A new Friend

Ashley

I held my breath as I walked down the hallway. I was conscious of the eyes on me, on the pointed fingers, taunting whispers, and sneering peals of laughter.

That was my everyday life here in school. Walking in the hallway was always a dreadful experience for me. I could feel my heart beating fast, could feel perspiration on my entire body, could feel my palms growing sweaty.

I hated walking alone. Nobody likes me in Empire High. The boys already gave everyone a green pass to bully me and they were always so eager to do that as if it’d score them some point with the triplets.

I knew the number of steps I needed to take before reaching my class and I was almost done counting when I tripped on something and I landed on the floor with a thud.

The hallway erupted in laughter.

I felt a sharp pain in my knees and I looked at them to see that the right one was already bleeding.

“Oh, my bad,” the voice that I recognized to be Jasmine’s mocked, “maybe you should get glasses because apparently, you’re blind.”

More laughter. More deriding snide remarks. I wished the ground would just open up and swallow me to save me from the embarrassment but I know no such thing would happen.

So I pushed myself up and came face to face with Jasmine and her two minions. They were blocking my path.

“Can you… can you please let me pass?”

“Well, if you’re not blind, you’d see that the path is blocked, so why don’t you find another one?”

Another one? The other one was a longer path and I couldn’t… That would mean putting myself through the tortuous task of passing a longer hallway filled with students who derive pleasure in seeing me bleed.

“Jasmine please, that’s just my class behind you. I can’t go back because…”

“Well, you have to,” she snarled at me, “because I can’t move away just because something like you wants to pass.”

Oh, please!

“You’re going to move so she’d pass and you’re also going to apologize.”

“And who the fuck is that?” Jasmine spat out angrily and she whirled around to see who it was. But I already know who. It was Anita.

Jasmine stopped when she saw that it was her and her look changed from the bitchy one to a more polite one.

“Excuse me?”

“You’re going to apologize to Ashley and you’re also going to make way for her. The last time I checked, you’re not static.”

Jasmine’s lips set in a thin and angry line. I expected her to lash out at Anita because no matter how much she was obsessed with Anita, she wasn’t the type to take what she had out.

“And if I don’t?”

“Well, you will,” Anita answered, hands crossed over her chest and the two of them did a glaring contest for a while. I and Jasmine’s minions were looking confused and wondering what the hell was going on.

And then, the last thing that I expected happened, Jasmine really moved away.

Paint me shocked.

“Sorry,” she muttered and it sounded more like a threat than an apology.

I walked off quickly.

“What was that?” I asked Anita.

“Don’t mind that girl, she’s just all bark and no bite.”

I know Jasmine wasn’t just all bark and no bite but for now, I was just grateful that Anita had saved me from what would have been another round of bullying.

*******

The day passed away in a blur and nothing significant happened. I hardly ate in the cafeteria because I didn’t want to put myself where the triplets would see me and think of doing something to me.

And even in the classes we offered together, I made sure to make myself as small as possible so as not to warrant unnecessary attention to myself.

The last class of the day was Physics and one of the things I dreaded the most happened. We were asked to pair ourselves into groups of twos for an assignment.

I knew no one was going to pick me except for the last person standing and whoever it was would grumble and tell me how much they loathe working with me.

That had happened too many times to count already.

So imagine my absolute shock when the class was still in a frenzy of who to pair with when one of the school footballer players started walking up to me with a smile on his face.

I froze before I concluded that he was going for someone behind me. But there was no one behind me and he stopped right in front of me.

“Hi Ashley,” he greeted me and I nearly collapsed to the floor in a puddle.

He knows my name! Derrick, the football team captain and one of the most popular guys in school knows my name.

“Hi,” I greeted back, my voice sounding anything but my voice.

“If you don’t mind, can we be partners for the assignment?”

What! What? My mouth dropped open and I could figuratively see my jaws on the floor. Did Derrick just ask me to be his partner?

Was this a dream? Or a prank?

It must be a prank, another joke to mock and bully me but when I looked around, no one was looking at us.

“Why?”

“Why?” He echoed my dumb question, looking confused at it.

“I mean… I don’t…” I was suddenly breathless. I’ve never had a guy stare at me this intensely before. And my God! He was staring intensely at me.

“I’m just saying that why me? There are lots of other people in the class.”

“Why not you? I mean I’ve always wanted to walk up to you and just strike up a conversation but you and Anita never talk to anyone so it’s kind of hard to even see you and now, this is an opportunity to actually talk to you and become friends, if you don’t mind.”

He was confident in what he just said but there was also a slight quiver in his words, as if he was nervous and scared of how I’d reply.

And? I was just speechless. Was this really happening? He has always wanted to talk to me? He wanted us to be friends?

Was I suddenly in Alice in Wonderland?

“Are you not… you’re not saying anything.”

“Ohh, I’m sorry… I’m just… yes!” I breathed in, “I don’t mind us being partners.”

“Oh,” his smile was bright enough to light up the darkest room, “this just made me happy. Can we exchange digits so we can talk on the phone?”

He wanted us to exchange numbers.

We exchanged numbers while I was still dizzy from this experience that I didn’t understand.

“Listen, I have to run right now because we have a football practice but I’ll be sure to chat you up tonight so we’ll talk about our assignment.”

He flashed me another warm smile before he turned and sprinted out of the lab.

I stood there, confused and yet exhilarated about what just happened.