Love Scars

Ch. 1: Daniel

The first question on the worksheet should have been easy. I mean, it's a simple enough answer, right? It's not math, just English class.

 How will you find your soul mate?

That should be easy... I don't need a place, or time. Just how will I find them. How will I find that perfect one...

I was sitting next to my best friend, Brianna. She was scribbling at her paper, trying to find the right answer. She knew my secrets and I knew hers. That's what best friends do.

"Earth to Daniel, you okay?" Brianna looked worried, her green eyes glimmering.

"Just thinking about the first question, I'm stuck on it. Are you?"

She just rolled her bright eyes at me. "What do you think?" Holding up her paper, I saw that everything she had written was crossed out. She was trying really hard.

"Yikes, me too." I held up mine so she could see. It was perfectly blank.

"Well, good luck to the both of us." She turned back to face her desk and continued etching out words onto the paper.

Deciding it would take too long to figure out the first question, I moved onto the second.

Who'll your soul mate be?

I hate this class. How am I supposed to know that? Sighing, I laid my head on the table. Not like I could do any work anyway. With only minutes until the bell, I knew I'd fail my first assignment. It felt like forever until the teacher finally said anything.

"Alright, who finished their assignment?" No one raised their hand, and he chuckled. "Good. If you had known, or though you knew, you'd be dumber than a rock. No one knows who they're going to be with forever, so keep that in mind next time you're on a date. Although, there is a myth that your soul mate gets the same scars and cuts that you do.. So watch out for that! Now, keep that paper until the end of the year. I expect at least one sentence on each of those questions."

With that, the bell rang.

Dismissing the thought of the crazy myth, I put all my papers away. Being unorganized isn't an easy feat. It was the first week of school, and I was already a mess.

"Jerk alert..." Brianna whispered to me as Alex came over.

He straightened himself so he was a lot taller than me. At 6'2", he was taller than me by almost half a foot. Turning to Brianna, he spoke.

"Hey sweet stuff, mind if I help you with your binders?"

She shifted uneasily at this. She knew he liked her. But friends come first, sisters before misters was our motto. Yes I'm a boy, but we went shopping together, so I guess I was like a sister to her. I wasn't about to let Alex treat her like this.

"She's got it under control. Thanks, but no thanks."

Alex smirked and eyed me up and down. I knew how this would go. "Back off kid, before you're hurt."

"I won't let you talk to her like that. If you want her, you have to go through me-" With this, he grabbed my shoulder and shoved me into the desks. My papers went flying everywhere, and Brianna rushed to my aide.

"Brianna, baby," He tried to pull her up by her arm.

"Don't call me that! Ugh, just back off, you jerk!" I was wordless on the floor as this sweet, 5 foot 1 girl was standing up to the tall bully. There was no way she'd make it out of here without a scratch.

"C'mon, babe-"

"No means no!!" She screamed into the empty classroom. People started gathering by the door to see the commotion. "No means no, and I will not stand here and discuss it with a creep and a jerk who just pushed my best friend down! Now, if I were you, I'd never talk to me again."

For a short girl, she had a lot of spirit, and she was scary when mad. As Alex was stunned by her yelling. He didn't say anything for a moment, so she turned back to help me.

As we shot out of the classroom, I didn't know what to say.

"Th-Thanks Bree..."

She turned to face me, a bright smile on her face. "Any day Dan. Why wouldn't I be there for my rainbow flag. Without a bit of wind, or help, you can't fly!"

I loved her funny remarks like that.

"And besides, no one can push you around but me." She lightly slugged my arm, in a joking matter.

I flinched at her touch. "Ow! Gee Brianna, that hurt.. I think I got a bruise from the desk."

She rolled up her sleeves and put on her game face. "Now it's personal." At this, we both laughed. When the short girl acts tough, it's quite hilarious. As we walked down the hall to our shared locker, we just continued joking and laughing. She seemed so happy, so so happy...

It was such a pain to know a suicidal girl could fake a smile that well.