[Teen and New Adult Romance]
"Life as a trailer trash kid is nothing short of shitty, especially when the love of my life pretends that I don't exist."
River wants two things: to get out of Gladstone and to be with the boy from her childhood. With h...
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The word 'baby' sat with me for the rest of lunch. No one had ever called me baby. Something had changed with me and Travis today, and I wasn't complaining.
He was treating me like I was his girlfriend. How he treated me gave me hope. I wanted to be his girlfriend. The way he protected me would be something I always held close to my heart. No one had ever stood up for me in public like that. Not even Kaleb.
With his arm draped around my shoulders, Travis walked me to my next class. My fingers were laced through his, and it felt so good. I was comfortable with Travis. His protective embrace was something I could get used to. It made me feel good. I leaned into him, basking in his warmth and his smell.
"Can I call you tonight?" Travis whispered in my ear as we walked.
Every person that passed us gave us a wide berth, and no one called me names for once, making me wonder how long this would last. The girl that normally called me a gutter slut in class kept her head down as she stopped at her locker.
"I get off at nine." I grinned, giving him a nod. "You can call me after that."
"Promise you'll tell me what happened?" Travis stopped in front of the lockers next to my class. He licked his upper lip as he stared at my lips.
"Yeah," I nodded as he removed his arm and took one of my hands in his. He studied my lips closely. Was he going to kiss me? I hoped so.
"I guess I'll see you at the Pep Rally, later?" He lifted one of my hands and kissed it before he sent me a warm smile. We held hands until he was out of reach.
We were released early from class for the pep rally, and I went to my locker to put my stuff away. It took a while since people were piling out of other classrooms. There was a rather large bunch of people who were stalling out in front of my locker. Some people were laughing and pointing at something, but I couldn't figure out what it was. When I finally got to my locker, I knew why.
Someone had vandalized my locker. There was writing all over it in permanent marker, and on top of the writing, someone had taped a magazine image up. It was a grandma in a blue bikini. Most of the words were normal shit like trailer trash, skank, slut, whore, but the one that bothered me the most was loose and wrinkly.
Instead of going to the pep rally, I went to the front office. I held back the tears until I got there.
I boarded the school bus, having completely missed the pep rally. Jordan was still sitting with Lyla, so I plopped down in one of the middle seats again. The principal promised to have my locker cleaned that night. Other than Randy, I had no idea who would've done that to my locker. I didn't tell the principal any names because I wasn't trying to get anyone in trouble. School just sucked, and people sucked for doing that to me.
I took my phone out to apologize to Travis for missing the assembly. Travis had texted once, but since I'd been with the principal, I had to ignore him.
