When I first saw her, the sun was shining down and bouncing off her long, auburn braid. My thoughts were suddenly captivated by the overwhelming intrigue that usually clouded my abilities when something interests me. She was the most beautiful person I had ever seen in my life. I had to double check myself to make sure I wasn’t drooling, but that was when I noticed something odd; she had applied make up heavily to one spot of her face under her left eye. To my eyes, the powdery film was clear as day.
My name is James McArthur, but I have been called many other names during my time in school. Most of the names, I might add, not acceptable to be spoken in public. I don’t really think I am anything special, but apparently my group of friends think otherwise. I am a big hit during Halloween, because well, I do costume make up in my spare time. So what kind of makeup artist would I become, if I didn’t notice?
As the girl walked by, she glared at me. I should have made sure I wasn’t making a spectacle of myself, but I obviously failed. Lavender flowed into my nostrils as she walked by briskly; I had to hold myself up so I wouldn’t swoon. She was stunning.
“Keep moving Bobby,” A guy said gruffly as he shoved her forward to make her walk quicker in front of him and his friends.
She stumbled slightly over the sidewalk, her long braid swinging into her face as she straightened herself up. But she held her head high and continued on walking in front of the guy. She wore faded blue skinny jeans that accented her body and delicate looking black flats that appeared to be very easy to dirty. Clinging to the top half of her torso was a green sweater, one that was very common among the girls at school these days. It was long, almost knee length and buttoned up with wooden buttons trimmed in the same colour green as her sweater. Freckles sprayed across her scantily tanned face, her hazel eyes were framed with thick, black, exotic lashes. Dangling from her ears were small, crystalline earrings that looked exquisite against her auburn hair; like fragile, fiery orbs dancing in the breeze of an early fall day.
“Dude, stop it. You’re staring.”
I snapped out of my daze as Zack punched me in the shoulder. He shot me an ominous glare as he walked by me, not bothering to stop while I collect myself.
“Hey!” I said unintentionally wincing and sneaking in a sideways glance to see if Zack noticed my moment of weakness, I was relieved to see he was staring off into the distance.
“You’re such a princess.” He said making a face at my reaction as he shook his head and paused to bend down and pick up a lumpy, grey rock from the sidewalk, weighing it in his hand as we continued to walk home together.
“I am not!” I shouted, lunging at him.
I could see the consequences of my actions almost immediately as he reacted to my impulsive move.
He easily dodged it and raised his elbow and brought it down in the middle of my back; I went whimpering down like a two year old with a scrapped knee. Lying on the sidewalk for a moment in order to regain my dignity before scrambling to my feet.
“You are such a princess, grow a pair man. Maybe you’ll end up with a pair almost as big as your sisters.” He said, mocking the way my sister teases me at home and doing a pretty spot on impression of my only siblings way of torturing me.
“Oh, come on man that is such a low blow! Macy is a pain in my butt!” I groaned in defeat, not believing that the daily roast had come so quickly. We hadn’t even managed to get home from school yet.
Zack shook his head as we passed the neighbourhood park. He decided to walk over to a bench and sit down, dropping the rock he had picked up along the way. The bench was old and broken. There was so much graffiti on it that no one could read what any of it said anymore.
“I know it is James, that’s why I said it. Macy isn’t even that much older than you; you shouldn’t let her pull the things that she does.” He said, unzipping his bag and pulling out a leftover can of Coke from school today.
“Yeah, I know, but it’s not like I can actually say anything. She would make me regret it for the rest of my life! Did you even see the poster Macy gave me for my birthday? Holy cow, it was amazing, she painted the entire thing. She even wants me to do her make up for Halloween too this year!” I randomly blurted out, not caring how lame I sounded. My sister is kind of cool, I have to admit it, although she does cause headaches most of the time.
Zack just continued to shake his head, “Maybe one day you will finally grow a pair and then you can actually reach puberty!” He punctuated his joke by opening his can of pop.
In an instant my best friends face was soaked with his sweet, sticky pop. I instantly regretted shaking it earlier that day during lunch and didn’t even need to glance at him to tell that he was about to burst into an extreme rage. His face looked like one of those angry characters out of an anime and I almost laughed, almost.
“I’ll give you an extra thirty second head start before I beat you into a pulp, James.” Zack said the malice in his voice clear and pronounced as he stood up from the broken, old bench and stepped forward.
I didn’t waste any time and ran out of the park as fast as my legs would take me. Oh why didn’t I choose a better day to do this? Why didn’t I do it at home where I could actually hide and arm myself with my collection of Nerf guns? Oh god... did I actually admit that?
“I can still see you, run faster you asshat!” Zack shouted from the distance of the park.
I regret not bothering to keep up my reputation in track and field. I used to be a wicked fast runner, but now I felt so sluggish and heavy. I managed to escape from the park, run down the street, and head into the group of nearby stores (it’s not as impressive as it sounds. Everything is close together so it didn’t take that much stamina to escape). A muffled yelp echoed from the alleyway.
Knowing that Zack wasn’t with me I decided to hide instead of investigating. I peeked into the alleyway as a group of oblivious ninth graders walked past on their way to the convenience store to in no doubt pick up energy drinks and smokes. My heart started fluttering in my chest cavity as my nerves started to boil away inside my stomach as my mind whirled around the possibilities of what could have made the yelp that I had just heard. What I saw would forever change the course of the rest of my life...
Bobby, the girl I had been staring at before, was being pinned up against the wall by a big, burly looking guy that I now recognized from school. I could just barely hear their conversation, which was probably a bad idea. I would never be able to forget the scene that followed.
“Who is he Bobby? Tell me!” The burly guy said, holding Bobby up by her green sweater; her feet dangling inches off of the ground.
“I don’t know who he is Daryl! I haven’t seen him before!” She squealed, kicking at his knees with her black flats; but he didn’t budge, not in the least.
“You’re such a liar! Then why were you looking at him you skank?” He said, his voice cold and low as he slammed her against the wall, the fabric of her sweater stretching with his force. One of her black flats slipped off her foot from the impact and hit the ground with a muffled thump.
Her whimper echoed throughout the alleyway. But I remained where I was, too scared to intervene. I continued to watch as he spoke condescendingly to her, until he got fed up and let go of her roughly. I watched as her legs gave out and she fell to the ground, her head smacking against the metal garbage bin. The sound made me wince. That was when he brushed himself off and turned to walk out of the alleyway.