tangled up in blue

37

AN- in regards to last chapter, yes i am evil. that's why i'm hot. so go ahead and call me mean, bitch! make me your villain. (i love insulting you guys <3 being horrid and repulsive is my passion)

nobody loves me like you- low roar

The day Lee and I made friends, I was covered in yoghurt. It was fourth grade and the popular kids in my school had just discovered the joy of 'accidentally' throwing their food trays onto my head at lunch, and after one unfortunate encounter with a ten year old Colton and his cronies, I was crying in the girls toilets. Yes, the girl's toilets. The boy's ones scared me; I was less likely to have my pants pulled down or come face to face with toilet water in there. So, I attempted to scrub the food from my hair, face and clothes while I sniffled with fresh tears. Then there was a knock, and a ten year old Lee cautiously peeked his head around the corner.

"Heard 'ya cryin'. Are you okay?" He whispered, before giggling. "Hey, you're not a girl."

I tried to wipe my tears, but instead ended up just smearing more food on my face. "I'm not crying," I grumbled, refusing to look at him. I hated how smiley he was. No one could genuinely be that happy. It was gross.

He awkwardly shuffled into the bathroom, hovering besides me. "I'm Lee, by the way. What's your name?" This Lee person held out his hand to me and I successfully ignored him, running my hair under the faucet. I might not have had any friends, but it was kinda hard to trust people. Plus, I was grumpy. "Grumpy, huh?" He continued. Woah. I think... he's a mind reader. "That's okay! We don't have to talk. I'd be Mr Grumps too if someone dropped their lunch on my head." I hated the way he said 'Mr Grumps' in a deep voice before laughing to himself like he was the funniest guy on Earth. Plus, what the hell was Mr Grumps?

I shot him a puffy eyed glare, and his grin fell. "Sorry. Everyone kinda saw." Glare #2 was in motion, but he just kept rambling and handing me tissues, as if that would help in any way. "But you have my respect, cause those guys are the worst. Don't worry. They'd probably bully me too if it weren't for my older brother." I turned away from him to dispense some soap and hopefully lose my stalker, but he just moved to the other side of my body, looking at me and talking with the excitement of a five year old explaining their Lego collection. "He's like, a professional boxer, and-" Hiccup, "-and he's like 7ft tall, and he's evil, and he's got like, a hundred girlfriends!" Lee's enthusiasm faded a little with embarrassment when he mumbled, "He's only eleven," though he perked up again instantly, standing way too close for comfort in his eagerness. "But, he's almost twelve!"

When I didn't respond for the third time in a row, the boy frowned. I was on the verge of bursting into tears again when I couldn't scrub the food stains from my shirt, and even though I'd mostly cleaned the rest of me, I knew I was just gonna be laughed at. I didn't look at Lee until I saw a blur of gangly limbs in the corner of my vision. Lee was pulling his shirt over his head, albeit struggling and almost suffocating himself, but then he was handing it to me. "Here," he beamed. "Take mine."

I wiped my runny nose and looked down at the material he'd shoved in my hands. "I think you need this."

"S'okay. I'll just walk around half naked until they let me go home early."

This weirdly happy boy that I didn't even know was prepared to walk around school shirtless just so that I didn't get picked on. It's not like he could get away with it by being a hunk; he was a scrawny ten year old with the body of a chimney sweep in the early 1900's. But he was doing it without a second thought, and I decided that having no friends was overrated.