CHAPTER 31
“I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.” Maya Angelou
When Elizabeth’s alarm went off, Jack was already gone. She showered, got dressed and grabbed a banana to eat on the way to school. She parked in her assigned parking spot and headed in to school three minutes before the first period bell was due to ring. Picking up the pace, she walked right past her locker to get to Calculus on time.
“Elizabeth!” she heard a familiar voice yell her name from behind. She didn’t even want to turn around and look already knowing it was Bob. “Stop!” Elizabeth sprinted into her Calculus classroom and slammed the door behind her.
“Quite an entrance Ms. Benson,” Ms. Petrova said as the class started laughing. “Go sit down, please.”
Jack dropped his head as she walked past him sitting in her adjacent seat. The forty-two minute class was horrific. Elizabeth’s mind was drifting back and forth between being with Bob the previous night and knowing that he would be waiting outside her classroom for her. How was she supposed to avoid him for six periods? Elizabeth raised her hand.
“What now, Elizabeth?”
“Ms. Petrova, I don’t feel so well. Can I go see the school nurse?”
“There are two weeks left of school, Elizabeth. Is this really an emergency?” Elizabeth nodded. “Mr. Bennett, walk
Elizabeth down to the nurse to make sure she gets there without passing out on us.” Jack got out of his seat abruptly and headed to the door without waiting for Elizabeth. “Thank you Mr. Bennett for your cooperation.” The class started laughing again. “Back to differential equations,” she said as Elizabeth closed the door behind her.
“You don’t have to walk me,” she said. “I’m fine.”
“You said there’s no such thing as fine,” he mumbled.
Elizabeth stopped walking. “Go back to class. You can’t use my own words against me,” she said angered by his comment. “I don’t need you.”
Jack put his hands in his pockets and continued walking. “That’s not what it looks like from my angle. I get brought into all your drama.” Elizabeth’s eyes started watering. Why was Jack being so mean to her? “Are you coming?” he yelled back at her.
Elizabeth could feel the sadness swell in her throat. She was about to have an emotional breakdown. She held her breath until she reached the girls’ bathroom ten feet ahead and walked inside without saying a word to Jack. Locking herself in the last stall, she hung her backpack on the door and sat down on the porcelain toilet seat. Elizabeth tried to control her breathing the best she could, but soon she was hyperventilating and choking on her tears.
Elizabeth cried the rest of first period, waited until the halls cleared when second period started and headed down to the nurse’s office. She was glad Jack hadn’t waited for her.
“What’s wrong Elizabeth?” They all knew she was the girl that stabbed herself in the girls’ locker room in the beginning of the school year.
“I have a bad headache,” she said. “I don’t want to go home. Can I stay here for a while?”
The older, stocky woman felt her forehead. “Your face looks flushed. And you’re eyes are red. Have you been crying?” Elizabeth nodded. “Well, finals are two weeks away. The stress is bound to get to everyone at some point. Go lay down,” she said pointing to the make shift cot in the corner of the room. “Are you allergic to anything?”
“No,” said Elizabeth sitting on the cot.
“Have you taken anything yet for the headache?”
“No,” she answered.
The nurse brought her two Tylenol in a small paper cup and a bottle of water. “You’ll feel better after you take this and lay down for a bit.”
“Thank you,” she mumbled. The nurse closed the curtain. Elizabeth rolled over and faced the wall pulling her knees up to her chest. It was easy for her to feel like the only one in the world who was struggling. She was frustrated and barely getting by, emotionally. The only person in the world she needed was shutting her out and Elizabeth had no clue why. Maybe Jack couldn’t handle her admission about her feelings for him. Before Jack came into her life, she felt alone and empty but that feeling was a lie, an emotion in the past once their friendship began. With him, she was able to hold on, to find the courage to wake up every morning and face the world with him by her side. All that was gone now. Elizabeth cried until she fell asleep.
“Elizabeth,” she heard her name but she didn’t want to move. “Elizabeth, the last bell just rang, you have to get up and go home now.”
“School’s over?” she asked confused. “I slept the entire day?”
“You must have been really tired. How’s your head?”
Elizabeth squinted her eyes. Her head was pounding. “It still hurts,” she murmured.
“You probably have a migraine,” suggested the nurse. “Maybe you should call your doctor or stop in and see him on the way home.”
Elizabeth nodded. “Thanks.” She slowly walked down the hall to her locker. Most of the students had already cleared the hallways except for a few. She got to her locker, closed her eyes and rested her head against it. She didn’t even know if she had homework. Remembering that she was already getting straight A’s in all her classes and this was her last week of high school before finals Elizabeth decided she wasn’t going to care about homework anymore.
“Elizabeth!” she heard Bob yell down the hall. She turned around to tell him she didn’t feel well and saw him running towards her. Instinctively, she took off running to the parking lot to escape. “Stop running!” he shouted.
Elizabeth broke free from the glass doors that held her prisoner in school Monday through Friday. The sunlight was blinding after sleeping for so many hours. She continued to run down the sidewalk as small crowds of bystanders waiting for rides were pointing at her while Bob continued to pursue her. Out of nowhere, with Nick Strauss at his side, Jack Bennett grabbed Elizabeth and pushed her behind him.
“Come on,” Nick demanded. “You don’t want to see this. I need your keys.”
“What…I don’t understand…what’s going on?”
“I’ll explain, just give me your keys.”
“Walk away, Olsen. You’re over. She doesn’t want to see you or talk to you anymore,” Jack said angrily to Bob.
“That’s my girlfriend!” Bob shoved Jack. “You can’t keep me away from her! I just want to talk to her about last night!”
Elizabeth dug through her backpack frantically searching for her keys. “We have to go,” Nick said trying to pull her arm.
“You said that already!” Elizabeth said trembling. “Are they going to fight?” Nick put his hands on his head. “Jack asked me to take you home.” Elizabeth found the keys and tossed them to Nick. She turned around to look at Jack. He could be such a jerk and such a gentleman at the same time. He was standing there defending her against one of his friends.
“She doesn’t want to talk about last night, Bob. Don’t you get it? She wasn’t ready! She didn’t want you and you just pushed her until she gave in.”
“She didn’t say no!”
“What do you think stop means?” shouted Jack. A crowd was beginning to form.
“Shove off, Bennett!” Bob pushed Jack again. “I’m not trying to talk to her about what happened at my house! I’m trying to talk to her about what happened at her house after she went home!”
Elizabeth ran over to them with Nick chasing after her. She stood in the middle of the two angry high school seniors. Breathing heavily, she put a hand up in front of each of them. “Don’t fight because of me,” she pleaded. “I’m not worth it.”
“Man, I told you to get her out of here!” Jack shouted at Nick.
“I can’t make her,” answered Nick.
“Go home, Elizabeth,” said Jack. “I’ll
take care of this.”
“No! I’m not going to let you get expelled for fighting when you’re graduating in less than two weeks!” Elizabeth could see the frustration on his face. “Jack, you can’t get hurt, not over this. You’re playing football at UNC in the fall. Don’t jeopardize your dreams because of me.” Jack took a step back and looked at her. Elizabeth could tell there was something wrong. She looked at Nick. He was standing with his face down.
“UNC football?” laughed Bob. “Wow, that’s a little beneath you, isn’t it hot shot?”
“I’m out,” Jack said. He turned his back to Bob and Elizabeth and started walking to his car with Nick. Elizabeth slowly started walking to her car, parked a few spots down from Jack’s. She picked up her keys and her backpack from the ground. Bob was standing almost on top of her when she stood up.
“What the hell? Just leave me alone.”
“You screwed him,” said Bob. “I called him for help last night because you ran out like a chicken with its head cut off. He never called me back so I came over to talk to you. I saw him in your room, before you closed the blinds. He spent the night with you. You’ve been cheating on me.”
“I didn’t hook up with Jack last night!” Elizabeth started walking towards the driver’s side of her car. Bob grabbed her backpack and pulled her to the ground. “Asshole!” she screamed before the tears began flowing uncontrollably.
“You did too!” Elizabeth started to stand up. Bob kicked her backpack and knocked her face down on the pavement. Elizabeth could taste the flavor of rust and saw the blood dripping from her mouth.
“You stupid fucker!” shouted Jack. Nick helped Elizabeth to her feet and into the passenger seat of her Jeep. Nick got in the driver’s seat. Jack had his arm around Bob’s neck. “No matter what you say happened last night, I’m going to destroy you. There are thirty people out here that just saw you push and kick Elizabeth. Nobody will believe you, ever.”
“I…ca…n’t…brea…the,” Bob stammered gasping for air.
Nick started the engine. Elizabeth and Jack locked eyes for an instant. There was something wrong, she could feel it. Jack was keeping something from her. He let go of Bob. Elizabeth turned around to see Bob fall to the ground and Jack walking to his car.
“You’re bleeding.”
“What?” she asked in a daze.
“You’re bleeding,” Nick said putting his hand up to her mouth.
“Oh,” she said. She lifted up her sweater vest and wiped the blood from her mouth on the navy vest. “Nick? What did Bob mean when he said that UNC football was beneath Jack?”
“Olsen’s an asshole. Don’t listen to anything he says. We never liked him anyway.”
“I thought you guys were all friends.”
“Guys don’t make problems or create drama. We’ve always hated him but we tolerate him.”
“Oh,” she said wiping her mouth again. “Jack’s not keeping anything from me, is he?” Nick didn’t answer. He pulled her car in front of her house. Jack passed them immediately after, got out of his car quickly and ran up to Elizabeth’s front door. “What’s he doing?”
“Making sure that jerk never touches you again,” said Nick. They got out of her car. She slowly started walking and then suddenly stopped in the middle of the front yard. She saw her mother answer the door, surprised to see Jack standing there. Jack started talking to her but Elizabeth couldn’t hear what he was saying. She looked over at Nick, who was now leaning against Jack’s Jeep. Elizabeth dropped her backpack and sat down in the middle of the lawn. She watched her mother’s facial expressions change as Jack continued talking. She wondered how much he was telling her.
Jack eventually stopped talking and walked back towards his house. Leighton ran over to Elizabeth. “Can you walk? Can you talk? We have to go right now to the Police Station.” Elizabeth looked over at Jack. He was leaning against the railing on his porch with Nick. He looked like he was waiting for something. “He beat you up? I can’t believe this. I mean, I can, boys get jealous and they try to control you but I can see why you felt you had to have sex with him. He’s a scary, scary boy, Elizabeth.”
Jack had told her. He told her mother everything. Elizabeth no longer recognized the boy that used to be her best friend. He was standing on his porch watching the show, gaining his personal satisfaction from betraying her. Why? Why would he go to such great lengths to defend her and then betray her? What was he keeping from her? Why was he trying to hurt her? What had she done that had been so bad to him?
“Get in the car, Elizabeth,” her mother shouted.
“What about Colby?”
“I’ll drop him off on the way. Get in the car.”
Elizabeth picked herself off the grass. She could feel Jack’s icy daggers shooting her through the heart, breaking it into a million pieces. She slowly got in the passenger seat of her mother’s car. She wiped her tears on her sweater and looked to her left.
Jack’s face was expressionless. It was cold and uncaring. She had never seen him like that before. Elizabeth looked back towards her house. Leighton was running to the car with Colby bouncing in her arms while she was trying to keep her cell phone at her ear. By the time she turned to look at Jack again, he was gone, so was Nick.