Page 7 of From the Ashes
“Would you look at that,” Jordan laughed, pointing at the pair of us. “A couple of fairies laying in the grass. Where’s your wings fairy boy?”
“Is that really the best he can come up with?” Nix grumbled, not giving them the attention they wanted. “Fucking pathetic.”
“Pretty sure that one’s too fat to fly anyway,” Jordan’s friend, Patrick, jeered.
My cheeks burned as I looked away. My weight was always their target, but they didn’t usually attack me around Nix. They liked it better when we were separated and outnumbered. Since I was alone a lot, I usually just let them say whatever they wanted until they went away. It didn’t matter if they were mean to me. I could take it. I wasusedto it by now.
“You couldn’t get that ass off the ground with a crane,” the other, Chris, added.
Nix was on his feet in an instant. “You shut the fuck up, you limp-dicked pieces of shit!”
My head snapped up, seeing him standing over me in a protective stance. The three boys, of course, immediately headed our way. I got to my feet as fast as I could, grabbing Nix’s arm.
“Come on,” I begged. “Don’t start a fight with them. It’s not worth it.”
“Better listen to your boyfriend, Fi-Fi,” Jordan sneered. “You don’t want to tangle with us.”
“Or what? You gonna get your boys to beat me up since you can’t fight your own battles?”
“You better watch your mouth–”
Nix stepped forward, getting right in his face. “If you hit me, you’ll lose your spot on the team. A star quarterback isn’t much when he’s warming the bench, is he?”
Jordan’s face was red, his fists clenched at his sides. But Nix continued.
“From what I’ve heard, you’re so fucking stupid that you’re gonna get kicked off because of your grades, anyway. Too many hits to the head there Jordy?”
“You better shut your mouth you fuckingfag,” Jordan hissed.
All hesitation left my body in a rush of adrenaline. Before I knew it, I had pushed Nix out of the way and my fist was flying through the air. It collided with his jaw in a flash of white-hot pain. I was certain one of my fingers was broken, but that wasn’t going to slow me down. Hands were on my shoulders as I reeled back to punch him again, my fist flying wide the second time and hitting Jordan in the shoulder.
“Don’t you ever say that again!” I screamed as I was dragged away. “Or I’ll fucking kill you!”
It wasn’t until Patrick and Chris peeled Jordan off the ground that I realized it wasn’t them pulling me away.
“Charlie,” Nix said, his lips close to my ear. “Calm down. It’s okay.”
“No, it’s fucking not!”
“Charlie,” he said more forcefully. “I’m okay. He didn’t hurt me.”
His words broke the spell over me, and I felt my anger begin to fade. I was suddenly aware of the bulging veins in my neck and the pain in my right hand. I glanced down to see it was already bruising and beginning to swell.
“Come on,” Nix said, grabbing my left hand. “Let’s get out of here.”
“But… it’s only lunchtime… we’ll get in trouble.”
He lifted an eyebrow, pointing at Jordan. “We’re already in trouble.”
As much as I wasn’t the type to skip school, he was right. And I wasn’t much in the mood for dealing with stupid teachers who were going to tell me I was wrong or that I should’ve gone to an adult for help when they knew damn well they would have done absolutely fucking nothing.
“Alright,” I nodded. “Let’s go.”
Nix pulled me out of the schoolyard into the parking lot. He’d been old enough to take driver’s training the previous summer, so he already had his license and an old clunker of a car. We scrambled in and he took off, getting us away from the school and out of Creekside itself. I didn’t have to ask where he was going. After six years of spending nearly every waking moment together, I already knew where he was headed.
Reaching under my shirt with my good hand, I pulled out the opal arrowhead he’d given me the day the wildfire nearly destroyed the town. I’d hung it on a leather cord, wearing it every single day. The only time I took it off was when I went to bed. It was too sharp to wear all night, so I hung it over my lamp while I slept. On warm nights when I had the fan on, I loved to watch it twist and turn in the light, throwing rainbow reflections across the room.
It was my most treasured possession. Not because it was probably extremely valuable, but because my most favorite person in the entire world had given it to me. I caught myself playing with it whenever I thought of him, which was a lot lately.