It All Started with a Jacket (Stopped)

Chapter 14: There's So Many Burns, We Don't Have Enough Ice

I opened my eyes.

5:00 a.m

Slowly sitting up, I rubbed my eyes, feeling the dried tear tracks. I tried to remember the events that happened yesterday. I ran my hand through my hair, the memories were flooding in.

The gun. The drugs.

I looked at my hand, I held a gun. And drugs, don't forget the drugs. All this time I've been hanging out with gang members. I was totally oblivious of their records, ignoring the rumors and warnings my friends gave me. Imagine the things they could have done to me. Then Wyatt's words echoed into my mind. 

"Fine, go home! See if we care! You're doing us a favor, we don't want to deal with some crybaby who was scared of some gun! Just go!"

I gritted my teeth. I'm not a crybaby. Sure, I did cry, but I'm still not a crybaby. And how can they expect me to not be scared of a gun? A real live gun. Not one of those water guns, but a real gun. After watching all of those cop shows, I thought if I were to ever see a gun, I wouldn't freak. But in the end I was never mentally prepared on what to do when I saw one.

My fists tightened. Maybe Wyatt is right. I'm weak, I'm innocent. I couldn't even look at a real gun without screaming like a lunatic. I sighed and fell backwards back to my bed. I hate this. I hate ever meeting them. I hate my oblivious, dense self.

But not as much as I hate Mondays.

I was in the middle of class doing a test in algebra. Mr. Campbell was taking a nap with his feet propped up on the desk. I sighed and imagined the scenario of me slapping him awake and giving him the lecture of teacher laziness these days. But some kid already drew a mustache on him, so I guess he already learned his lesson.

I'm already done with the test, while my classmates were still scratching their heads and figuring out the first question. Well not all of them of course, but Mr. Campbell's tests are pretty hard. I was checking my answers, seeing if I miscalculated anything. That's when the door opened.

Everyone's eyes automatically looked up to see who it was. I've always wondered why everyone does that. Your in class, and someone walks in and everyone has to look to see. Then I ask myself the same thing, and all I could answer is curiosity.

Well in this case, curiosity killed the cat.

Dean, Cyrus, and Luis sauntered into our classroom. There were a couple of gasps, and even so Mr. Campbell stirred, but didn't look like he's waking up anytime soon. Then they stopped at the front of the class, and stared right at me. I averted my eyes back to my test, maybe they would go away. Begone demons, begone. They just stood there as if waiting for something or someone. Wyatt walked into the classroom and stood in front of them.

"Oh my God." Some girl muttered. "Do you think they're going to serenade for me?" She asked hopefully to me.

I looked at the girl, like she grew horns all of a sudden. For some unknown reason... I had this huge urge to punch that girl all the way back to elementary. I mean seriously, that was probably the most stupidest thing I ever heard. I bit my lip from imagining the thought all of them starting to sing like some boy band. I mean the Big Four as a boy band, wait that does sound like a good name, The Big Four.

But back to the real problem. Why are they here? I was silently praying that it has nothing to do with me. They're probably just picking a fight with some guy in this class, I'm even hoping that's it's a serenade for that poor girl.

"Autumn."

Before, if I was in this very situation and one of the Big Four called my name. I would probably slip under my desk and stay there. Maybe even pee in my pants a little. But it's different now. I'm going to prove Wyatt Matthews wrong. That I'm no longer that same innocent, weak good girl I used to be.