My palms were clammy as I nervously twisted the dial on the lock. Today was the day...
Miss. Poulterhanst had gotten in contact with El so she could come to school and do her presentation that she missed by being sent to the hospital. She would be doing the presentation alone since no one else had missed it and that at least secured the fact that no one would know about me and El. It's really too bad about the whole pregnancy thing because it wouldn't be such a big deal if El wasn't 'knocked up.'
It still was a little nerve wracking to think that this might be the day that our entire secret spills out if we make one bad choice of words.
I pulled my books out of my locker and shoved them in my backpack as I glanced down the hall to look for El. She still hadn't arrived so I sent her a quick text, asking her if she got hit by an airplane or something. She simply responded with 'still alive, asshole.'
That's my El.
"Excited?" I jumped slightly at the voice and turned around to see the familiar brunette. She was wearing an oversized flannel shirt with leggings underneath.
"Yes, so excited to see you go up there and make a fool of yourself." I teased and she playfully hit my arm. "I remember when you used to actually hit me. Those were the days." I sighed in fake nostalgia.
"Yeah because you told my boss I was pregnant and made a bunch of nasty jokes." El shot back. "What happened to those, by the way?"
"They got castrated." I muttered and she laughed. "So what are you going to make your presentation on?"
"Life after high school, duh!" El rolled her brown eyes. "I'll talk about how after you graduate, the social aspects of high school are meaningless-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Kim already talked about that. You can't say the exact same thing! That's just boring!" I said, waving my hands as El paled.
"Then what should I make it on?" El fretted, running her hands through her dark hair. "Should it be on pregnancy? No, that's just stupid! How about I just tell all the girls how to keep their jobs? No-"
"Calm down." I chuckled as I slung my backpack over my shoulder. I found a toothpick in the bottom of my backpack this morning so I shoved that in my mouth. "Just say that life gets better and talk about what's going on in your life."
Good plan." El let out a breath as we reached my homeroom. I tossed my backpack on my desk before jumping in it and pulling a seat out for El. Caveman was already in the classroom, furiously scribbling on a piece of paper but I could tell by the way his head was tilted towards us that he was listening to our entire conversation.
El made a face when she finally noticed the toothpick in my mouth. "What the hell is with the toothpick?" She ripped the toothpick out of my mouth.
Caveman looked up from his work but I pretended not to notice. "It's a habit I picked up in camp. Just gave me something to do, I guess. Except they didn't always have actual toothpick so I just took splinters off the walls of the Mess Hall and Wreck Room." I explained. I knew that Caveman always wanted to know where I got my toothpicks from...
"Please don't destroy our walls with that habit." El giggled as she handed me back my toothpick. Neither of us realized at the time that she had slipped up and said 'our.' But Caveman sure noticed.
Caveman shot up and ran out of the room, our eyes trailing after him.
The bell rang and before any of the students could come in, I gave El a quick kiss on the lips and shooed her away. I settled back in my desk, acting bored and like I'd been alone the entire time. El took a place at the front of the room as she waited for Miss. Poulterhanst. When she finally danced in the room and spotted El, she let out a shrill scream.
"Eleanor!" I cringed at the noise. "I'm so glad you're back and well! I heard about the accident!"
"It wasn't that bad. I got a few cuts and I messed up my arm, but other than that I was fine." El smiled, reassuringly.
"That's good to hear." Miss. Poulterhanst turned to address the class. "Class, this is Eleanor. She had to miss the last presentation because she was in a car accident but we arranged some things and she's here now. Some of you may recognize her from last year." I could feel the eyes of X-Ray and Caveman burning into my back as they all stared at me.
"Hey Eleanor!" Some football idiot yelled and El glanced at him and her face contorted in confusion. She clearly had no idea who that kid was. He was new here. "Remember me?"
"Quiet Mr. Dunne." Miss. Poulterhanst snapped. "We both know full well that you've never met Eleanor."
"Hi anyway." El waved slightly. "Yeah, I recognize a few faces from last year and some who have come by my work."
"And where do you work?"
"I used to work at Mo's Diner but I've been on maternity leave for a while now." El nodded. "I'll be back working there after I got the baby out of my system."
"Kim told us about your pregnancy! She also told us that you had a man who absolutely adores you! Is that true?" It's actually embarrassing to see Miss. Poulterhanst squealing like that. She reminds me of the female version of Dr. Pendanski. If those two had babies, the world would be a terrifying place to live in.
"Yeah, I don't know about 'adores' but he's definitely a great guy. I'm a very lucky lady." El beamed and I resisted the urge to blush.
"Tell us, what's he like?" Okay Poulterhanst, it's time to drop it.
"Uh, he's really cool. He's funny and sarcastic and think's he's the toughest thing since WWE. He's a hard guy to get to know but he's honestly the best thing in my life and he's such a sweetie once you really get to know him." El shrugged.
I'm not a 'sweetie.'
"That's great! I'm so happy for you! I'm sorry I got you sidetracked but please, carry on with your presentation." The teacher finally stepped back and let El do her thing.
"Okay, so what many of you know is that last year, along with Kim, I was a cheerleader. I know there's that stereotype that all cheerleaders and perfect lives through high school and they live their lives to the fullest, but honestly, my life kind of sucked in high school. I had problems with my parents and my boyfriend of the time and I was really just in an awful mood all the time." El explained. I knew it was more in depth than that but she didn't want to go over it with a bunch of strangers.
"I know that everyone has problems and that half of the people in this room are probably going through something right now but I'm here to tell you that it gets better. Problems will pass and in a few years, it will be nothing but a distant memory. Don't do something drastic now because you think these problems are going to last forever." El finished.
"Are there any questions for Eleanor?" Miss. Poulterhanst asked and a few people raised their hands. Obviously, none of them would be about the presentation.
"What happened to that hot Kim chick?" Mr. Dunne A.K.A some football idiot, asked.
"She got married." El replied bluntly. "Last week actually."
"Oh, did you go? Were you one of the bridesmaids?" Miss. Poulterhanst asked and El beamed, remembering the special night.
"Yeah, I was the Maid of Honor, actually." El nodded and my phone vibrated. I pulled it out and checked it while El kept on talking. "It was a crazy wedding-"
"Alan Smith, unless you were physically present for the wedding, you are not allowed to use your cellular while Eleanor is talking." Miss. Poulterhanst snapped and I stared at her a second before looking back down at my phone. She said I could. "Alan! What did I just say?"
"You said I could text if I was at the wedding, which I was." I sassed before turning back to my phone and reading the text. It was from Jack, telling me that I was on my own tonight for work because he had some meeting's to go to. Before I could reply, my phone was being ripped out of my hand and I looked up to see my enraged teacher holding it. "What the hell?"
"First of all, do not use that tone with me! And secondly, I know for a fact that you're lying because no one in their right mind would invite someone like you to their wedding!" Poulterhanst snapped as she stormed back to her desk and slammed my phone down. El was still standing at the front of the room, looking shocked. She had never gotten treated like that when she was in school. "Carry on, Eleanor."
"Uh, I was just saying how the wedding was kind of crazy and things didn't go as planned..." El said in a hollow voice. "But everything worked out in the end."
"Good friend." X-Ray snorted, looking directly at me. "I can see she really got your back."
"Shut up, man." I hissed. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't I?"
"I didn't see you standing up for me either." I retorted before returning my attention to the front. El was just answering another girl's question about her speech.
"If there aren't any more questions for Eleanor, then we'll continue on with class-" Miss. Poulterhanst was cut off by a collective groan and El stepping forward.
"I could... show you some wedding photos!" El said quickly. It was obvious that she was just doing that to waste more class time and trust me, it was much appreciated. "I just have to set my phone up to the Bluetooth and then we can see them on the Smart Board."
She took extra long setting that up too and when I looked at the clock, the class was already halfway done. I knew there wasn't anything too bad in the pictures, other than some ones where I'm chugging booze like it's nobody's business, but other than that, I was golden.
Stay gold, Ponyboy.
Sorry, I had to. Anyway, when El was finally able to bring up the pictures, the first one we saw was of the four of us, me, El, Kim, and Jack, all standing in a row, looking like shit. "Told you." I coughed to Miss. Poulterhanst. She pretended she hadn't heard me. Some kid sitting diagonal to me, turned around and asked me why I was so wet.
"Jumped in a pond." I answered easily.
El went to the next picture where Kim was looking slightly better and had her arms wrapped around her husband. In the background, you could see the faint outline of two people kissing. El spotted it quickly and swiped to the next picture. I glanced around the room to see if anyone else saw but the only person looking at me was Caveman. But the dude was too stupid and oblivious to figure out something like that...
The next picture was actually a video. It was El giving her speech. The four of us were sitting at a long table, but I was wearing a new, white button down and Kim was wearing a simple white dress instead of her extravagant wedding dress.
"Okay, well I wasn't really planning on making a speech but let's see what I can do. Kim and I have been best friends forever. She's the girl I go to when I want to cry or just get white girl wasted. Kim, you're a special and beautiful girl and there is only one man in the world who is deserving of you and you met him. I remember the first time we met Jack and the first thing you said to me about him was 'damn, boys with tattoos can be hot.' Well, congratulations Kimmy, you're officially married to one." Video El finished and there was some laughter and polite clapping from the small Video Audience. There were only about fifteen people left at the wedding.
The next video was of my speech. It was a little less polished than El's but I think I did okay. It started off with Video Me looking around and downing the rest of my wine. I stood up and grabbed the microphone. "So, I've never actually been to a wedding before so this whole thing is kind of new to me. But apparently if you jump into a pond, you're immediately promoted to Best Man." Everyone laughed, Video and Reality. "Well, Jack, I haven't known you for even a year but you're already like the brother I never had... except you look nothing like me and you're my boss. Anyway, you're probably the coolest, most whipped guy I've ever met but keep it up because if you landed a wife, then you must be doing something right."
The class cheered for me and I took a little bow. El laughed as we went to the next picture, which was of Kim and Jack kissing while everyone was tapping their glasses with their knives. I was obviously doing something wrong because the picture was taken just as my glass shattered into a million pieces. There were a few more pictures of Kim and Jack dancing but the best part was when it came to the photobooth.
The wedding had 'photobooth's' which weren't actually booths at all, where we could take pictures with a bunch of props. The bride and groom had some pretty great ones but the best were of me (and I'm not just being cocky). There were some pictures of me with Bev, Stella and some other hot chicks who were all wearing Playboy ears and cuddling up to me. Another was of me and El wearing police hats. I looked pissed and she was laughing her ass off.
When that one came around, all El could do was laugh and say "Irony at it's finest."
The class laughed at most of the photobooth pictures but the biggest reaction was on the final picture. All the girls 'aww'ed' and the guys all clapped me on the back and whistled. It was of me and El, her arm wrapped around my back and my arm slung over her shoulders. We were both smiling, which was a rare thing for me.
"Just friends." El added and people just laughed. By the end of the pictures, it was only a minute before the bell rang and Miss. Poulterhanst let one more question go. Of course, it had to be X-Ray.
"Did Alan 'Squid' Smith get you knocked up, yes or no?" he asked and the class fell silent because you could just tell that he was dead serious.
"Are you serious right now?" I snapped and stood up. X followed my lead and soon, tension filled the class, making everyone too scared to move.
"Uh, no. Squid isn't the father of any baby." El answered, but it was already too late.
"Yeah, I'm fucking serious, Squid." X-Ray's fists clenched as he stepped closer to me. Since our desks were close together, we were now nose to nose.
"Boys, that's enough." Miss. Poulterhanst cut in but we were too pissed to listen to what she was saying. "I mean it."
"Fuck you, man." I hissed and that's when X-Ray shoved me. I stumbled back but quickly regained my balanced and slammed full force into him. That's when Caveman and El rushed to split us up. X-Ray didn't see the brunette though and sent his fist flying to me. But El just had to jump in the way.
El's shoulder took the punch and everyone gasped and X-Ray paled so much I could have mistaken him as a white guy. "I- It was an accident-"
He was cut off by my fists hitting his face multiple times. It was like everything just went read and all I could think was to kill this guy who hurt El. I couldn't hear anything around me, but I knew there was screaming and people telling me to get off. I wasn't pulled back into reality until El yanked me off X-Ray and the red died down and I could see what I did.
X-Ray wasn't moving - he was knocked out. His glasses were smashed and his nose and lip were bleeding heavily. His face was already starting to bruise and swell and blood was pouring out of his mouth like a river.
"Someone call nine-one-one!"
"Is he dead?"
"What the hell did you do?"
Horror started to set in as I stared at X-Ray. Rex. Brother. If El hadn't pulled me away, then I wouldn't have stopped hitting. I would have killed him right then and there.
I was a murderer.
DRAMA! Review! I didn't get as many (any) last chapter and I really thrive on your guys' opinion. :)