Breaking the Arm, Healing the Heart

by Ashley Andrews

  "Am I taking you to school?" Sicily asked, forgetting before that Lucas brought responsibility everywhere he went because of his injury.

  "Nah, but thanks anyway," he said with a wave of his hand. "I told Tanner to pick me up."

  "Why not just walk to your school, its not far from here?"

  That was when Lucas looked at Sicily in disbelief. "You're asking me to walk? Me?"

  "You're injured. You can't drive. So why not?"

  "Why won't you do it, Barbie?" he said to her, eyes smiling slyly.

  Sicily pulled off a disgusted face before she said, "Are you kidding! Hell no!"

  They looked at each other for a few seconds, but then Sicily looked away. She didn't like the way he was looking at her. He looked soft, serious, and innocent and the combination scared her. Where was his smirk? She never thought she’d miss it.

  "Now look who's talking?"

  "It was just a thought," Sicily replied.

  "Look for some other guy to make fun off," Lucas asked, frowning.

  Their breakfasts were almost finished and they still had some time to kill. School was going to start in half an hour, and the drive only took only a few minutes, ten at the most.

  Walking wouldn't be such a bad idea after all. Sicily actually thought for just a second. Who was she kidding? She had been living the high-life all her life. She didn't just walk to school. "But you're the most helpless one I could find," she said with a laugh as she strode over to him and messed up his hair.

  They heard the doorbell and the two raced to the main entrance of the house. They opened the door and were greeted by Tanner who had his black Jaguar parked in the background.

  "Hey Sicily," he said to her as they exchanged hugs. He then turned to Lucas and asked him if he was ready to go.

  "Hell yeah," was his reply. "I want this day to breeze by."

  "So does everyone,” was Sicily's smart remark.

  After a few minutes of casual conversation, the three finally parted ways. Sicily went to the garage while Lucas and Tanner got in sports car and drove away. Sicily was thinking about the most random things while on her way to her school, but one topic she couldn't seem to get out of her mind was Lucas. How could he have changed so much in a matter of weeks?

  "Maybe he spiked my drink with some potion," she said to herself. "I'm actually starting to like him."

  She shook her head.

  "I must be going crazy."

  * * * * *

  "Sicily!" a familiar voice shouted her name. "Snob, look here!"

  Sicily turned her head around and saw Zane waving at her from a distance. He jogged over to her and then greeted her with a small peck on the cheek. She returned the gesture with a friendly and extremely tight hug.

  "Someone forgot to tell me something over the weekend," he said to her with a wink.

  "It seems that someone's been hanging out with the enemy," Vanessa said with a grin that Sicily considered fake.

  "Was that why you didn't come to the party?" one of her quieter friends asked. "You missed a lot, you know."

  Sicily rolled her eyes discreetly at her friends. She knew what they were trying to do. They were trying to make her feel bad about herself since she hadn't been hanging out with them lately, and unfortunately, only Bailey and Zane understood why she couldn't always be present anymore.

  "And what exactly did I miss?" she asked with one of her eyebrows raised up. "A hook-up? A break-up? A catfight? A fistfight?"

  Sicily didn't know why, but she was starting to get annoyed with some of her minions. They were acting as if they were so much better than the rest of the school. They may be, but they had no right to act superior, only she, Bailey, Zane, Bryce and Vanessa had the right to do so.

  "No," another girl named Lacy answered. "Even better."

  "Spill," Sicily said dispassionately as she looked at her newly-painted nails. "This better be good."

  "Bryce slept with this chick from Marina," Zane answered, and since he was her best friend, Sicily sparked up her enthusiasm just for him.

  "He hooked up with Mallory," Sicily said as if it were the most obvious thing on the planet. "Isn't sleeping with girls from Marina a habit of his already?"

  "We aren't done yet," Vanessa said, poking Sicily on the ribs.

  "Well, if you're trying to build up suspense then you guys better hurry it up," Sicily interjected, rolling her eyes. "The bell's just about to ring."

  "Is someone afraid of being late?" Zane asked in mock-disbelief. "Someone take a picture!"

  Sicily punched her best friend's stomach before she hung one of her arms on his shoulders, and in return, Zane placed a hand on the lower part of her back.

  "The queen's getting bored, girls," he said teasingly to the other cheerleaders. "You better tell her about the pregnancy."

  "No fucking way," Sicily said, her jaw almost reaching the floor. "Bryce wouldn't. He couldn't."

  "Well, he did," Vanessa said as she flipped her caramel-colored hair over her shoulders.

  "What did he say?"

  It was a given that everyone slept with everyone, but getting pregnant was preventable, so why take chances? That was just stupid. "Did they use any protection?" Sicily asked still not believing the news.

  Bryce was her friend so she had the right to be concerned, and even though she hated most of those who went to Marina, she still sympathized for the girl Bryce had maybe impregnated. Having sex was considered a casual thing in both schools, but the female was the one who would have to carry a baby for nine months. Talk about ruining the rest of your life.

  "I forgot about that part, the situation just kind of got out of hand, if you know what I mean," Bryce said, appearing from the crowd. "I have no idea what I'm going to do."

  "Leave her, man," one of the jocks said to him. "No one has to know."

  "She's probably going to spill," Bailey said as she held her small Victoria's Secret purse in her hands. "Who is she anyway?"

  The bell rang and everyone, their group excluded, rushed to his or her homeroom. Screams echoed from across the hallways, and the sound of running footsteps enveloped the building. Still, that didn't move Sicily or the others.

  "Are we skipping?" Zane asked, his eyes shining in amusement. "This is some serious issue."

  "I'll pass," Lacy said giving everybody a wave before she headed over to her first class. "Detention for three weeks is enough for me."

  "Oh…okay. I guess we'll just catch up with you later," Sicily said, a small smile gracing her face.

  Everyone started walking away until it was only Bailey, Zane, Sicily, and Bryce left. Vanessa, surprisingly, decided to be a good girl today and go to her homeroom. When it was only the four of them left in the hallway, they decided to leave the school altogether and drive to the nearest Starbuck's for this discussion.

  When they got to their destination, Zane opened the door for the two girls, and Bryce followed with his hands buried deep in the pockets of his jeans. He seemed to be thinking deeply, which was unlike him. It took only a few minutes for the four of them to give their orders and pay, and another couple minutes for them to receive their coffees. They took a corner spot surrounded by tall and wide windows, giving them a clear view of the parking lot. Just incase a teacher or one of the schools’ security officer got a caffeine craving. They could head out the back door

  "We'll go back just in time for the class before lunch," Bryce said, starting the conversation casually while he looked at his watch.

  "Ugh," Sicily replied, rolling her eyes. "Philosophy. Hate it."

  "Who doesn't?" Zane said in his usual teasing tone of voice.

  "Anyway…" Bailey said trailing off and making her voice louder. "We skipped for a reason so let's go talk about that reason."

  Zane, Sicily, and Bailey looked at Bryce while he, in return, looked down at his White Chocolate Mocha. He looked different today. He wasn't his arrogant, I'm-better-than-you self, which told the three that the news of the pregnancy had shaken him.<
br />
  "Maybe she just faked her pregnancy," Sicily said, knowing all too well that desperate girls would do that.

  "No one would go that far," Bailey interceded. "And Mischa? Even though she's the epitome of a dumb blonde, she'd know when to joke and when to not."

  "Do her friends know about this?" Sicily asked. "How long have you been dating her? Who was her last boyfriend? Who's her crowd?" she then added.

  "Since New Years Eve, don’t know, and she hangs with Mallory," Bryce said.

  Sicily couldn't help but roll her eyes before she thinned her lips. She was going to tell Lucas. She had to. She needed to get some juice on Mischa, and who better to ask than Lucas, the King of Marina del Ray himself?

  "What did she say when you guys talked?" Zane asked, dropping his customary sarcastic act and acting like a man.

  "She wanted to get an abortion," Bryce said, avoiding eye contact with any of the three. "But I said no."

  Sicily couldn't help it. She just had to punch her friend hard on the arm. "Dumbass! Why the hell did you disagree?"

  In defense, Bryce raised up his hands in a surrendering fashion before he said, "I may be an asshole, but I'm not a murderer."

  "Then consider your future broken already," Sicily said, crossing her arms over her stomach. Sicily knew that there were a lot of people who thought getting an abortion was unjust wrong. But she was sticking to the more practical side of life. Bryce had been born into an affluent family. What would they say if the heir to the family business was suddenly going to be a dad at seventeen? And she didn’t care what Bailey said, girls did fake pregnancies, and they got pregnant on purpose, especially to snag some one like Bryce.

  "I don't fucking want to kill, okay," he said to Sicily and that stunned her to silence. "So just 'shut up'."

  She looked at him darkly as she bit her bottom lip to try to control herself from hitting him. The right thing for her to do was to actually applaud Bryce for being charitable. She had forgotten that he was Catholic, so she was pretty sure she wasn’t going to change his mind on that one. "I was just trying to help," she said, sipping her coffee as she stopped herself from saying anything rash.

  "I didn't even ask you to."

  Hey, man," Zane warned, placing a firm hand on his friend's shoulder. "Don't talk to her like that."

  "Why not?" Bryce asked him. "She's being a bitch!"

  Before Zane could take down the tension a few knots between Sicily and Bryce, Sicily started in on the poor guy. "Oh, so now I'm the one to blame?" she asked, her voice rising. "I'm not the one who fucking slept with someone from Marina!"

  "So we're talking schools now, huh?" he returned, his loud deep voice overshadowing hers. "Who's the one hanging out with the enemy and going behind our backs?" he asked, his temper reaching its maximum. "And we're talking about Mercer a.k.a. the King of Marina himself!"

  "Bryce," Bailey said, jabbing a finger onto his chest. "You're crossing the line."

  Bryce only rolled his eyes before he stood up from the large armchair, but he was stopped by Sicily. "What do you want now?" he asked, obviously angry at her.

  "You need to talk to Zane and Bailey. I'll leave."

  "Don't try to be a saint," he said, his voice starting to grow softer but still remaining emotionless.

  "I'm just trying to get away from you, jackass."

  Before Bryce could reach out and choke her, Sicily picked up her bag and raced off to her car to go back to school. The drive back to Sun Coast was usually very short, but she took her time since she didn't want to have to listen to her teacher reprimand her about tardiness and how she could get detention if she kept it up.

  When she finally parked her car, she strolled off to her next class and got there just as it was about to start. She reached the Chem lab a split second before her teacher did. She took the center seat and quickly engaged in a conversation with Vanessa.

  "How'd Starbuck's go?" Nessa asked, tapping the tip of her mechanical pencil against her desk. "Is Bryce coping well?"

  "I'd say he's doing better than ever," Sicily answered, her voice dripping sarcasm. "That ass called me a bitch.

  Contemplating, Vanessa furrowed her eyebrows in a questioning fashion before she voiced her thoughts and said, "You must have said something that angered him."

  Sicily smirked, and then she a small annoyed grunt escaped her mouth. "He didn't want to let Mischa get an abortion. Screw him and his beliefs."

  "Well, at least he gets points in Heaven," Vanessa said, tinting their conversation with humor.

  "And a disowned by his father."

  Vanessa just had to laugh with what Sicily said since it was funny considering the severity of the issue. Vanessa figured she could talk to Bryce later. She was Catholic too and there were other options besides abortion. She would help him sort things.

  Sicily decided to let him be for now. She didn’t need to add the stress of someone else’s problems to hers. And her beliefs and Bryce’s were too far apart on this issue. She was just trying to help a while ago, but obviously her efforts had been left unappreciated.

  "So what's with you and Mercer now?" Vanessa asked, changing the topic completely as she gave her seat mate a sheepish smile.

  "I don’t know. We get along okay for a bit, and then argue like crazy," was what Sicily said, but of course that was just part of the story. Lucas and she were on friendly terms now, and considering that, she had the right to tell him about Bryce and Mischa.

  Speaking of Lucas and Mischa, Sicily couldn't help but wonder if Mischa's pregnancy was causing a lot of commotion over at his school.

  * * * * *

  "I'm pregnant," Mischa said to Lucas as she rested a hand on his forearm. She wanted him to stop and listen to her.

  Lucas closed his eyes for a second, and thought. He couldn’t remember Mischa dating anyone. "Who's the father?" was the first thing he asked her. "Hasn't he ever heard of a condom?"

  "Bryce," the girl squeaked in fear. "He…uh…and I-were…umm…dru-drunk. We hooked up at Zane’s New Years Eve Party."

  "Didn't he hook up with Mallory just a month ago?" he asked in a demanding tone and Mischa could only nod her head in response.

  "Mal's actually smarter than I thought," he then said, resting a finger beneath his chin. "At least she remembered to use protection."

  "I forgot," she said. "He forgot."

  "Babe, if I forget to use a condom whenever I do it," he said to her. "Then I'd be like Abraham, populating the world."

  Of course Lucas was just being sarcastic. Despite what people were saying about his conquests, he didn't sleep with everyone he dated. He was smarter than that, and it would be nice if other people thought the same of him. Just because he was the captain of a team and the most sought-after guy in their school, didn't mean he was dumb as a rock.

  "It's not my fault," Mischa returned, her eyes beginning to water. "I just wanted to know what you'd say."

  "What I'd say?" Lucas asked, confused. "You need to talk to Bryce." Lucas had no idea what to do about this problem. She needed to talk to her parents, to Bryce, to someone besides him for crying out loud. Sure, he was considered a God in his school, but he wasn't God himself. What did she expect him to do? Hope that the baby inside her vanished into thin air?

  "About that," the woman said, her voice trailing off. "I was hoping you'd talk to Sicily. You're friends, right?"

  "Why does this concern her?" Lucas asked, his gaze burning her down, and before both of them knew what was happening, Mallory had run up to them demanding to know what was going on.

  "Mischa!" Mallory said, putting a firm hand on her friend's arm. "Spill!" she said as she started pulling her friend away from Lucas.

  "Uh, yeah, sure," she said, uncertainty expressed on her face. "Lucas, just please talk to Sicily, okay?"

  Lucas nodded his agreement slowly. He had no idea why Mischa wanted him to talk to Sicily, but he would do it for her.

  He watched Mallory demand Mischa tell her what was happen
ing, and then instead of comforting her friend, she wanted to know why Sicily was part of the issue. She was extremely jealous of the other cheerleader.

  "How'd she get into this?" Mallory asked, her voice sounding irritated.

  "She's friends with Bryce," Mischa said meekly.

  "But why does Lucas have to speak to her?" Mallory demanded.

  People were starting to look at the three of them because to onlookers, it looked like the three were fighting with one another and Lucas was the reason the two girls were arguing. After a few seconds, Lucas got irritated with the whispering going on around them and so, he told the crowd to scatter. People immediately obliged and started walking away slowly.

  "Because."

  "Because what?" Mallory asked Mischa. "Why does he out of all the people we know, have to talk to her."

  Lucas rolled his eyes in annoyance before he pulled Mallory to one of the more isolated areas of the hallway. He was getting irritated with her actions, and she didn't own him. She had no right to act so controlling towards him. "What's your problem?" he asked with his hands steadily on his sides. "You have no right to be jealous of Sicily, I don’t understand your attitude."

  Lucas wanted a clear answer, an answer that would put all his questions to rest.

  Mallory said, "Even after all I've done. It's still not going to happen."

  That confused him all the more. "What are you talking about?"

  "I made you hate her; loathe her…" she said, looking away from him. "We might have gotten together then. That’s what I wanted, what I wished would happen more than anything. But it didn’t, and obviously it's not going to now."

  Lucas placed a firm grip on one of Mallory's shoulders and shook her to get her to look at him and not at the floor. He didn't understand anything she was saying. But he knew he needed to understand what she was saying to him. It was important.

  "You have to tell me," he said, his voice rising. "If it concerns me then you have to tell me."

  Mallory heaved a deep sigh before she just seemed to shrink into herself. "Remember back when we were in Middle School?" she asked,