He's Love

#5

07 September 2004

I need help.

George breathes in and out repeatedly, hoping to ease the pain in her arm. She closes her eyes and thinks the worst possible scenario: worms will exit her wound.

She lowly chuckles to herself as she opens her eyes. Now I'm making disgusting theories to distract myself, what a pity. She slightly twists her right arm to see the scrape wound on her elbow. It's not big but it's reddish and painful she can't help but wince.

"Today's a good day," she rolls her eyes and tries to stand up while she carefully tries not to flex her arm. She sighs and looks around her. No one seems to be in the neighborhood, thank God for that, for she won't be giving excuses on why she stumbles on a flat ground all of a sudden.

What's in me today? She asks herself over and over, trying to compose herself and figure what's happening with her.

She sighs, "Please don't let whatever this is bother me for the rest of the day."

It's a Tuesday, her favorite day of the week, and today's event has been so horrible she's sure she wouldn't like any Tuesday after. She looks at her black and red wristwatch and stares up the blue sky. It's only a quarter past ten, how will she survive the rest of the day?

"George, you're in a lot of trouble," she mutters to herself and continues walking to her house. Her school's only a twenty minute walk from their house. She doesn't usually walk, she has her school bus that fetches her 7:45 in the morning and waits for her with her schoolmates at 5 in the afternoon.

But today's different. She has to walk home all by herself with her Chicago bulls backpack, her sweat sticking on her blouse and a note from her principal safely kept on the pocket of her skirt.

The events earlier keep on replaying on her mind that makes her want to come running across the globe. If only she didn't interfere with some petty fight then the principal won't suspend her for the rest of the day. She won't even has to see that person if she didn't meddle with anyone's affairs! She regrets everything.

As she sees the yellow and blue mailbox twenty feet away from her, she can't help but stop walking and turn around. How will she face her mother? How will she even lie of what happened today when she has the letter in her skirt that'll surely be seen by her nosy brother? Her brother! How will she even last a minute alive as her mother scolds her if her brother is in there and will surely make sure she'll be severely punished? God, she whispers, let my brother be in Saturn or anywhere else but our house right now.

She breathes in deep before she turns back around and continues to walk toward their house. The freshly mown glass and the vacant garage kinds of uplift her spirit. At least she can deal with them one at a time, since her father won't be home before 7.

One, two, three, she counts as she turns the knob and opens the door. On her tiptoes, she marches to the stairs and hopes she'll be gone unnoticed. She's already on the third step when her brother seems to sense her arrival and he looks at his right to smirk at her.

"Mom," Gian shouts, smirking at her then he looks back to his PlayStation to continue playing. "I think Georgina cut class."

Her knuckles turn white as she glares at Gian. Footsteps of her mother seems closer and clearer and the panic is eating her alive. It takes a lot of control for her not to throw her bag to Gian's direction. That boy's raised to annoy her at all times.

"Gian? What did you say?"

Gulping, she walks down the stairs towards her mother and kisses her cheek, "I didn't cut class, mommy."

Her mother smiles and she can see how beautiful she still is. She is led to the kitchen by her mother and she sits on one of the tall stool. Gian, on the other hand, raises the volume to maximum which results to loud sounds of Super Mario background song.

"Then why are you early, George? Something happened?"

"Uh," she chokes, "Yeah."

Her mother nods and places a plate in front of her to serve her some leftover bacon they had for breakfast.

"So, won't you tell me what it is?"

"Mommy," she stares at her and her mother does, too, and she nervously grins, "Promise me first that you'll let me explain before you go utterly ballistic. Okay?"

Frowning, her mother sits on the stool across from her, "George, what is it?"

"Promise me first."

"Okay," her mother surrenders and waits for her to speak. She plays with her fingers. This has been the exact feeling she had when her mother and her father scolded her when she sneaked in Texas.

I think that person always gets me in trouble, she mentally notes but disagrees. Of course not, it was her actions that gets her into trouble. It's her decision, after all but for some unknown reason, that person somehow appears as a variable of the problem.

"I knocked three teeth of the girl in higher class."

She hears a shattering of glass but she didn't dare look up. She also notices the Super Mario song fades and after her confession, the house seems to be abandoned because of the eerie silence.

"What!?"

"You promised to let me finish before you say anything."

Through her peripheral vision, she can see her mother's tight grip on her hands. She's afraid to continue but when her mother waits for her to speak, she does.

"They're bullying their classmate, Emily's her name, I think, so I ran towards them and tried to stop them. They pulled my hair to shoo me away but I stayed. And that brat has a really good pull because I can still feel as if my hair has been detached from my scalp."

Her mother stands up and sits at the seat next to her. She gulps, frightened of what her mother will do, but quickly gasps when her mother pulled her into a hug. There were no tears just a soothing embrace so she continue with her story.

"That pissed me off so I pushed her. She didn't bulge, so I tried again and again. But I sensed that her friends will attack me from behind so I dodge."

She pulls away from the hug, her gaze still fixed on the floor, "When I did that, she tried to run but her friends knocked her off balance. She hit her jaw pretty hard, Emily shrieked from the blood on the girl has on her mouth and dress. She spitted blood at her friends who kept on mumbling their apologies. She's furious, but she quickly looked murderous when she noticed that three of her front teeth were knocked off too."

"Are you okay, George? I thought you were the one who did that?"

"The principal thought so because he caught me laughing as I stare at the broken teeth on the ground. I got sent to his office with the three girls and Emily."

She waits for her mother to scold her. She silently counts in her head...

One, she shouldn't have laughed.

Two, she shouldn't have interfered.

Three, she shouldn't have met Emily today.

Four, she shouldn't have stayed in the principal office.

Five, she should've ditched.

Six, she shouldn't have looked up when she noticed Emily's brother coming.

Seven, she should've run by then.

Eight, she shouldn't have talked to Emily and let her introduce her to her brother.

Nine, she shouldn't have greeted Emily's brother a 'happy birthday'.

Ten, she should've let the ground swallow her whole as soon as her hand shook Kevin's hand.