𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙁𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙚𝙧'𝙨 𝙂𝙞𝙧𝙡

Ch.25 - The Many, Many Questions

The usual mass wave of preoccupied students passed by me as I leaned back against my locker door. With the ring of the closing bell, everyone is quickly funneling through the halls - no doubt with all of their minds set on going home. My mind was a on different track.

Mentally I was elsewhere, as I lightly thumbed the half crumbled pack of watermelon flavored gum between my hands.

As much as I'd like to ignore it, my experience in the hall during math left me...... muddled, for lack of a better word. For just a brief moment, I got to see what life through Dean's eyes looked like. People here treat him as if he's a wild dog, always on the prowl for new trouble to cause. And at times they are right, he is quick to stir up a fight. But most of the time he seems to take more of a reactant position, not necessarily being the root cause.

The fight with Scott Lansky. Unless he's totally lied to me, then the fight wasn't Dean's own fault. Scott approached him and made the situation into more than it should have been.

Ms. Longmire chasing him through the halls. Dean isn't the type to cover things up then cower behind lies. He'll openly state what he's done - good or bad- and take the repercussions with a grin on his face. That's really one of the few things I've managed to piece together about him. The only reason he ran was because she hates him, and obviously wouldn't believe that the school's football prodigy had picked a fight with him over a faulty bet. And even if she did believe Dean, it could have led to questions about his recreational activities. If it were me, I would have done a lot more than just run away.

The creep at the gym, Mace. I don't know much about it, but as far as I can tell, that situation was entirely out of both of our hands.

Everything about....us?

Us. The word sends a single almost none existent butterfly down through my stomach. I shuffle against my locker, and absentmindedly fidget with the end of a strand of hair that had been tickling my cheek.

Overall, Dean's spent most interactions with me acting like a colossal jerk since the day we first met. But can I blame him? I went home that night and decided to blackmail him into training me the very next time I saw him. Now he's training me almost continuously, and hasn't so much as mentioned it twice. Of course being coerced into doing something he doesn't want has him pissed beyond belief, but there hasn't been a single verbal assault about it specifically. He could have blown up at me. He could have made serious threats to keep me silent, god knows he's overqualified for it. Yet there's been nothing.

I comb a finger through the full length of my hair and throw my head back against the cold metal door.

Then there's the rumors...

I can't fully judge Dean on actions he made before I ever even met him, I don't know anything about them. All I can do is mull over what I know now. The only thing I am certain for sure of is that he has been in multiple fights in school and he did indeed knock out those two boys on his first day. I can't conclude whether or not he caused the fights --based off of the incident with Scott I'm tempted to lean more towards no-- but I can assume that those other two pranksters had it coming. Anyone else would have reacted harshly, it probably just appeared so brutal in that instance because Dean acted in such a harsh yet swift manner.

I find myself scoffing at my own thoughts. Because smashing heads against desks is a reasonable reaction...

Students are still traveling through the halls making a dash for the exits. Some have splintered off and are happily chatting away with their own friends as they hurry to pack their own things up. A few offer small stolen glances in my direction, no doubt interested in the perplexed expression on my face.