FicWad

I mean I don’t know why I was so freaked of the woods… Frankie was right. I had been in them before. More times then I’d like to admit… It wasn’t even really woods, not like a forest or anything. Just a small strip of overgrown brush and trees that separated the high school from highway… On one side was the high school, off to the side were some condos and on the other end it backed up to the mall… So if you were looking to ditch and you didn’t have a car, the woods were the way to go…

A few years back a few ‘ambitious’ stoners knocked over a few logs and made like a campsite in the middle of it. Nothing to fancy, just a few logs to sit on, a couple of shopping carts from the local supermarket and assorted crap lying around…

“What's the matter Elle?” Frankie asked as we shuffled along, we almost halfway through now…

“Are you kidding me?” I responded and he kinda laughed.

“No I mean you're not usually this quiet.” He says and I shrug.

“I just have a bad feeling Frankie.” I tell him.

“A bad feeling like what?” He asks.

“I don’t know…” I shrug again. “Like…” I stammer and he looks at me like go on…”Like someones gonna die.” I say and he kinda smiles.

“Elle.” He says and I shrug again.

“I don’t know I've been feeling it ever since last night when you went into that fire…I'm so sorry I asked you to do that Frankie.” I tell him and he doesn’t reply. Just nods up ahead.

“Look there's Jeff’s brother.” He says and I look over. Sure enough there was Oliver sitting alone on one of the logs. He must’ve spotted us at the same time cause he looked up at us like we startled him.

“Hey Oli!” I call out and wave and Frankie gave me a funny look… I don’t think he knew I was friends with Oli… I mean we weren’t friends, but we were.

Oli was the complete and total opposite of Jeff. It was like I think he did it on purpose too… I mean Oli was your typical loner, dark hair, dark clothes, never really spoke… I think a lot of kids were afraid of him… Afraid that he might just snap one day. But beneath his dark black trench coat and combat boots, he was really a sweet guy. But I couldn’t really say that anyone ever really picked on him either… Probably cause of Jeff… I mean Jeff and Paul and them were the ones who did the ‘picking’ and since it Jeffs little brother I guess they kinda let him slide… He was probably more ignored then anything else…

“You know him?” Frankie asks, as we got closer to where Oli was sitting.

“Uh yeah.” I say wrinkling my face up and Frankie shrugs.

“If you're trying to ditch Elle you're going the wrong way.” Oli laughs and I smile.

“Ditch!” I laugh. “School hasn’t even started yet Oli.” I say and he checks his watch.

“Sure it did.” He says and I frown.

“Oh fuck!” I cry out going over and grabbing Oli’s wrist and twisting it so I could see his watch. But it was one of those fucking roman numeral watches… I hate those. I could never figure out what time it is on those.

“How late are we?” Frankie asks and I shrug.

“I don’t know… it’s a little bit past the X.” I say and Oli laughs and pulls his arm back. “So what's that like almost Y o’clock?” I ask and Oli smiles.

“Yeah its just about Y o’clock Elle.” he says and I shrug like whatever. Frankie rolls his eyes a little at me.

“So we missed like first period?” Frankie says thinking a little.

“And some of second.” Oli says and I frown. Second period I have study hall… study hall with Gerard… I bet he's wondering where I am…Hmph! It’ll serve him right… I mean I don’t know why I'm in such a rush to get to school… I don’t want to see Gerard… He hurt me. Really badly too… I know Frankie said he only did it cause he had to but I just don’t believe that. I mean I believe it, it just doesn’t make it hurt any less… And I want him to hurt like I do… Maybe then he’d understand…

“Come on Elle we’re all ready late enough.” Frankie says reaching for my hand.

“What's the rush?” Oli laughs and I half smile at him. “You guys wanna get high?” Oli says reaching for his backpack.

“Yes!” I cry out.

“NO!” Frankie says louder shooting me a nasty look and I pout.

“Why not?” I ask him and he looked up at the sky for a second before answering me.

“Elle look what happened the last time you got high!” Frankie says and I make a face at him… That wasn’t my fault…whether I was high or not was inconsequential…Frankie burnt the house down-not me!

“Frankie!” I go to argue with him and he shakes his head no. “You know what I don’t need your permission, you're not my husband.” I say roughly turning my back to him.

“Yeah well maybe if he was here he’d fucking knock some sense into you!” Frankie tells me and I shrug like whatever.

“You don’t have to stay.” I tell him a little nastily. “You can skip off to school now, I’ll be fine with Oli.” I say and Frankie smirks as he takes out his cigarettes and lights one up… He wasn’t going anywhere… Reminded me of Bob…

Fuck Frankie and his nonsense… If Bob was here… Fuck him… If Bob had stayed over last night. I probably would’ve thrown myself at him… Shit… That would’ve been awkward… But Bob wouldn’t have put the shirt over the lamp and my house would still be okay…I shake my head trying to clear my mind and I look over at Oli who is now pulling out a can of spray paint from his backpack…

“What the fuck are you doing?” I ask him and he smiles.

“Huffing…come on.” He says motioning for me to come closer. He scoots over a little so I could sit next to him…

“Oh Oli” I say completely thrown off by what he was about to do…”Huffing?” I say widening my eyes at him and he smiled.

“I’ll show you how, don’t worry.” He says and I look over at Frankie whose biting his lip now.

“No.. I… I cant.” I say and I swear I heard Frankie mumble something like ‘thank god’ under his breath.

“Elle!” Oli laughs.

“No I thought you meant like… I don’t know.” I stammer. “Something else… like to smoke or something.” I say and Oli shrugs.

“This is ten times better.” He says and I frown.

“Elle come on lets go okay?” Frankie says taking my hand in his.

“Yeah all right.” I sigh. “I’ll umm see you around Oli.” I say as we walk off, but I don’t know if he heard me… He had that damn bag pressed up against his face…

Frankie swung my hand in his as we walked the rest of the way not saying anything…

“Fuck we are so late.” I say as we went up the steps. Frankie just shrugged. “Come on we better go to the office first.” I tell him and he nods like whatever…

“What are you gonna tell them Elle?” Frankie asks me as we walk down the hall towards the office...

“I don’t know I guess we’ll say we’re late cause of the fire.” I shrug.

“What FIRE?” A voice cries out behind us. It was Vice Principal Bonner…

“There was a fire at my house.” I tell him and at first he looked at me like he didn’t believe me. Maybe it was cause of the way I said it… Like it was no big deal…

“Come in to my office- both of you.” He says frowning slightly as he held the door to the main office open. We followed him into the back into his personal office and before he even shut the door I started crying hysterically… Carrying on like there was no tomorrow… I don’t think Mr. Bonner understood half of what I was saying… Frankie kinda ‘translated’ for me. Gave Mr. Bonner the cliff notes version of what happened…

Mr. Bonner gave me the same speech Mrs. Portman did about- thank goodness no one was hurt… How stuff can be replaced and all this crap… I just nodded along not really listening… I was kinda just watching the clock… Oli was wrong…Second period wasn’t almost over… It had just started!

And I so did not wanna see Gerard… I mean I just wasn’t ready to face him. Mostly cause I was scared… Scared that it wouldn’t go well… I mean the hope that we could somehow work this out was the only good thing left in my life at this point and I didn’t want to lose it…Which I knew made no sense… But I didn’t feel like arguing with myself…

Finally Mr. Bonner tells Frankie that he could go back to class. He scribbles some kinda note for him and hands it to him as he gets up… So I get up too. I figure we were finished…

“Don’t I get one.” I ask as Mr. Bonner puts the cap back on his pen.

“Uh I’d like you to go down to the guidance office Elle.” He says and I just looked at him blankly.

“For what?” I ask and Mr. Bonner arched his eyebrows up at me… Oh he means cause I just sat here hysterically for ten minutes? I was tempted to tell him it was just an act, but truth be told… it wasn’t all an act…

“I’ll call Mr. Samuel and let him know you're coming.” Mr. Bonner says reaching for his phone, signaling us to leave… I made a face as we walked out… Great… He was gonna let him know I'm coming… Now I can’t ditch… Fuck…

“See ya later Elle.” Frankie says leaving me at the guidance office doorway…

‘oh well’. I sighed to myself as I went in… I mean it was better then going to study hall that was for sure…I didn’t know what I was gonna say when I had to face Gerard… Part of me wanted to just beg for his forgiveness, beg for him to take me back and another part was still hurt… and angry… Angry that he hurt me… That was the part that was keeping me from him…

“Elle.” Mr. Samuels voice snapped me from my thoughts. He was waving me over to come into his office, holding the door open slightly… As I walked by I felt his eyes looking me over…Aw fuck.. This was that dress he told me not to wear to school again! Shit!

“Elle-“ He starts to say and I interrupt him.

“Look I didn’t have anything else to wear!” I say and he looked a little confused. “That’s why I'm wearing this again.” I tell him and motions for me to sit.

“That’s quite all right dear.” He says sitting down himself now. “What exactly happened last night?” He asks me and it took me a second to shift conversations like that.

“You mean the fire?” I ask and he nods. “I don’t understand the question .” I say genuinely confused still.

“I would like for you to tell me what happened.” He says leaning forward and I frown.

“Well there was a fire.” I say and he just looked at me… waiting for me to go on I guess…so I did. “It ummm burned things, like my clothes, that’s why I'm wearing this.” I tell him once again and he frowned as I fidgeted with the hem of my skirt nervously…I had a horrible itch on my leg… Something must’ve fucking bit me in the woods…Fucking Frankie and his shortcuts!

“I meant -how did the fire start Elle.” Mr. Samuel asks me as I scratched at my leg.

“Oh well, it umm, started kinda small and then it got bigger.” I tell him and he smiles… I frown… I don’t know what he found so amusing…I mean all my stuff is gone… I know its just stuff but it hurts… I guess he could see the hurt on my face cause he quickly changed his expression back over to a serious one.

“Elle, I-“ he began to say and then paused looking over his desk at me scratching my thigh… I had kinda hiked up my skirt a little and when I saw him looking I tugged it back down quickly. “You okay there?” He says and I nod.

“Yeah I think something bit me in the woods.” I say and he arches his eyebrow up.

“What were you doing in the woods?” He says accusingly… Oh fuck… everyone knows about the stoners in the woods… even Mr. Samuel and he was new here... I never understood why they never did anything about it either…

“The woods?” I repeat back stalling a little and I could see Mr. Samuel studying my eyes. I promptly lowered them down and looked at the floor, silently praying they weren’t all bloodshot still…

“Yes Michelle.” He sighs and I Iook up upon hearing my full name… It made me unsteady when he called me that for some reason… “Were you… in the woods?” He repeats and I shift in my chair a little.

“Can I plead the second amendment?” I ask and he laughs.

“You want the right to bear arms?” He says and I make a face.

“No I want the one that says I can keep silent.” I tell him and he laughs again.

“You're not on trial Elle.” He tells me and I frown.

“Well it sure feels like it.” I say and he smiles as he leans back forward. “I wasn’t doing anything wrong.” I tell him and he just stared at me so I stared back.

“I never said you were.” He tells me and I shrug and it was quiet again…

“Elle Mr. Bonner says there was some extensive damage done to your house.” He says and I nod. “You have somewhere to stay?” He asks me and I look at him unsteadily… He was not seriously gonna ask me to come stay with him…was he?

“I uhh I think I'm gonna go with my friend, I already asked her” I say bullshitting him… I had no fucking clue where I was gonna go tonight…

“Not your boyfriend.” He says and I guess my face dropped a little. “Is there a reason-“ He starts to ask and I blow him off.

“No. I…” I stammer and he looked at me curiously. “It just all happened so fast I haven’t really decided anything yet.” I say and he nodded but I got the feeling he didn’t believe me.

“Elle is there something that you’d like to talk about?” He says and he sounded genuinely concerned…

“Uh no.” I say scratching at my leg again…

“Okay let me phrase that another way… Did something happen that you don’t want to talk about?” He says and I just stared at him blankly. “You weren’t at the dance with him-“ He tries to say and I laugh sharply.

“I WAS at the dance with him.” I say snidely and Mr. S leant back in his chair a little. “And that reminds me you said you had something to tell me today.” I say and he smiles.

“Ah, I do have something for you.” He says as he shifted back in his chair slightly…

“What is it?” I ask my voice filled with anticipation as he reached under his desk.

“It’s something you’ve been looking for.” He tells me as I leant forward curiously…

I felt my heart flutter as he placed it down on the desk… It was a brown, cardboard, box…