Complicated People, Complicated Love

Scars

Lucas

     It's been a week and my suspension is over. I walk through the school doors and am surprised to find that I actually missed this place. I feel arms wrap around my waist and I know it's Maya.

       I smile, "hey Short Stack," she jumps in front of me, stopping me.

     "We'll hey Mr. Badass, you're almost as tough as me now that you've gotten suspended," I laugh.

     "Almost?"

    "If you see my school record you'd pass out," She says confidently.

     "Somehow I think that's a bluff," she slowly steps forward, trying to intimidate me. Then I realize what she's going to do.

      She stops inches from me. I close my eyes in preparation for a big, yelling, full on HaHur but it doesn't come. Instead I feel her arms around my waist again.

      "I wasn't going to," she says quietly. I smile and hug her back. "Seriously, thank you for what you did,"

      "Maya, you've been thanking me for a whole week," I pull her away and look into her big blue eyes that I love so much. The bell rings, surprising me.

      "Still, thanks," she says. I laugh and kiss her goodbye as I go to my first class.

       "Are you still coming over tonight?" I yell behind me as we walk away from each other.

       "Couldn't stop me Huckleberry!" I hear her yell from across the hall.

    We sit on the couch after our super fancy dinner of cheeseburgers and root beer. I give Maya the remote and let her choose what to watch, knowing that she loves tv and can only watch it here. She clicks on The Office and I smile at her.

      I put my arm over her shoulders and she leans onto my chest. I stroke her arm, loving how we do this every week. How did I get this lucky?

       I stop when I feel a little scar under her elbow.

      "What's this from?" I ask. She sits up and looks at where my finger was.

      "Oh, nothing," I look at her skeptically. "Really," she says.

      "Come on tell me," I insist. She sighs.

       "It's from years ago, my dad got mad when I didn't do the dishes when I was told so her threw a beer bottle at the wall behind me and a shard grazed my elbow." My mouth is hanging open and she reaches over and closes it smiling. "You're so weird," she says, acting like what she just said isn't a big deal.

      "Maya, why haven't you told me?" I take a better look at her elbow, the scar is at least two inches.

     "It's not a big deal. It was a long time ago, and it's not like it's the only one." I snap my head to look at her when she says that.

      "There's more?" She nods and turns her head back to the tv. I pause the show. "So he gave you a major head injury and bruises and now he gave you a bunch of scars? This is crazy Maya." She looks down at her hands and I try to calm down. I say in a gentler voice this time, "Can I see them?"

       She just looks at me for what seems like minutes, but then she takes off her jacket revealing just her tank top. She points to a line on her shoulder. "That's from when I came home too late one day from school," I shake my head, astonished.

      Then she rolls up her shorts a bit more and I see multiple scars on her right leg. "That's from the car accident, there were beer bottles in the car too," I don't understand how she never mentioned these, are they really not a big deal to her? Because I'm not okay with my girlfriend feeling like it's okay for her to have all these bad things in her life.

      She pulls up her tank top and points to one under her ribs. "This ones from getting him the wrong bagel from the deli," I reach over and take her hand. She smiles at me which hurts my heart even more.

      "What about that one?" I ask pointing to a pale scar above her belly button. Her eyebrows knit together.

      "I-I don't remember that one," I feel my heart fall. That was the last straw. I feel my face contort and I can feel the tears coming. "Hey, hey it's okay," she says. She pulls her shirt down and holds my face in her hands. She touches her forehead to mine and I take in a shuddering breath.

       "They don't hurt anymore," she whispers. I feel a tear running down my face. She wipes it away before it can fall.

      "You're so strong," I say. I want to stay cool but I can't help it, she's the strongest person I have ever met. I hear a hint of a laugh from her.

       "I love you," she wraps her arms around my neck and I hug her back. "I love you so much," she says again.

     I hug her tighter. "You have no idea how much I love you," I say and she laughs. That makes my smile.

     She snags the remote from behind me and I hear the tv come back on. She pulls away. "Sucker," she says tauntingly and waves the remote in front of me. She turns away for half a second but in that small amount of time I swear I see her wipe a tear away from her eye.

      I put my arm around her and she leans on me again and we are in the same position as we were earlier.