Three Times Torn

by Felisha Antonette

  Neil drags his scowl away from Olar. “What’s the problem, Tracey?” he questions with his honeyed, husky voice. His green eyes intensely stand out against his peanut butter skin tone, with his scowling glare.

  “There’s no problem over here, Neil. The problem’s standing next to you,” Glen answers, on edge. She’s acquired a temper problem, and with her not being in full control of her ability, we never know if or when she might burst her wind gusts at someone.

  Neil peeks at Joy, and she cuts Glen open with an evil eye. Ripping her gaze away from her, she softens her eyes and says to Neil, “Come on, sweetie, let’s go.” She pulls him, but his high-top boots stay planted on the floor.

  “No, Joy. Tell me what’s going on,” Neil insists.

  “Nothing,” she answers. “I was catching up with Tracey, welcoming her family to the school.”

  Who does that?!

  “Is that right, Joy?” I wince, hearing the antagonism in Glen’s voice. She’s about to make this situation worse. “It looked more like you were trying to have some alone time with him.” She chucks her thumb at Olar.

  Don’t Glen, please don’t. Dammit, I wish she were able to hear me. I shoot her a scolding eye. She shrugs, blowing me off.

  Neil stares Olar down. Olar couldn’t be less interested, warning Neil with a smug smile and tipped chin.

  “Let’s all just go our separate ways and forget about this,” I say.

  “Yeah, Joy, walk away,” Neil starts. “I’ll meet you by your locker after lunch.” He looks between the four of us and discreetly gives Joy a look of warning, daring her to leave it alone. She takes a few steps back, and the fear in her eyes brought on by the look he gave her concerns me. Suppressing his anger, Neil turns his attention back to us. “Can you tell me what’s going on?” he asks Olar.

  Olar slides me to the side and takes a single step forward. His strong stance apparently rubs Neil the wrong way by the way Neil’s nostrils flare. “Your anger’s directed at the wrong person,” Olar tells him. “And with the way things looked with you and your dame, you need to take a time out.”

  I am in total agreement. Time out for Neil.

  Tipping his chin back, Neil lowers at Olar, but calmly states, “Cool.” He turns up his nose, then averts, gating toward Joy standing by the lunchroom’s entrance. Snatching her arm, he yanks her with him into the hallway.

  I meet darkening eyes; Olar’s etched expression’s loud and clear.

  Throwing my head back, I grumble. “You’re right.” We have to help her. “Come on.”

  We rush into the hall with Glen behind us complaining about helping.

  A flesh punch shortly follows a wail that echoes from down the hall. Joy’s soft cry sends us racing in that direction, searching for them.

  Around a short corner where the school cameras can’t reach, we find Neil standing over Joy, harshly scolding her in a hushed whisper. Joy tries to get up from the floor, reaching for him. She’s crying.

  Neil draws his arm back, going in for another punch. Olar rushes over, grabbing Neil’s fist. Neil drops Joy to the floor and whips around, shoving Olar. “This has nothing to do with you, mind your business.”

  A gash above Joy’s left eyebrow leaks blood into her swollen eye. I feel so sorry for her. Her tear streaked face twists into a scowl as her one good eye glares at Glen. My heartless friend snorts, giving her the dumb bitch look as if a guy beating Joy down is Joy’s fault.

  I push Glen. “You can be such a bitch sometimes.”

  She shrugs, innocently chirping, “What?” She knows this is her fault.

  “You do not beat on a female.” Olar tries to keep his calm, clasping his red turning hands behind his back.

  Neil pulls his shoulder’s back, sneering, “What I do with my girl is my business. Go find yours.” He veers, towering over a quavering Joy.

  Popping the knuckles of his thumb, Olar warns, “Do not put your hands on that girl.”

  Turning a quarter of the way, Neil dares Olar with a glance from the corner of his eye. He yanks Joy from the floor, barking, “Let’s go.” He shoves her once she’s on her feet, hurrying her along.

  I blink and Olar’s snatching Neil by the collar of his shirt, yanking him away from Joy. I rush over, catching Joy before she can hit the floor. “Don’t tell anyone. Okay?” she begs, burying her face in her hands.

  “You know you’re better than this—than him. You do not have to deal with him treating you like this, Joy. You have to get out before it gets too late.” I do my best at convincing her. But she doesn’t reply or acknowledge me.

  Neil rips himself from Olar’s grasp, whipping around, and charges forward. When I need someone to interrupt something it never happens. Where the hell are all the teachers and security guards?

  “Olar, you know you cannot fight that boy,” I tell him.

  Neil shoves his fists into Olar’s chest, but instead of Olar moving from the force, Neil does. A confused expression crosses his face as he looks himself over. Neil’s a nicely built guy. He’s tall, always clean cut, and has been our friend since freshman year. I never took him for the type to hit on girls, though. But I guess you never really know.

  “You seriously do not want to go there,” Olar warns as Neil’s stalking back to him. “I’m already going to break your face for messing up that girl’s eye. Don’t piss me off by doing something stupid.”

  Neil isn’t hearing it. He draws back and jabs Olar in his jaw. Olar’s skin visibly hardens. He draws his arm back, going in for a non-human punch. I jump from the floor, grabbing his arm. He’s too strong to hold back, and I go with the punch, flying into Neil. We topple over, hitting the floor.

  Scrambling to my feet, I’m shoved from the side, roughly slapping the tile. “Get off him!” Joy yells, pushing me again.

  Glen and Olar help me up as Neil’s rising, refusing help from Joy.

  “Have you lost your mind?! We just saved your ass, and you’re going to scold the people looking out for you!” Glen shouts at Joy.

  “Shut up, Glen!” Joy spits, flicking her off. Before she can turn away, Glen punches her square in the face. Joy’s hand flies to her cheek as she stumbles backward. Not a second of her gathering her footing, Neil jabs his fist in Glen’s face, and she crumples. I catch Glen before she can hit the floor, missing the non-human punch Olar sends to Neil. He hit’s the tile with his mouth busted.

  I grumble, lifting Glen to her feet. She shakes loose of my grasp, stomps over to Neil, and rams her foot in his ribs.

  Neil wails as the bell’s ringing.

  “Dammit, Glen,” I gripe, dragging her away from him. We flee the scene, rushing from the hall.

  I was wrong to think we’d avoided anyone witnessing our tiff in the lunchroom. The three of us share our next class, and upon entering the room, we’re bombarded with what happened and what’d Joy say. Along with that, I zone out the floozies who never talk to me, making it their business to ask me about Olar and how I’d feel about them getting with him. Half the girls making conversation, I’ve never been on their radar, but because I’m walking around with fresh meat, now we’re friends. Instead of being an ass and ignoring them, I could probably say something like, oh, if you would be so kind as to address all Olar related questions directly to him, he’ll get back to you. But that still sounds bitchy.

  I’m upset about earlier. We could’ve just walked away or said nothing. If Glen could’ve kept her mouth closed and not egged it on, things would’ve played out differently. Now, she’s got a bruise the size of an orange over her eye. And guess who Scott’s going to blame. Me! As if anyone can control Glen.

  I lean back on my chair, accidently knocking a note that’s landed on my desk to the floor. I leave it there, knowing the person it’s addressed to doesn’t care about getting it.

  Sat behind me, Olar leans forward and says in my ear, “I’m sorry, Tracey. But that shit wasn’t cool. He was whooping that girl’s ass, and you know how I am.”

  “D
on’t be sorry. You had to look out for her.” It’s never cool for a guy to beat up a girl. Some guys just need their asses handed to them. “I tried talking to her, but I don’t think I got through.”

  “Nathan check on you after you took that fall?”

  “No. He probably just checked in on my feelings, making sure I was okay.”

  He nods. “They’re busy up there. A lot of shit’s been going on recently.”

  “Like what?” I ask.

  He looks away from me, sitting back in his chair. I eye him, irked he did that. He knows me well enough now to know I would ask, why make the comment if only to drop it. His gaze passes me, fixed on the teacher. His shoulder bounces once, letting off he doesn’t care about my questioning scowl.

  I grumble, turning back in my chair. It irritates me when they do that. They act like no one but Nathan can fill me in on anything. Everyone’ll make small talk, leaving out all the juicy stuff. Then, when I ask about something specific, they either walk away or drop the subject altogether. It gets under my skin, but when I think about it, it’s the same thing we do to Glen. I can’t be a hypocrite.

  A SOUR FEELING ROLLS through my stomach. Something tells me our ventures are not over for today. I’ve got a feeling the wrong person walked into the hallway and saw Neil and Joy lying on the floor. And with the roughnecks Neil hangs around, I only hope my peers are smarter than they look. And by the whisper’s and side-eye glances we’re getting as we walk down the hallway, something is up.

  I’m in no mood to argue or fight, and after my last two classes, I’m at the point to let whatever happens happen. Just as long as everyone walks away alive and walks away.

  We leave the school, escaping the gathering crowds. A cold hand wraps around my arm, yanking me to the right. Before I can react, I’m pushed, and am slapped! I try to block another and a punch being thrown at me, spotting an attack on Olar and Glen too.

  Oh my gosh! What the hell is up! I throw my arms up, blocking what I can.

  Some of these girls I’ve known forever and they’d stand here and fight me like this. All of them at once!

  “No way!” I shout, shoving back whoever I can. Drawing back, I throw my fist forward, connecting it with someone’s nose. Twisting around, I snatch my shirt from some girl I’ve never seen before, and throw my elbow back, slamming it into her mouth. “I am not taking this!” I say, punching someone else. “If you all have any sense; you won’t take another step forward.” The stinging scratches on my arms and neck has my hand burning hot, ready to release my fire snake on these humans. Olar pulls my arm behind me and pulls the clips from my hair as my ear blazes. My hair falls around my face, and I huff, knowing those ugly marks have shown.

  “She’s right.” Olar’s deadly voice stops them. “You don’t want to end up like your friends. Or worse.”

  They look around us, and we take their falter to get in the car. It’s not that we’re running, but it’d be better if we try to keep this bad situation from turning worse.

  Olar peels out of the parking lot and steals a glance at me. The looped piercing on his eyebrow wiggles as his brow jumps. “Guess we fucked up, huh?”

  “No, it was bound to happen,” I tell him over Glen’s shit talking.

  He slaps the steering wheel. “This is why I shouldn’t be in school, why I never made it through high school. I can’t take people’s attitude and their ignorance and not be able to do something about it.” He grumbles, shaking his head. “Nathan’s going to be pissed. You don’t have any bruises or scratches do you?”

  I look over my arms and check my reflection in the mirror. “Nothing too bad. He’ll be fine.”

  “No,” he says hard. “He’s gonna be pissed.”

  “He’ll get over it. Plus, we were jumped. We did nothing but try to help their friend from getting beat down, and this is how they repay us.” Glen starts . . . and keeps going. “Tracey, you tried to be cool, tried to be a friend and she repays you by slamming you into the floor because she thought you were on her guy. Eww! Who would want Neil?” Her hand smacks what sounds like her face. “No, better question, why would she want him? And he’s whooping her ass. Oh!” she exclaims excitedly. “When we get to school tomorrow, it’s going to turn crazy. It’s enough the girls are crazy over you, Olar. They are going to lose it. You were knocking guys out with one punch and all.” She cackles.

  Olar grumbles and mutters to himself.

  “Glen, you do realize how serious this is, right? Take your selfishness out of it and realize, she’s seventeen and in a horrible relationship. Forget about what they did to us! Who knows what Neil is going to do to her now or later? And she doesn’t see it, instead of her asking for our help, she was begging me not to tell anyone. He’s a punk and an abusive asshole!”

  “Jeeze, Cey. Sorry. I’m just saying.”

  Don’t worry about it, Tracey. I’ll take care of it tonight. He won’t touch anyone else, Olar promises.

  Death won’t teach him a lesson, Olar.

  I have no intentions of killing him. Promise you’ll see him at school before graduation.

  Taylor’s standing in their driveway with her travel bag thrown over her shoulder. She gets in, energy buzzing like bumble bees. “Hey, guys. How was school?”

  “Don’t ask,” I say with an unintentional attitude. “Oh, hi,” I add.

  “Okay. What happened?”

  “We got into a fight,” Glen blurts.

  “What?!” Taylor hoots, looking at Olar. “You’re kidding me, right?”

  Olar leans against the driver side door, shaking his hair out. “Yeah, we did. We were attacked.”

  “Nathan’s going to be pissed,” Taylor says, mimicking his words from earlier.

  “Tell me about it. See you tomorrow,” he mutters, closing the door.

  We ride to my house in silence, and I’m thankful for it. I need a bit of peace as I let my thoughts settle. Nathan can be hard to read and sometimes he comes off okay and understanding when really, he’s not. Then, when he seems too comfortable after he receives some bad news, it usually means he’s pretty peeved.

  Taylor parks on the curb, and we head in my house, greeting Mom.

  Glen directs Taylor to the family room as I pull out the blow-up mattresses. Mom orders us a pizza, and we sit in the family room talking about girl stuff and watching reality TV. Mom’s awesome, staying up with us until it gets late. Or as she would say, “It’s my bedtime ladies. I will see you girls tomorrow.” She kisses my head and gets up from lying with me on my mattress.

  “Goodnight, Mrs. Warren,” Glen says. “Have a good sleep,” Taylor adds.

  “Night,” she calls, hitting the light on her way out.

  I lay back, happy for the silence. Roehl’s been more than a distant thought over the last few hours. I wonder what he has going on, what he’s doing. Roehl. . . I call for him, turning onto my side.

  Tracey. . . His voice fills the empty crevasses of my mind, quickly returning my call. It makes me lightheaded. Luring me, he repeatedly calls out for me. I need to see him, to go to him.

  “What?” I blurt aggressively, cutting Taylor off from saying Roehl’s name a third time. She and Glen have gone back and forth about him for ten minutes now.

  The skin between her brows pinches as she looks at me with inquisitive eyes. She repeats, “I told her I miss Justin. Why?” Her intrusive expression softens to one of concern. “Is everything okay?”

  I look away from them as they cackle. “Yeah. Everything’s fine.” At least, I think it is. It’s hard to keep a clear head with Roehl on every inch of mine.

  No sooner than we lay to sleep, Taylor’s going through Justin withdrawals, and she acts as if she needs a hit before she can rest. She calls him over, and they hang outside for a few hours doing the couple thing. They’re the worst. When she comes back, she knocks out hard.

  I fear sleeping. It’s been a while since I’ve had to fall asleep by myself and I’m yearning for my own hit of Nathan. The closes
t I can get to him is his scent casing my bed. Rushing upstairs, I lay face down on the pillow he lays on. Inhaling, it fills my nose with a faint scent of him, and I wrap my body in a bundle of my covers trying to feel his warmth. I groan, annoyed my efforts are useless. This isn’t coming close to suppressing the longing I get from just knowing he’s gone.

  My cell vibrates. I snag it from the floor. “Hi,” I answer coolly, but my heart’s pounding from the roll of excitement.

  “Hey, Sparky. You sleep?”

  I sigh, grateful for the relief his voice provides. “Not even.”

  “Why?”

  I turn onto my side and let the phone rest on my face. “Nothing.” I hold the truth, not wanting him to know I am hurting. He’d feel sorry and become distracted.

  “How you holding up? You miss me?” he asks. A sigh sounds, seeming to relax him as he might’ve sat or lay down.

  “I’m holding up fine. Of course, I do.”

  “How was your day?”

  Grumbling, I mutter, “I’d prefer not to talk about it.”

  Nathan scoffs, “Tell me what happened.”

  “Don’t be mad. Okay?”

  “What happened?” he enunciates a little annoyed.

  It’s nerve racking he’s quick to turn on his hard tone. “Say you won’t be mad.”

  “I’ll determine that after you tell me.”

  “Nathan,” I whine.

  “Sparks,” he mocks annoyingly.

  I grumble, pulling my comforter over my head. “We got into a fight today.”

  “We who?” he questions with an edge to his voice. Even though he’s far from me, I can still feel his irritation.

  “All of we.”

  “Are you serious, Sparks?”

  “Yeah. We were more so attacked after school, after a small altercation during lunch.”

  “Beginning to end?”

  I tune him into my day, and though he doesn’t sound upset, I can never be too sure with Nathan.

  “Were you hurt?”

  “Nothing serious. Glen took a bad punch from that guy Neil. Oh, I did get upset, and I can’t get the black marks to go away.”