The Book of Unfinished Work

Prince Charming

The class dragged on. School had never been so boring. I guess I was never this alone either. There were rumors going around that the new girl had done it, but I didn't. It wasn't my fault... was it?

The final bell rang and everyone piled out of the classroom. I trudged down the hallway to my locker.

"Hey, look who it is." A voice that was all too familiar rang through my ears. His hand pressed against the locker next to mine. "Are you going home? Oh wait, you ain't gotta home." He laughed.

"Go away, Alex." I say calmly.

"Can the princess not take a joke?" He laughed even harder." Run on back to your family, actually you don't have that either, do you?"

A large hand landed on his shoulder. "Leave her alone, Alex." I glanced up to see who the hand belonged to.

"This doesn't concern you, [TBD Name]" Alex said brushing the hand off his shoulder.

"It concerned me the second you started harassing her." He pointed at me.

"Classic fairytale." Alex leaned against the lockers next to me.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Well in a fairytale, you have a princess; you, a villain; me, and prince charming," He glanced at [TBD Name], "The villain gets the princess and prince charming comes along before anything fun happens. The prince defeats villain and saves princess." He slung his arm around me," But you could always stay with me instead, instead of running off with charming. What do you say, princess?"

"Leaver her alone!" We both look over at [TBD Name] with surprised looks on our faces.

His face was flushed of color and his hands turned white at his sides. I felt fear creep into my mind. His eyes looked like daggers, that only scared me more. He glanced at me and his gaze softened. "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me."

Alex began to slip away when I heard him whisper." Let the games begin." With that he was gone.

"Are you okay?" [TBD Name]'s voice was full of concern.

"Yeah."

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am."

"Give me your hand."

"What?! No!"

"It wasn't a question, it was an order." He grabbed my wrist and examined my hand. "Last time I checked a huge cut on your hand isn't okay."

"It doesn't even hurt. Can I go now?"

He pressed lightly next to the cut and I winced in pain. "You aren't going anywhere until we get this cleaned up."

He dragged me to the nurses office. "Sit." He pointed at a chair and went into another room.

I sat down and thought about what Alex said. He was right I don't have a home to go to or a family. Soon [TBD Name] came back into the room carrying a first aid kit. He stopped and looked at me funny before grabbing another chair and sitting across from me.

"You know what he said was way out of line and these rumors going around, I don't believe them." He smiles at me and continues to bandage my hand.

"Thank you, but he was exactly right."

His eyes shot up and met mine, "Don't you ever say that!" Tears filled my eyes and ran down my cheeks. "Don't cry, I'm sorry for yelling, but saying things like that aren't going to get you anywhere. Giving up like that is not okay, you cant let them get to you. You can stay at my place for as long as you need, we have a spare bedroom."