Chapter Four:
I stayed in the diner until it was dark, scared to death that Will would grab me when I walked out the door. I didn't realize that if I stayed until everyone left, Will could still come inside and kill me until after I was alone. I watched the clock for a few minutes, trying to relax. When I was finally convinced he wasn't going to come in, or hopefully wasn't even waiting for me, I bravely got off of my seat and headed towards the door and the dark world beyond it. Maybe it would be so dark he wouldn't see me when I walked home.
I was immediately proved wrong when I stepped out onto the side walk and heard soft voices talking in the corner. At first I thought it was a group of kids that had just left, but when I looked over at them I saw the jacket Will always wore and his shoes. I lifted my gaze and found that he was staring straight at me. He had a smirk on his face as he leaned against the wall, apparently not listening to a word his friends were saying. He elbowed one of them, and then tilted his head towards me and they all stepped away from the wall.
Oh no! Like any smart person would do, I turned around and continued to walk towards my house, trying to act as if I hadn't noticed they were following me. That's just what they did, in fact- follow. The boys seemed to be keeping in stride with me… not falling behind or catching up. I didn't dare look back at them, but it sounded as if they were a few yards behind me. Knowing that Will was following me made me started to blush, and I could feel my face become hot. Knowing that he wanted to give me pay back made me feel sick to my stomach.
Once I got to the graveyard where they had hid the props in the first place, a sudden but strange idea popped into my head. Could I possibly go into the graveyard, find a short cut home, and lose them? I could hide somewhere in there, couldn't I? It seemed like a perfect plan, but when I went inside my jacket caught on the door.
"I having bad luck today." I mumbled to myself, trying to tug my sleeve away. It took many tugs, and I finally got it off before the boys came too close, but in my nervousness I tripped and fell. Obviously my shout gave away my position.
"Well, look at what we have here…" I heard Will's familiar voice as they surrounded me. I didn't want to look up at them but I had no choice. One of his friends kicked me in the leg and said, "Get up."
"Hold it, you don't want to be that harsh. She just fell." Will's hand suddenly came into view, and I could see him bending down as if he wanted to help me up. What? Bullies never acted this way. His face was shadowed so I couldn't tell if he still had that smirk on or not. Thinking that I had nothing else to do, I took it.
The moment our hands touched I could feel myself blushing again. I had a dream once where he helped me up like this, but it was much more romantic. Here, in real life, I started to sway dizzily when I was up on my feet again, and I could see Will smirking again. My heart sank.
The next thing that happened was some of the other boys started pulling on my dress, asking what the heck it was and why it didn't look half as beautiful as the other dresses they saw at the school dances. It was an awkward experience, and, to be honest, the only thing I thought of was it might rip. Don't get me wrong, though. I knew they were doing this to make fun of my pathetic body and school girl clothes. The truth was, I always tried to make myself look cute, not beautiful. I knew I couldn't be beautiful if my life depended on it.
While all this happened I stood there, horrified, not knowing what to do. Will seemed to be inspecting me while they did this until he finally commanded them to stop. Before I could think of how odd this was, however, he spoke again.
"You're not in that Christmas play by any chance, are you?" Will asked, walking in a circle around me as he asked his questions. I stared straight ahead with my hands folded within each other in front of me.
"I…" I tried to say something but my voice wasn't working. All of this was so strange. Now that they actually caught me I wished they would just hit me and get it over with. Maybe they knew that was what I wanted and they were just making me uncomfortable.
"I already know the answer anyway," he went on after a few moments. "You're always with that guy's daughter… what's her name again?" he paused. "Ah, never mind."
I took this chance to look at him, and I noticed that he looked confused. Did he confuse himself often? And how did he know I was with Jamie during rehearsals?
"Well, knowing that you're in that dumb play…" to my horror, he put his arm around my shoulder and started to pull me in the other direction, taking me further into the graveyard. I could hear his friends snickering behind us as they followed. "We need to have a talk."
He waited for me to answer, and he was actually patient as I tried to say something. After many attempts and a few gulps, I said, "Oh?"
"Yeah…" I felt his arm slipping off, but instead of taking it completely off he kept it there and put his other arm near my hand. He grasped it, and started to rub it slowly with his thumb. In my dreams this always made me relaxed, but at that moment I never was so nervous in my life, and I was sure I wouldn't be able to hear a word he said because of my beating heart.
Next, he put his face very close to mine, as if he was going to kiss me. I think he wanted me to look at him, but I kept my eyes downward and my head pointed downward so I could see the ground. When he was finished, he started to speak again.
"You do know about the prank me and the guys were playing, right?"
"Yes," I managed to say, but I was so distracted about being so close to him that I almost didn't know what he was talking about.
"Do you know anything about who squealed on us?"
That time I didn't answer. I knew the longer I stayed quiet the longer I'd be stuck here, but I kept my mouth shut. With ever second that passed he kept getting closer to me. Finally, when it must have been five minutes but felt like an eternity he said, "Come on. I know you know. I'm just asking a simple question."
Maybe he didn't think I did it. Maybe he thought I knew someone who had ratted him out.
"I know you know," he said. "I see it in those pretty eyes of yours." I started to blush but he only smiled sweetly- no smirk this time. Why was he doing all of these things to me? He was extremely close now, and I could hardly breathe. My heart was beating so loudly that I couldn't hear his friends snickering from behind us.
He moved both of his hands upward now, so he was covering my ears with them. I started to get dizzy again. It felt so much like a dream…
"Well…" I started to say. "I'm sorry," I felt so bad at what I did all of a sudden. "I… I did it. I'm sorry."
Everything else that happened happened so fast- I could hardly remember it all by the time I got to Jamie's. She was the only friend I could think of.
Will paused, and then he shouted, "I knew it!" he pushed me back onto the ground where I stumbled, but luckily I didn't crash into anything. His friends started to point and laugh at me, and when I looked up at Will, he smirked, but he looked very angry.
"I'm warning you. I don't know how you found out about what we were doing, but if I find you spying on us, I am going to make you wish you hadn't, and then I'm going to make you wish you had never been born- Even if you are a girl," he looked down at my feet and then back up at my face. "I doubt anyone would miss you anyway." With that, he jerked his head towards the entrance and he left with all of his friends, leaving me alone on the ground. How could I have been so stupid?
Next thing I knew, Jamie was opening her door with a surprised but pleasant smile on her face. "What are you doing here so late, Maria?" she asked. It was then that she noticed my face was red from all the tears I had cried on the walk over there. I wiped my eyes as she let me walk in and sit on her couch.
"What happened?" she asked softly.
"Will and his friends found out when he went to the diner and I guess he knew I… I liked him because he used it to his advantage… He…"
She looked at me sadly as I paused. "What happened?"
I told her what happened slowly, trying not to leave anything out. I couldn't stay long, though, since it was getting very late and I hadn't told my mother I would be late. Jamie insisted I'd call her, but I really didn't want to call her. When I was ready to leave, Jamie gave me some last words of advice.
"You should stick up for yourself, Maria," she said to me. "Don't let someone like that let you down. You did the right thing."
"I know," I said softly. "But…" I couldn't finish my sentence. I didn't think she heard me anyway. I tried to give her a smile, and then I turned to leave. Just as I stepped outside Jamie said something that made me stop.
"Maybe this is all in the Lord's plan, though."
"Well, what do you think his plan is?" I asked, turning around to face her again.
"Well," she looked up for a moment as she thought. "Maybe all of this is part of a plan to change Will's ways, and maybe yours."
I was startled when she mentioned me. "What? What did you say?"
Jamie sometimes surprised me, and this was one of those times. She smiled a smile that said she knew something I didn't. She didn't tell me what it was though. "I think it's time for you to get home and get some rest. You've had a rough night." I watched the door shut in front of me, and that was when I realized my mother was in the car behind me, waiting to drive me home.