by Logan Byrne
“I wish I was going with a girl tonight,” Martin said.
“You are,” I replied.
“My sister doesn’t count, Theo. Not even close. I’d rather go alone than take that brat,” he said.
Martin’s disdain for his little sister mostly came from her inability to ever cut him any slack. He may have been six years older, but that girl had a bunch of vinegar in her that could never be diluted. She struck fear in him that I’d never seen in another human before.
“Hey, at least you have a sister. I’d kill for one—even yours,” I said.
“Hey, man, you can have her. I don’t mind. I’ll even drop her off at your door tonight with the white-glove treatment. Doesn’t bother me one bit!” he exclaimed.
Laughing, I put on my dress shirt and combed my hair, even though one spot in the back stuck up like always. Martin had brought me some of his cologne, a spiced scent that tingled my nose and caused me to sneeze, and I put on some lip balm, though for what reason I didn’t know.
“You guys better get going,” my mother said as she came up to the door.
“Yeah, we still have to stop by my place to get Tanya,” Martin said.
Martin was going to drive me to the fair, and as far as I knew, I was coming home with Belle, though I supposed that was up in the air. Who knew what kind of party she’d get invited to after the festivities. There was always a party, a massive house party, and of course I was never invited.
I grabbed my phone, wallet, and keys before we left and got into his beater car. The windows barely rolled down, the air didn’t work, and best of all, it didn’t have a horn. I guess that’s what you get when you buy an almost twenty-year-old car on Craigslist.
Martin turned on the radio and a new song from Maroon 5 started playing softly in the background. With cars whizzing all around us, Martin pulled into his neighborhood, which was about seven or eight minutes from mine, and pulled into his driveway before pulling out his phone and texting for Tanya to come out. She did a minute later, with his mom standing in the doorway yelling at him to keep an eye on her and make sure to stay with her at all times. He rolled his eyes, Tanya got in the backseat, and we pulled back out before the one thing that always happened when I was around Tanya happened.
“Helloooo, Theo,” she said in an excited voice.
“Hi, Tanya. How are you?” I asked politely.
“Better now that you’re here,” she said, giggling.
“Out of anyone in the world you can be in love with, you choose my best friend. Awesome,” Martin said.
“Shut up, Martin!” she said, smacking him on the shoulder.
It was a sad testament to my life that an eleven-year-old girl was the only female on this planet who had a crush on me.
“This line is horrible,” Martin said when we got to the fairgrounds and joined the long line of cars waiting to park.
My phone buzzed. It was Belle asking me where I was so that she could come meet up with me. Weighing my options and looking at the unmoving line of cars in front of us, I decided to just skip waiting with Martin and Tanya in favor of a few extra minutes with Belle. I felt a little bad, but it wasn’t like I was totally ditching Martin.
“Belle is looking for me. I think I’m going to get out here and go inside,” I said.
“Oh yeah, leave me with the little monster in back, huh?” he asked.
Tanya, not liking his comment, slapped him on the shoulder. He winced and moved out of her way.
“Do you see what you’re doing to me? Seriously, do you see it?” he asked.
“Sorry, buddy,” I said, getting out of the car and then texting Belle that I was just about to pay and come inside.
I could almost hear Martin’s screams for mercy as I handed five dollars to the ticket girl and went inside. The ground was covered with hay that had been trampled on all day so it mushed into the grass and mud underneath. Lines for funnel cakes were two-dozen people strong, and the rides in the distance were spinning so fast I thought I was going to get sick just from watching.
“Theo!”
I looked right to see Belle, her pink flannel shirt tied in the front with a white shirt underneath. She was wearing lighter jeans with the legs tucked into some cowboy boots.
“Hey,” I said, smiling, as I walked up to her.
“I was starting to worry that you ditched me,” she joked.
“Nah, I’d never do that. Not to you, anyway,” I said.
“Good,” she replied, her cheeks turning a light shade of pink.
“So, what do you want to do?” I asked, looking around.
“I thought that maybe we could get a snack and something to drink and sit down? I want to make sure I make it in time for the routine, and I’m not sure if I could after standing in line for one of these rides. They’re packed,” she said.
“Yeah, that’s no problem at all. It sounds nice,” I said.
“Cool. We’ll do rides after,” she said.
We walked up to a vendor who had your standard fair food. There were hot dogs, burgers, and any type of candy you could think of that was deep fried and served with chocolate syrup on top. I got a Chicago dog, and Belle got a chocolate funnel cake with two waters and lots of napkins.
We found an empty picnic table, the only people around being senior citizens and families, and as we sat down, I could see Martin and Tanya walking in the distance. He looked defeated and annoyed, and she kept taking his ride tickets.
“You know them?” Belle asked.
“Yeah, that’s my best friend, Martin, and his little sister,” I said.
“Best friend, huh? You replaced me?” she asked in jest.
“Who’s your best friend?” I asked.
“Oh boy, that’s a tough one,” she said, before taking a bite of her funnel cake. “I’m not sure that I have a best friend, per se. I have a lot of really good friends, and a lot of people who are just friends, but I wouldn’t say I have a best friend.”
“Why not? You seem to be really popular,” I said.
“I guess I just don’t have that one person that I totally connect with, you know? Especially in high school, and being in the extracurricular activities that I’m in, it just makes it hard with the jealousy and backstabbing and everything,” she said.
“That’s why I like to lie low,” I said.
“Yeah? Are you sure that’s the reason?” she asked.
“Maybe not, but it helps. I might not have many friends, but the one good friend I do have would take a bullet for me, and I guess that’s better than a thousand friends who wouldn’t visit you if you were in the hospital,” I said.
“Would you visit me if I was in the hospital?” she asked.
“I’d be there before they could even write your name down on the forms,” I said.
She smiled, taking another bite of her funnel cake, without saying anything else.
“I mean it,” I said, looking at her.
She raised her head, looked me in the eyes, and with slightly pink cheeks and a small smile on her face, said, “I know.”
Chapter Four
“Coming up in just twenty minutes, your Ridgetown High varsity cheerleading team!” a man boomed over the fair loudspeaker system.
“Crap, that’s me. I should probably get over there. I’ll text you afterward?” she asked.
“I look forward to it,” I said.
She left her funnel cake behind, all that was left of it, and I took a few pieces for myself and treated them as dessert. I thought about texting Martin and seeing what he and Tanya were up to, but I had a better idea instead. I’d never been to a high school football game, basketball game, or anything related to any sport, which meant I’d never gotten the chance to see Belle in action. What better way to spend my time waiting for her than to go see her routine?
I got up, threw away my stuff, and walked over to a directional board, which said which way everything was. There were metal bleachers around a track that had a grassy area in the
middle. The bleachers were completely full, so I walked up to the side of the track and stood at a chain-link fence as cheerleaders from another school in the county were doing their routine. I knew there was no way Belle went on so soon, and as I looked at the crowd to people-watch, I saw a sight I didn’t want to see.
It was Trent and his friends, all of them in the bleachers, laughing at something on one of their phones. As I looked, one of them must’ve said something, seeing me in the distance, even knowing who I was, as they tapped Trent and pointed my way. My stomach churned, and as he looked at me, our eyes locking from across the way, I felt true and utter fear. He looked pissed, and at me, but why would he be? Did Belle say something to him about me, or about hanging out with me?
“Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for your Ridgetown High varsity cheerleading team!” the announcer said. The crowd erupted, and our gaze was broken.
The team ran out, Belle leading the front, and their purple and gold uniforms contrasted perfectly. They began their routine, doing flips and throwing one another into the air like acrobats. I watched in awe. I’d never seen a cheerleading routine before, well except for in a movie a long time ago, so this was completely new. Belle was amazing, doing backflips and contorting her body with the greatest ease. I never knew she could do all this.
The routine went on and off for a while, with the girls taking breaks so that the band could come in and play for the audience. On one of those breaks, likely near the end, I could feel my bladder completely full from the gut-busting amount of soda I had just before leaving to come to the fair.
I managed to find a restroom nearby that was totally empty. I guess the band put on one great performance. As I zipped up, though, the door flung open, and I felt a shockwave of nerves run up and down my spine when I saw who was standing there.
“There you are,” Trent said, two of his friends with him.
One of them turned the lock on the door, keeping us all in, and my mouth started to salivate from nerves. I’d never been beaten up before, never even so much as thrown a punch, but I knew what was about to happen.
“You’re Theo, right?” Trent asked.
“Yeah,” I replied, unsure what to even say.
“Hi, Theo, my name’s Trent, and these are my friends Chad and Brian. I know you’re probably a nice guy, Theo, keeping to yourself and never really bothering anybody. Does that sound about right?” he asked.
“Yeah, I guess so,” I replied.
“Well, you see, Theo, while you might normally do that, you haven’t been doing that lately, and that’s causing a problem for me and my life. You see, Annabelle is my girlfriend, Theo. Now, I know you knew that, because I’ve caught you looking at us before when we were at her house. I don’t know why you were looking, and I don’t care to know, but the problem with her being my girlfriend and hanging out with you is that I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all, and ever since she began hanging out with you, things with her and me haven’t been so great. You can see why I’d be upset, right?”
I thought about what to say and how to say it. Sure, I could go along with everything he said and maybe get out of this without a single bruise on my body. He’d think I was a coward, but at the end of the day, it didn’t matter what he thought about me. What I wasn’t going to do, though, was let him talk badly about Belle or insinuate in any way that she was his or his property.
“She’s not your girlfriend. She’s moved on,” I said.
Chad and Brian gasped and laughed a little as Trent chuckled heartily and even mocked me by wiping away fake tears. He quickly got over it, though, and I started to regret not just going along with what he said.
“See, this is where the problem comes,” he said before pushing me as hard as he could into the cinderblock wall.
My back slammed against it, sending a shock up my spine. I clenched my hands to make sure they were still working properly. He put his right hand on the wall next to my head and got close to me, and his formerly rather polite face turned into one consumed by absolute hatred.
“I swear, Theo, I swear to you, I won’t hesitate to pop your head off your neck like a dandelion. Annabelle’s mine, she’s always been mine, and she’ll always be mine. You might have a little crush on her, but you’ll never so much as see her again if I can help it. Do we understand each other?” he asked. I looked at him without saying a word.
A few seconds went by, and he backed up a few steps. His gaze was still on me, never wavering. Chad and Brian stood near the door with their arms crossed, as if they were instructed to look as menacing as they could.
“Well, it’s great that we could come to an understanding. If you’ll excuse me, I need to get back out there. I need to see my hot piece of ass out there in her little uniform. And trust me, Theo, she’s one hot piece of ass,” Trent said, laughing.
I didn’t know what came over me in that instant, but I balled up a fist, it turning white and red under pressure, and my anger took over my body. How dare he talk about her like that, like she was something there for his enjoyment? Annabelle Hawthorne was the most beautiful, smart, amazing girl I’d ever known, and I was going to make sure Trent knew that.
Mustering up all my power and courage, I cocked my fist back, Trent’s eyes still closed and his head slightly tilted back as he laughed, before I hit my max power and started to punch it forward. I kept my eyes on him, on his stupid face, as my fist traveled an inch at a time, in slow motion almost. His head came back down, and his eyes widened just as I connected and my fist pushed into his flesh. It felt so gratifying, the parts that weren’t filled with extreme pain and a fear that I broke my hand, before I went all the way through, and Trent stumbled back a few steps.
Time came back in full force as my rage dissipated, and I was stuck standing there like a scared, shivering Chihuahua as Trent’s face turned red and his eyes sent daggers into my soul.
“Wrong move,” he said, lunging forward.
•••
I let out a moan, my hand coming to my head, but someone quickly pushed it back down.
“You’re okay. Try not to move too much, okay?” someone said.
“Where am I?” I asked, my eyes squinted as I tried to adjust to the light.
“You’re in the first-aid tent at the fair. You were in a nasty fight. Luckily an older man found you,” the woman said.
“My head is killing me,” I moaned.
“And it will for a while. I’m surprised you’re as coherent as you are, to be honest. Just try to take it easy. We found your emergency contact in your phone and are notifying your mother now,” she said.
“Where is he?” I heard from behind me in the distance.
“Miss, you have to stay—”
“Theo. Oh my god, Theo. Are you okay?” Belle asked, tears rolling down her cheeks as she knelt by my side in the grass and held my right hand between hers.
“I’m okay,” I said.
“I am so, so sorry, Theo. I never meant for any of this to happen. I didn’t know he’d do that to you,” she said. Her eyes were red and puffy.
“Belle, this isn’t your fault. I just wasn’t going to stand around and let him say those things about you,” I said.
“Things? What things?” she asked, a puzzled look on her face.
Maybe it was the head trauma, but it never occurred to me that she wouldn’t know what he said about her and why we got into the fight, well, massacre. Trent obviously wasn’t going to say anything about it.
“It’s nothing,” I said, trying to downplay it.
“Theo, tell me. I deserve to know,” she said.
I took a deep breath, sighing a bit as I let it out, as I didn’t know how she was going to handle his choice words. I didn’t want to cause any trouble for her, or even more for myself, but I knew that there was no way out of it.
“He said he needed to see his hot little piece of ass in her uniform,” I said simply.
“Wow,” she said, her eyes tearing up a bit more as s
he turned her head.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Don’t be. It’s not your fault. I can’t believe he’d say something like that about me. If he’s willing to say something like that about me to you, who knows what he’s told other people,” she said.
The nurse came over and put some ice on my side, and I winced before settling into it. She said my mother was on her way and gave me some ice water to sip.
“I still don’t understand something, though,” Belle said.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Why did he do this to you? I can see him trying to intimidate you, just because of what he’s like, but usually he doesn’t actually do this type of thing,” she said.
“I guess I sort of started it,” I said.
“You?” she asked, in shock.
“Yeah, big surprise. I hit him after he said those things about you,” I said.
“You stood up for me?” she asked, almost in disbelief.
“Of course I did. Why wouldn’t I?” I asked.
“Why would you? Nobody ever does when Trent is involved,” she said.
“Because you’re the most amazing girl I’ve ever known, Annabelle Hawthorne, and I couldn’t let somebody talk about you that way, no matter who they think they are,” I said.
Her eyes softened as her hands wrapped around mine. She took a deep breath through her nose and let it out slowly before leaning forward and kissing me on the cheek. My toes curled and butterflies fluttered throughout my body, then her lips left my warm cheek and she looked back at me.
“I’m not sure how I’m ever going to make this up to you, Theo,” she said.
A thousand thoughts were running through my head, from telling her it was no big deal to asking for her hand in marriage, but one thought stuck out the most. I knew it was a risk, but I’d already risked life and limb for this girl, and I wasn’t afraid to get another little bruise. Maybe now was the time.
“How about dinner?” I asked.
To my surprise, she smiled, her pearly whites shining brightly as she began to nod her head up and down. “That sounds amazing.”
