had made a poor choice, but I still didn’t like who he was now. He wasn’t the same man I had once fallen in love with, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to feel that way for someone again. At least, not for a long while.
“Prove it,” I said, figuring out a way I could bide my time.
“What?”
“Prove you can change. Jason’s ribs are broken. Until they heal, you can’t bully him or allow anyone else to bully him. You do that, and I’ll…. Be with you,” I answered. I didn’t want to do it, and maybe the couple weeks it would take Jason’s ribs to heal up, I could figure a way out of all this. Until then, Jason would enjoy some bully free school time.
Connor leaned forward and put his lips right next to my ear. “You go back on your word, and I’ll kill him.”
“I won’t go back on my word. You know I’m not a liar.”
“It’s a deal.”
“Great. Now, would you by chance be able to give me a ride home, I ran here from therapy.”
~.~.~.~.~.~.~
“Thanks for the ride, Connor,” I said as I got out of the truck. I smiled slightly when I saw Jason watching from the front window. I slammed the truck door shut.
“Elijah!” Connor called after me after rolling the window to his truck down. “Your smile, I’ve missed it.”
I didn’t say anything, just waved goodbye before heading into the house. My father descended on me more quickly than I was expecting. “You left us like that to go hang out with Connor?” he asked me angrily.
“Connor was the one bullying Jason. And I fixed the problem, so we shouldn’t have to worry about it,” I replied as I pushed passed him to go to my room.
Jason stopped me, “W-What did y-you d-do?” HE looked sad, and I knew he blamed himself. But I blamed myself.
“Nothing to worry about, Jason. You won’t be getting bullied anymore. I took care of it. And don’t blame yourself, it’s just as much for me as for you. I did this because I wanted to, not because I felt bad for you, okay? Now, I have to get some homework done. If you need help, feel free to join me.” With that, I pushed passed him. Jason was my responsibility. I was not going to let him down again.
