Hope

Chapter 10

       What have I done.
       I instantly look back to Olivia.  She has to be in on this.
        "What the heck did you do that for?" I ask her loudly, anger obviously in my voice.
       "What do you mean? I thought that's what you wanted," she said, being serious. She's pretending.
         "Whatever. I'll talk to you later about this," I muttered, shoving past her and walking towards Kayden, getting stares from the rest of the people in the class.
          As I approached Kayden, a smirk spread across his face.  I knew that if Olivia didn't have anything to do with it, then Kayden did.
        "Is there a problem, Mr. Holden?" He asked, using my last name just to get on my nerve.
        "What the heck was that? Do you enjoy sucking the life out of people?" I yelled at him, but not a full out yell.
         "Well I guess the rumors are true then," he started, a smile creeping across his face. "You're fond of Riley, aren't you? Big tough guy in love with a nobody, such a shame. You're just a waste, you're supposed to go out with popular people, you know. They're the ones you need," he said, looking down at his fingernails.
        "What the heck is wrong with you? Everyone has a personality, even if everybody doesn't know about it. And we aren't dating. You don't know what's going on in her life, ok? And you've ruined it even more. Way to go, Kayden. Really the cool one now," I snap back at him, not really understanding why I'm being so defensive about this.
        "Why are you defending her this much? Don't you want to be cool, tough guy? Even if you have changed your mind, you can't do anything now. Done and over with," he said, stating it so matter-of-factly, it got on my last nerve.
       I stormed forward, shoving past him, saying some nasty words as I went out of the door. I hustled to my locker, and started to open it quickly. I grabbed my backpack and swung it over my shoulder, slamming my locker. Lucky for me, that class was right by my locker and the door that I leave the school through.
      And that's what I did. I pushed open that door, checking behind me to see if any teachers had seen me. Nothing.
      I've had enough for the day. I started walking off of the property and in the direction of my house to figure things out there.

•••

      I can't believe he did that. I cannot believe he did that.
      I know that he would never want to date me, but I thought he changed. I thought he wouldn't go out with that scum. He knows what she does to me. He knew perfectly well.
        Yet he still did that.
        So what if I locked myself in a bathroom stall again? So what if the one day I felt confident got crushed? So what?
       There's no one that cares about me now. Not one single living person.
       He probably didn't care from the beginning. I don't know why I would ever think that he would. It doesn't matter if he did or not, because he clearly showed he doesn't anymore.
      Whatever. Nothing matters.
       My thoughts are interrupted by footsteps outside of the bathroom.
       "Riley?" It's a male's voice. I don't answer.
       "Riley?" It calls out again, a little louder. There's concern in this voice.
       I unlock the stall and walk out of it, and the boy hears that so he doesn't call my name again. I go slowly out of the bathroom, not ready to meet the face that belongs to that voice, I knew who it was.
       "Are you ok?" Kayden asks as I step out of the bathroom. There's a concerned look on his face, it almost looks exaggerated.
        "Yeah," I mumble, pulling my sleeves over my hands.
       He furrows his brows. "No you aren't. I feel really bad for what just happened. I know other things are going on in your life, I don't know what they are specifically, but I can tell," he said to me, sounding almost as if he cared.
       "Yeah, my sister has been in the hospital because of a bad car crash. The outcome doesn't look very good right now," I say, getting quieter towards the end. Why did I just open up to him?
       Before I can say anything else, he wraps his arms around me. My eyes widen, even though he can't see them.
       What the heck? What. The. Heck?
       I don't want to think about if this is fake or not. I just want to pretend it's real. I decide to embrace the hug, and I put my hands around him, and I have to admit, after having no one care about me for so long, it was so comforting.
        I didn't know it, but a small smirk spread across Kayden's face as Olivia peaked her head out of the classroom behind us, and she gave him the thumbs up. I was too focused on having someone care for me, and having my head on his chest to notice it.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:
400 reads?!? This is crazy! I know this one is short, but I'm in the car and running out of battery. This took longer than normal because the italicize buttons didn't work like they used to. I had to type everything out, then select it and make it italicized, rather than clicking the button and typing. Anyways, thank you SO much, seriously. I love the comments and REALLY appreciate you reading this!