Some Scars Never Fade

Chapter Twenty Three (X)

*Chris’s Point of View*

During first period, I remembered the fight tonight and pulled out my cell phone to text Seth.

Hiding it under my desk, I clicked his number and typed are you coming to the fight with me tonight?

I waited a moment and then received a text back. Duh. I’ll wear something else than I did last time- that way Nathan won’t recognize me.

I slipped it back into my pocket and focused on the teacher again.

On the way to gym, Seth and I didn’t run into Roary.

We were playing flag football, and Seth joined my team again while Nathan and Tyler joined the opposing team.

The first person to have their flag ripped off between the four of us was Nathan. He came running by Seth, who dived for him. He missed because Nathan made a U-turn around him, but the guy on our team that was near Seth when it happened ripped his flag off anyway.

The next person to get their flag ripped off was me; the blonde girl standing next to Tyler jumped up out of nowhere when I flew passed him.

Seth lasted the longest, but only just.

He ripped off Tyler’s flag when he ran towards him and Tyler stood there, looking down in disbelief before reaching over, still just standing there, and ripping Seth’s flag off. Then they both about died of laughter.

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Tyler cornered me after gym, when I came out of the changing rooms.

“Hey, as much as you don’t want to believe me, I do care about you,” he told me, his eyebrows furrowed.

“We’re friends, aren’t we?” I asked.

“No, I mean… I want to be more than friends,” he murmured, “I like you.”

My heart stopped.

But not out of the I’m-so-happy emotion. He was expecting me to say “really? I like you too.”

He was expecting me to smile and our lips to meet or our arms to embrace in a hug that would make everything seem right.

He was expecting everything I didn’t want to give him.

“Tyler…” I trailed off, knowing my eyes would portray everything to him when he met them with his gaze.

The small smile left his face, and the frown set in before I said anything else.

“You don’t feel the same, do you?” he asked me. His eyes were hoping for a different answer when I shook my head.

“It’s not because you’re not a great guy, you are, it’s just-” “I don’t need the it’s-not-you-it’s-me speech,” he interrupted me, turning away.

“I like Dylan,” I blurted out. Tyler nodded. “I understand,” he told me, “I knew you liked him. I just thought… Nevermind. I’m sorry, Chris.”

“Sorry? No, I’M sorry… If I led you on…” I began, stepping forward.

“You didn’t. I saw what wasn’t there,” he told me, pausing for a second. I waited for him to say something, anything.

“Bye, Chris,” he told me, leaving the gym. I mentally punched myself in the face. About ten times.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid!” I muttered, leaving the opposite way.

When school let out, I ran into Roary. Literally.

When I walked out of the front doors of the school to go to the parking lot, he was coming in; we collided on the steps.