When we don't know who to turn to, sometimes we turn to the ones we least expect.
Luke Salazar is a senior at Bay High School, and he's been pushed, shoved, and shut out for most of his life. Miles Jefferson has been the ringleader of a lot of that...
The idea to ruin Miles Jefferson's life came to me that day he flipped my chair over in Mr. DeWitt's Biology class. But I never went through with it...I let three and a half years go by without doing a damn thing. I've never even hit the guy. And as we've gotten older, the torment has gotten much less overt. It's sneaky now—whispered threats, sly insults. But it still pisses me off. And I'm just about done.
Like just now, in the cafeteria. I was walking past the jock table when Miles "casually" stuck his foot in front of me. He was so sneaky about it that Ms. Johnson didn't even notice. As I tripped and fell face first into my mashed potatoes, I decided I had to do something about it.
I wanted to teach Miles Jefferson a lesson he'd never forget.
Rachel
"Jesus," I muttered under my breath. "Why is Miles such a dick?"
"What?" Brooke, my best friend, asked distractedly, barely looking up from her phone.
"Miles Jefferson!" I exclaimed. "He just tripped Luke in front of the whole cafeteria."
"Who?" she asked, looking up at me, her raven hair falling into her eyes.
"Luke Salazar...you know, he's been in our class since kindergarten?" I asked, my voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Oh, that loser," she responded, looking back at her phone.
"He is not a loser, Brooke. He's just...misunderstood."
Brooke snorted. "Misunderstood? Really? He's creepy as hell, Rach."
"He is not!" I protested, but I had to admit I understood why she'd say that. Luke didn't speak to anyone, let his hair constantly fall into his eyes, and he was always brooding.
"He is. And he's totally in love with you, you know that right?" she asked teasingly, poking me in the side.
"He is not," I murmured, scanning the cafeteria for him, but he had already left.
"Whatever." She glanced at the table where Miles and his idiotic friends were sitting. "Miles is hot, though, Rach; you have to admit that."
Wrinkling my nose, I said, "I don't have to admit anything. He's disgusting, Brooke." I stole a glance at his table. Shit, I thought. She's right. He is hot. I continued watching as he high-fived his buddies, laughing about what he had just done to Luke. Hot, but disgusting.
Miles
"Did you see that wipe out!?" Brandon crowed.
I laughed, slapping my knee. "Hell yeah... took that geek OUT!"
I glanced over at a table a few feet away...Rachel Cross' table. Damn, that girl is fine. But she was looking at me with disgust in her eyes. I flashed a smile at her, and she rolled her eyes, looking back at her lunch.
My smile faded, and I glanced down at my feet. Maybe I need to ease up on Salazar...even if just to get Rachel's attention.
I mean, wasn't 12 years of torture enough?
But when I thought of Salazar dragging himself off the ground, wiping gravy out of his eyebrows, I busted up laughing again. No way. It was just too easy.
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