Chapitre 3: Chapter 3
The next day, the bruise was still there.
I had woken up, stretched, and was taking a shower when I rubbed over the bruise and winced a little bit in pain. I looked down at it, only to see that it had...well, it had turned yellow. That was...good, I think. But I had to wrap it up in something so that way no one would see it.
After finishing the shower, I got dressed, put on a polo and some cargo pants, then got the first aid kit. My mom had already left to go work at the school, so she wasn't able to see the bruise. I got out a roll of bandages and went to the freezer and got out the cold pack that was in there, put it over the bruise, then wrapped the bandage around it a few times to keep it in place, to make sure that it would heal completely. I just hoped that nobody would ask about it.
I arrived at school, and some people passing by me gave me strange looks as they looked at my arm, but they didn't ask about it. I'm kind of glad that they didn't. As I walked through the hallway, I saw Ashley walking by herself, and I caught up to her, falling in step with her. "Hey," I said.
She turned to me with a small smile and said, "Oh, hello Chris." Her voice was kind, and as she walked, she held her arm gently, which was normal for her, but it seemed like she was holding the spot where the bruise was on my arm. She looked at my arm, and her expression grew worried. "What happened to your arm?" she asked, her voice becoming concerned.
"I...I bruised it," I said, looking at it. "It's weird, though, because I don't remember even bumping my arm anywhere at school or home."
"It is weird," she said, holding her arm tighter. I noticed it and I looked at her, looking back and forth between my arm and hers. She noticed me looking, and she asked, "What is it?" She sounded confused as if she wasn't used to someone staring at her before.
"... nothing," I said. "It's nothing." I looked at the bruise again, and my brain started firing off neurons fast, and I started to let my head wander. I shook my head, and I convinced myself that it was just a coincidence.
"... are you sure?" She let go of her arm, and her face clinched a little in pain as she did so, and I felt pain from that, too, as if I was the one who had done that to the bruise on my arm. I still convinced myself that it was a coincidence. But now I couldn't stop thinking about it. It felt...it felt wrong.
"Yeah," I said automatically. My brain was thinking about things too much to actually comprehend what she was saying to me.
"Alright... if you say so." She looked up at the clock, and she turned to me. "Our next class is in a few minutes, so we should hurry. We don't want to be late for that."
I stood there for a minute, and I rubbed the spot on my arm for a second. Ashley had started walking away, but she turned back to me and said, "You coming?"
"Yeah," I said, and I followed after her. I wondered if the day could get any weirder.
Thankfully, it didn't. The day got worse instead.
As we were walking, one of the boys that we were walking past suddenly shoved Ashley to the ground. She fell to the ground with a small yelp, and she landed on her arm. Pain flared in my arm, and I instinctively put my hand to it, but I didn't understand why I had felt that pain. Ashley held her arm in pain as she muttered, "Ow, ow, ow..."
"Hey!" I shouted, turning to the guy who had shoved her. "Apologize to her, now!" I was surprised at what I was doing. Why was I... why was I saying that?
The guy turned to me with a sneer on his face, and he leaned over me, about two inches taller than me. "And why should I?" he asked, sarcasm all over his voice. "What are you going to do about it?"
I had no answer for that. I wasn't even sure why I had yelled at him to apologize. And I didn't want to say anything else, because I felt if I did, then I could get seriously hurt...and Ashley could, too.
I found Ashley hiding behind me, wondering how she had gotten up from the floor so fast. "Are you okay?" I asked her quietly. After I had asked that, I realized that it was a stupid question. Of course, she was in pain. She had just landed on her hurt arm.
She shook her head gently, and I felt that I needed to get her out of there. A small crowd of people had formed around us, and I noticed that Ashley's breathing had quickened. That wasn't good. I had to figure out what to do, and I had to do it quickly.
The other guy cracked his knuckles, and I took the opportunity to see that he was...well, huge. He had rifle barrels for arms, and he towered over me. He had the advantage in a fight, and I didn't want to get myself involved in that. And then I realized that he always sat at the popular kids' table and that he was the first to ignore me when I started sitting at the table. I had forgotten his name right away, and it wasn't coming back to me. He sneered at me menacingly. "Well?" he asked. "Answer my question. What. Will. You. Do. About it?"
Whispers flared up around us, and that helped my decision. Saying nothing, I grabbed Ashley's hand and walked away, pushing through the small crowd. She tried saying something to me, but I ignored that and kept walking. The guy who would have fought me laughed at me. "That's right, run you coward! Don't ever talk to me like that again!"
I pulled her until we were out of sight of the crowd and in front of her next class. When we arrived, I immediately let go of her hand and said, "Sorry about that. But...there wasn't anything else that I could have done."
She looked at me. "Why...why did you help me?" Her face showed that she was in pain, but she also had a look of curiosity in her eyes, as if nobody had every helped her before.
"I..." I had no real explanation for why I had helped her, so I said, "I just don't like bullies."
She looked at me for a minute, then she unexpectedly hugged me, saying, "N-no one's ever stood up for me before..."
The hug and what she had said caught me off guard, but I reluctantly put my arms around her. The hug felt....well, it felt good. She seemed content, and she made a sort of happy sigh, before realizing that everyone who passed us was giving us strange looks. She immediately let go and backed away. "I'm-I'm sorry, I..." She got quiet.
I don't know why I spoke first, but I said, "It's alright. It wasn't weird at all. I was just caught off guard."
She nodded. "Okay," she said. She seemed nervous, and her eyes darted around before landing on the door to our homeroom. But she also seemed to be a little happy, too. "We...we should go to..." She gestured to our class, and I took the hint.
"Yeah," I said, also feeling nervous. I took in a deep breath, then let out it slowly before I walked in, Ashley right behind me. She quickly walked to her desk, embarrassed, and she put her head down on the desk. I sat behind her in my seat, and class started a few minutes afterward.
Unfortunately, my thoughts weren't focused on school. All throughout the class, I tried to figure out why exactly I had helped her. The thought eluded me. I never helped people, so this was really, really weird for me. I didn't get it at all. This carried on into the next class, and the next, and even until lunch. I didn't even realize Ashley was talking to me until I heard my name being called.
"...Chris? Chris? Chris!" Ashley said, shaking me loose from my thoughts. She looked at me a bit worriedly.
I looked up, a bit startled, and said, "I'm sorry. I guess I was deep in thought, so I didn't hear you. What is it?"
"I'm sorry, it's just that you weren't responding," she said, tugging on her sleeve a little bit, not looking at me. "It's okay."
"No, really," I said, turning towards her. "It's alright. What's up?"
"I just...wanted to thank you again for what you did earlier," she said, still not looking at me. "I wanted to thank you in some of our classes, but I was unable to."
"That again?" I said, turning away. "I already told you that it's fine. You can stop thanking me now."
"I'm-" Something in her voice made me turn around, and I saw that she looked like she was about to cry. "I'm sorry!" She stood up and ran, going out through the doors of the cafeteria.
"Wait-ah, shit," I said, and I stood up and ran after her.
"Wait, where are you going, Chris?" Dick called after me, but as I ran after Ashley, it was quickly lost in the normal chatter of the cafeteria.
I managed to make it through the doors before they closed, and I ran through the hallways, my shoes making a sort of squeaking noise on the floors as I ran. A few people looked at me a bit weirdly while I streaked past them, but for the first time in my life, I couldn't care less about what they thought. I called Ashley's name, trying to figure out where she had gone, but I couldn't find her. I stopped, panting, wondering if she had gone to the girl's bathroom or something when I thought I heard crying. I tried to slow down my breathing, and once I did, strained my ears, trying to figure out where it was coming from. It was down the hallway that I was in, so I followed the sound, my breathing going back to normal. I eventually found myself in front of an empty classroom, the door closed. There was crying coming from it, but I didn't know if that was actually Ashley or not.
"Ashley?" I said softly, and the crying stopped for a second, and then it went on again, a bit quieter than before though. It was her. It sounded like she was trying to stifle her cries, but her attempts weren't all too successful. I didn't know what to say, but I knew that she never really had friends, so I said, "Ashley, I'm sorry for sounding harsh earlier." I leaned against the wall right next to the door of the classroom, and I slowly slid down into a sitting position. "I didn't- I didn't mean for it to sound like that."
The crying inside stopped for a second, and then Ashley's voice, a bit muffled, said, "It's-it's okay." I barely heard her say that, and for some reason, my chest started to feel fluttery on the inside, and there was this...pain, in my chest. It wasn't actual pain, but...it still hurt. I wanted it to stop. And when I heard her crying, I felt like I wanted to cry as well. "Can I...can I come inside?" I asked softly. I instantly regretted that I had said it so softly, and I almost thought that she hadn't heard me.
"Yes," she said, her voice barely heard. With that, I breathed an internal sigh of relief. I opened the door and walked in, letting the door close behind me.
Ashley was sitting in the corner, her knees to her chest. Even from where I stood, I could hear her crying. For a moment, I stood looking at her, her not looking at me. Then I slowly walked over to her and sat next to her. For a moment, I didn't know what to do, and I felt super uncomfortable. I got the feeling that she was also uncomfortable, and that neither of us really knew what to do next. Then I slowly reached my hands up and awkwardly hugged her from the side. "I'm sorry," I said.
She looked at me, her cheeks tear-stained, and she slowly put her arms up around me. "It's okay," she said, her voice stained with tears.
I smiled softly. "I'll be here for you, alright?" I said, somehow managing to keep my voice level and calm. "After all, us introverts have to look out for each other, right? Also...I'm your friend, Ash. I care about you, and I don't want to see you like this. So...I'll be there for you when you're like this, okay?"
This made her start crying anew, and I hugged her tighter, and feelings of relief washed over me. I didn't understand at the time, but I also felt a lot of uncertainty. I felt like this was something that would just end in disaster, that if she saw who I really was, then she would just leave and never want to see me again. These feelings almost overwhelmed me, but I managed to fight them, and I resolved myself there and then: no matter what happened, I would make sure that I would be there for Ashley. Even if her deepest, darkest secrets were revealed, and no one would ever want to be around her ever again.
And something deep within me also knew that I could trust her with my darkest secrets, too.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone