“Have a nice day at school, honey. “Darren just swung his backpack over his shoulder and slammed the door behind him. He walked towards the bus stop fumbling with his iPod as he walked. About a block from the bus stop he heard the click of Kristen’s heels as she falls into step next to him. They walked in silence until they hit the bus stop. Kristen moved to sit on the bench as Darren just leans against the pole next to her.
“Did you finish the math, Dare?” Kristen asked as she dug through her purse searching for only God knows what. He quickly shrugged his bag off and rummaged through it pulling out the paper and handing it to her.
“You’re the epitome of perfect. You know that right?” He smiled at her and waved her off.
“No, seriously you are. I’ll get it back to you at lunch.”
He just nods and looks down the street at the bus that seemed to be crawling towards them. Kristen zipped up her bag and stood up; smoothing down her skirt and stepping towards the curb as the bus pulled up. She stepped up on to the bus and began to head towards what they had claimed as their seat freshman year; Darren right on her tail. Darren stopped when a hulking figure stepped in front of him. Darren rolled his eyes and looked up. His eyes asked the unspoken question of ‘What?’
“Oh, I’m sorry. Am I in your way Darren?” The figure laughed and his friends joined in. Darren just sighed and shifted his weight; trying to keep his balance as the bus charged on.
“Leave him alone,” a voice called from behind the figure. The boy looked over his shoulder, his smirk growing wider as he turns back to Darren.
“Oh look, Darren, your little girlfriend came to save you.”
“Why don’t you shut your fat mouth, Jayne? Just because you have some sort of complex because you were given a girl’s name doesn’t mean you can torture others,” Kristen said pushing past him and grabbing Darren’s wrist pulling him past the others.
“I don’t understand what his problem is.” Darren just nods absently looking back at Jayne. He had already sat back down. He watched as him and his friends passed a Gatorade bottle back and forth. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but he let out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding.
The rest of the morning passed with uneventfully; test in chemistry, movie in econ, laps in gym. The usual bs he’s been through for the past three years. He stopped at his locker to transfer his backpack. He dumped his morning stuff into the locker and grabbed his afternoon stuff and headed towards the lunch room. He knew something was off when he walked into the lunch room and it was dead silent.
He pushed his way through the crowd. The crowd parted like tall grass. His skin crawled from the tension in the room. When he finally made his way to the center of the room his heart dropped into his stomach.
Standing in the middle of the room were Jayne and Kristen. Jayne had Kristen by the throat. Darren didn’t think before he charged towards Jayne. Jayne nearly threw Kristen as he turned and prepared himself for impact. Darren was too fast for him. He slammed into him, knocking him to the ground. The faint clink of metal was drowned out by the sound of flesh on flesh on tile. Darren could smell the liquor on Jayne’s breath as he pushed himself off of the floor. He quickly made his way to Kristen who had been trying to sit up.
He sat her up and began to look her around; removing the hand that clutched her head and checked for blood. When he believed she had not broken anything and that she wasn’t in a state of shock, he began to pick her up. He threw a look over his shoulder and proceeded towards the nurse’s office.
“My bag, can you get my bag, please?” Darren just nodded and headed back to grab her bag. Without a second glance he turned to return to Kristen. He was almost back to where Kristen stood when he heard the screaming, He turned one last time towards Jayne. He paled at what he saw. Jayne stood swaying slightly, gun in hand. He began to raise it slowly, pointing it towards Kristen who leaned against a wall eyes closed. Darren panicked unsure if he’d make it to her in time. He opened his mouth and screamed and ran towards her.
“KRISTEN!” His throat burned, raw from lack of use. Kristen’s eyes opened in surprise. Darren lunged towards Kristen as the crack of the gun firing echoed through the room. Darren plowed into Kristen as pain erupted through his back. Then everything went black.