If I Save You

Chapter Six-Rag Doll

My back is pressed against a cold school locker, the metal lock pressing into my back. My shoulders are shaking, and my light blue eyes are staring into the deep moss green eyes of Katherine Coles.

"I heard that you said something about me yesterday" she hisses, her hot breath hitting my neck. I recoil away, taking my eyes off of hers, and I stared over her shoulder, which didn't help much. People have crowded around us. Some look eager, as if they were counting down the seconds until Katherine would punch me, some looked worried, chewing their nails as they looked up and down the hallways, praying for a teacher to come running and help me. And some were cheering Katherine on, yelling things at me, and shouting encouraging things to Katherine.

"What was it that you said, Hallie?" her grip on my shoulders tightened, her perfect nails started to sink into my skin. Her pretty face turned into a snarl. Her brown hair fell into her pretty eyes as she pushed her face up to mine. "What did you say about me, Hallie? What was it again?"

I swallowed. "I said...I-I told the principal about how...how you stole that necklace from that junior a few days ago"

Katherine starts howling with laughter, and a few people join in with her. Their laughter poured into my ears like venom. I wanted nothing more than to shake Katherine off of me, and run down the hallway, hide in the girls washroom and cry.

Suddenly Katherine's eyes land on my right wrist. I look down at my hand, that was shaking by my side, and notice what Katherine was staring at.

My bracelet. The one Mom gave to me for Christmas just days before she died.

The bracelet was really pretty-something Katherine would wear. It has shiny turquoise and gold beads and spells out my name in silver letters. I wear it every single day to remind me of Mom. Whenever my anxiety hits in class, I just stroke the turquoise and gold beads to calm myself down.

"My, my, that's a pretty bracelet" she whispered.

Before I could stop her, her hand snakes over to my wrist, and she tugged on the bracelet.

The bracelet snapped, and the beads exploded from my wrist. They fell to the floor, and bounced and scattered everywhere. A few people picked some beads up and threw them at me, some shook their heads at Katherine.

"That's enough!"

Me and Katherine whip our heads back, and I saw Callum charging down the hallway. He shoved Katherine off of me, and she stumbles away.

"Get out of here!" he shrieked at everybody who was watching. "Go!"

Everybody scrambled away, muttering and whispering about what just happened.

Katherine rolls her eyes, and straightens her hair. "Geez, Callum. Calm down, I was just joking"

Callum's eyes fall to the floor, and he notices the scattered beads. His face darkens and he inhales sharply. "Get outta here, Katherine. You make me sick"

Huffing, Katherine marches away, hissing and snarling about how Callum and I will pay for this, and how we embarrassed her in front of her friends.

"Hallie...what happened?" Callum asks gently, and places a hand on my shoulder, but I shake it off.

"I don't want to talk about it" I whisper. It takes every drop of strength I have not to burst into tears, and collapse in his arms. I clench my jaw and blink my eyes.

Callum sighs. "What would you do without me? I'll be graduating this year, Hallie...who's going to protect you then?"

I don't answer.

"You have to stand up for yourself, kid" he tells me, suddenly acting all wise. "You can't let scummy people like Katherine Coles push you around like that"

At that moment, I felt like a rag doll that's been pushed and pulled to the brink of falling apart.

*

People of all shapes and sizes hustle around the train station, holding suitcases and briefcases, hiking backpacks up their shoulders. Kids holding their mother's hands, babies pushed around in these big strollers. It's super busy at the train station today. Not that I've ever been here before. Maybe it's this way all the time.

We've already bought our train tickets. Ethan has our tickets tucked into the front pocket of his ripped jeans, and we're sitting down on a cold bench waiting for our train to come into view.

"Are you nervous?" I ask him. Ethan hasn't said anything to me so far. He's just looked into the distance with a hard look in his eyes.

"I don't know" he says as a lady with a purple sweater and headphones jammed into her ears passes by us.

"Well, I'm excited" I lie. I'm actually super nervous, but one of us needs to be optimistic. "We're going to New York City. How awesome does that sound?"

"I don't know" he mutters, and runs a hand through his rusty-colored hair.

"Oh, come on" I say playfully, and poke him in the shoulder. "Maybe I can buy us some souvenirs. How do bobble-heads sound?"

"I don't like bobble-heads" he admits. "They look creepy"

"Says the guy staring off into the distance with a blank look on his face"

That makes his hard face crack into a smile.

Suddenly, a train pulls into view. Ethan quickly rolls up his sleeve to check the time. I glance over. It's 9:05.

"Let's go" he says, and picks up his suitcase. I do the same, and we walk over to the train, to enter through the sliding doors.

My heart is doing cartwheels and backflips and other things flexible people can do. I can't believe it. I'm actually going to New York-with the boy that saved my life.

Hey! Thanks so much for reading <3