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She shifted in her shoes, grabbed some books from her locker, then shut it. Pressing the books to her chest, she held on to them tightly as she stood tall beside me. She shook her head. “No.”
One word. One solid word from my best friend, and I’d never been so proud.
That’s my girl.
Carlton’s brow knotted, and he looked perplexed. “What? I mean, we should talk. You are my friend, after all.”
Hailee huffed. “Ex-friend, you jerk. I have nothing to say to you, so leave me alone.”
He reached out to grab her arm, and she flinched when he did so, which made me automatically step between the two of them.
“Back off, Carlton. She said she didn’t want to talk to you, so how about you respect that?” I growled, feeling my blood begin to boil.
“This has nothing to do with you, Aiden,” Carlton said, standing up tall—well, as tall as he could at five-foot-seven. “You’ve always been a bit too involved in Hailee’s affairs anyway. How about you mind your own business?”
In Hailee’s affairs?
Who talked like that?
I took a step toward him because he was starting to really piss me off. Hailee put a hand in front of me to halt my advancements because Hailee Jones never needed anyone to speak on her behalf. She was strong on her own. I was just there for extra protection because I was an overprotective best friend, and I wanted to pound my fist into Carlton’s face.
“We have nothing to say, Carlton. You showed me your true colors, and it would be stupid for me not to trust them.”
“What happened this weekend isn’t who I am,” he urged, making me roll my eyes harder than ever before. “And now, some people look at me as if I’m this jerk who tried to hurt you.”
“You should’ve thought about that before you got on camera and called me all those names,” Hailee said matter-of-factly. “So if you’ll excuse me, I have nothing else to say to you.”
She pushed past him, and I gave him a mocking smirk because fuck that guy. Hailee left him with his tail between his legs like the idiot he had been.
As we began to walk away, I heard some popular kids, including Cara, talking to Carlton. “You’re really going to let someone like Hailee Jones embarrass you like that? Oh my gosh, I didn’t know you were so weak,” they mocked.
They kept egging him on, mocking him, making fun of how a girl just walked all over him like he was nothing. I could feel the tension building up from the situation as I glanced back and saw Carlton growing more and more intense and nervous from the rude remarks.
“Tell her how you really feel, Carlton! Or are you just a weak little punk?” Brad Gates egged on. And if there was anything about peer pressure, it always engulfed the weakest links.
Carlton cleared his throat, stood taller, and shouted. “Whatever, Hailee, it’s not my fault I didn’t want to fuck you because you got fat over the past year.”
My jaw hit the floor.
Hailee’s footsteps paused, and I saw the color as it drained from her face. Every insecurity that lived within her spilled out of her eyes. The pain of Carlton’s words ran deep, and as she turned to look at him, I saw a moment of guilt flash over him before everyone around him broke out into laughter.
“Hell yeah! You tell that fatty who’s the man,” someone said.
Carlton blinked, released a smug chuckle, and shrugged. “I mean, I couldn’t even find where to put it because of her stomach rolls. Can you blame me for not wanting to have sex between two ham hock thighs? Honestly—”
He hadn’t had a chance to finish his thoughts. I rushed at him, knocking him to the floor within a few seconds. My fist began to pound into his face as a bigger crowd began to form around us. Carlton got one good hit to my left eye, but that was all I would allow him to have. My knuckles ached from the contact to his face, to his gut, to his soul, but I didn’t stop. Because Hailee was hurting due to his words. If she had to hurt emotionally, he had to hurt physically. An eye for an eye or something like that.
Carlton didn’t know what he was signing up for when he decided to bully the good girl with a best friend like me.
Anyone who dimmed Hailee’s light had to deal with her shadows, and I was the motherfucker standing there, all dressed in black.
“Break it up, break it up!” a voice hollered, an authoritative tone to the sound. I wasn’t surprised when I saw two teachers yanking me off Carlton, who was balled up like a jerk.
“Mr. Walters, Mr. Holmes! Principal’s office—now!” Mr. Jacobson shouted, holding me by my collar as Mr. Thompson went and scraped Carlton up from the floor.
My eyes connected with Hailee’s terrified stare as Mr. Jacobson dragged me past her, off to face my doom.
“You okay?” I mouthed.
