𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐞𝐬 ── eddie munson

002

Math to Lola was what kryptonite was to Superman. She could deal with English, and all the long fancy words. However math? Something about spending her time writing numbers over and over again on a page did not appeal to the Hargrove girl. Which was rich, for she seemed to believe spending her time in a janitors closet was a way more effective use of her time. And for once, her hatred of math did not sprout from the death of her brother, no it stretched way back.

She shuffled into the classroom and dropped her bag at the foot of her desk. There he was, in all his glory, sitting right behind her. She cursed the seating plan, however it had not been a problem for the first few months of the year, before he saw her. 

Lola sunk into her chair and just before she could put on her headphones, a sharp prod of her shoulder shocked her into attention. It was Chance, a member of the basketball team. He had sat next to her for the past two years, and he and Lola had got quite close last year, but on the first day they set to hang out, Billy had found out, and forced her to end things with him. The abrupt rejection forced Chance back into his cesspit of toxic masculinity 'bro-hood' and he spiralled, making it everybody's problem. The basketball team tormented Lola for a short period, before Billy threatened them. But now he was gone, the misery of Lola Hargrove was completely up for grabs, and they wasted no time in bathing in it. She was nowhere near as popular as before, and her scary older brother was dead. 

"Hey, you wanna bone again after school, Lola?" He taunts, loud and obvious. 

"Rather not, your microshaft closely resembles a little baby carrot." Lola retorted, gesturing the size of a grain of rice with her fingers. The person behind her snorted, and a few giggles errupted from the classroom. Truth is, she'd never seen Chance's penis, or even been close. But since he wanted to play that game, she ignored the pink pinching her cheeks and the enxiety rising in her throat. 

Chance looked around, flustered. "Why not? I heard you hit a home run with the janitor on Thursdays, that's why you're always in his closet. You don't fuck the janitor, do you?" He smirked, grasping at nonsense in order to win. 

But Lola couldn't let them. She never used to say anything. The slut shaming graffiti on her locker ever day, the insults thrown at her, the judgemental looks, mainly from girls, and the Halloween incident. Billy was always there to protect her, to scare them off. But now, he wasn't, and nobody else was going to do it for her.

"I don't, but I would rather bang the janitor than you, Chance. In fact, I'd sooner fuck Eddie the freak before stepping in your general vicinity." It wasn't a bad insult, but it shouldn't really have been spoken in his presence. Chance's eyes widened, then fell into a scowl. Everyone was chuckling at him, even Eddie.

"What you smiling at, freak? You hear that? You might get lucky. Be careful, you might catch something on your dick." He spat, twizzling around in his chair to face the board, as the teacher teetered in. 

Lola couldn't bare to turn around, to look at Eddie after what just went down. She would apologise when she could face the boy, but today was not that day. She felt awful, yet somewhat relieved. She hoped Billy would've been proud of her, for standing on her own two feet. Some days it still didn't feel real, even a year later. That it was just all a bad dream, and Billy would walk straight through that door any minute, grinning, telling her, 

"You did good, kid."

But no, Billy was dead. He died in that fire. And now Lola was left to fend for herself, and he wouldn't be there to deal with the fallout. So, she snsapped on her headphones and slumped back in her chair. 

The class that followed was almost as pitiful as the way it opened. Completely boring, and nothing worth of note. Except halfway through the class, when a scrunched up ball of paper flew straight into the back of her head. She had ignored it, thinking it was some basketball jerk trying to take on the role of the high school bully, but to her surprise, a second paper was thrown a few minutes later, this time perfectly onto her desk.