Learning to Live

Chapter 3

"Oh my God! What happened to your eye?!" Lia yelled.

Students turned to look. I pulled my hood lower over my face and dragged my best friend to the closest restroom. "Geez, can you say it any louder? I think people in the next state haven't heard you."

As soon as we were inside the restroom, she grabbed my shoulders and stuck her face in front of mine. "You have a black eye. Oh my God, who hit you? Did you hit him back? Were you in a fight? Don't tell me you were in a fight. Spill!"

I opened my mouth, when one of stalls opened and Liza came out. She frowned, looking between me and Lia. She must've heard Lia's dramatics. Then her eyes widened when she saw my eye. "Oh my God, you have a black eye! What happened to you? Are you okay?"

I groaned and dropped my hood. No use hiding it anymore. "I got punched-"

"What?!"

"Who?!"

"Girls!" I said. "Stop talking and listen!"

They snapped their mouths shut. Much better. 

"In the gym, while boxing, a guy punched me when we were sparring. It wasn't intentional," I said, though I was ninety percent sure Aaron had done it on purpose. Steve had clearly called for us to stop, and I had clearly lowered my arms and stepped back from the fight, yet he still threw a punch. Make that one hundred percent. He definitely did it on purpose, that wimp.

"Why aren't you wearing sunglasses?" Liza asked, pushing a red lock behind her ear. "You know you'll have to tell the story a hundred times today."

"I'll have to tell it even if I wear sunglasses," I said. "It'd be pretty clear I was hiding something. But, I did come wearing sunglasses, and Mrs. Crawford was happy to remind me they're not allowed indoors."

"What shouldn't be allowed is the sweater she's wearing," Liza said. "That thing smells like it was dug up from a hundred-year-old attic."

I wrinkled my nose, remembering the smell that hit me when I was talking to Mrs. Crawford. "Yeah, you have a point."

We walked out of the restroom and joined the waves of students moving to class. Liza went to her class while Lia and I went to ours. We had the same first class this morning.

"Was it Aaron?" Lia asked once we were in the classroom, sitting side by side.

"Yep," I said, opening my backpack. I told her about the fight.

"That asshole."

"Mhm."

"Does Sam know?"

I sighed. "Steve called him when he took me to the hospital."

"You had to go to the hospital!" She said.

"Lower your voice," I hissed, pulling my hood down over my face. The classroom was filling in. "Yes. Steve insisted I go because he thought I might have a concussion, which I didn't. Anyway, he called Sam then and there and apologized even though it was my fault. Sam was ready to drive down here but I managed to convince him to stay put."

My older brother, Sam, was our legal guardian. He worked in a city three hour drive away from our town. He usually visited in the weekends or whenever he wasn't busy.

After our grandmother passed away, he became our legal guardian since he was a working adult by then. I hated disappointing him or causing him unnecessary worry, and I had done both yesterday. He only said he was glad I wasn't badly hurt, but I knew from the tone of his voice. I was usually the level-headed sibling. Scott was too impulsive and irresponsible, and Stefan was too stubborn. So Sam counted on me to keep both my brothers in line.