Chapter 3: Her New Friend

  “Be grateful I’m giving you the choice between knelling or sitting down in front of me.” Catherine demanded, “Hurry up and choose!” I stood in front of her, she sat down on the very bench that brought me peace just for her to turn it into her own throne.

“If you’re going to act this way I’m leaving!” I turned around.

“You know Emi is quite popular! I’m sure if I say something she’d bring a few of her friends to check out this place.”

I knelt down in front of her. “So what is it you need help with?” I could barely sleep last night just tossing and turning, wondering what she was going to ask.

“Please listen this time since you clearly didn’t when I instructed you to get some sleep, you look like you’re about to pass out.”

“Who do you think kept me up later than usual!?” My eyes felt heavy, my body just wanted to lay down on the ground and sleep like usual.

“I need your help returning this pen a classmate of mine let me borrow on my first day, as you can see.” She took out a pen that looked to be really high quality. “I haven’t been able to return it, I never asked her for it she just sat next to me in class and saw I needed something to write with. I wish to return this to her but I don’t know how to.” Catherine almost never showed emotions but I could tell she felt embarrassed asking me for help over something this small.

“Your first day of school and you didn’t bring anything to write with?”

“Didn’t need anything, she just assumed I did since I had nothing.” That made absolutely no sense at all.

“So you’re the type of person that doesn’t care about school and just slacks off?”

“No I don’t need to write down anything since I already know everything.” Huh?

“You can’t just know everything what the hell are you talking about?”

“Ask me any question then.” This just felt stupid at this point.

“I’ll save the question for later.” I sighed and grabbed my bag from the ground. “Lets get this over with.” I walked away from her, she was still sitting down. I turned back to face her. “Well cmon let’s go now!” She got up with her bag still holding her emotionless face. This time I could hear her footsteps behind me as I walked away. “So what does she look like?”

“She’s shorter than me, wears glasses and has her hair in twin tales, she’s usually surrounded by 3 other mean girls.” Mean girls? Anyways we made it to the dinning hall in building C, I tried looking around to find her in the large crowd of people sitting down eating their lunch.

“Do you see her anywhere?” I asked.

“Hmmmm.” She moved her head quickly then got dizzy. “Uhh I don’t see her anywhere here.”

“Alright let’s check outdoors from the dinning hall then.” We walked back outside. The secret place is located on the side of building B, the dinning hall is in building C, the dinning hall has doors that lead outside where several tables are. “Since it hasn’t gotten that cold yet people are still eating out here.” Several friend groups were eating and talking across the tables, there were some tables located near full grown trees. “I think I see a group of girls over there.” I pointed at them, you couldn’t really see them from where we were at.

“You go ahead of me then.” She pushed me forward, I looked back at her furiously. She looked nervous and anxious.

“I wonder what happened to the sadistic side of you I saw earlier.”

“Sadistic side? Can you just go already!” She kicked my back as I chuckled. I could tell she was still nervous about this. I walked ahead of her and straight to the group of girls, the closer I got to them my own anxiety began to overtake me. How did I get myself into this mess? I noticed a girl with twin tails like Catherine described but could only see her back as she talked with her friends. One of her friends noticed me and pointed, the four of them were now looking at me confused as I stood there with a nervous smile. I guess I found the girl, although her glasses were a bit too big for her face.

“Uhm, Hi!” I awkwardly said.

“Hi?” A girl with short hair responded. I saw menacing faces on all of them except for the girl who had lent Catherine her pen.

“My friend behind me wants to return something to one of you, she’s just a bit shy so she sent me to help break the air.” I confidently said while my heart was beating fast. Honestly as a guy just going up to talk to a girl takes a lot of guts now imagine walking up to an entire group of girls…

“Are you crazy?” A different girl with long French braids said with a disgusting tone.

“Huh?” I turned around and couldn’t see Catherine anywhere. THIS BITCH! My face turned red, I turned back to look at them but couldn’t mutter out a word.

“Haha can you believe this guy brought his imaginary girlfriend just to try and talk with us?” The last girl with short blond and black colored bangs laughed at me. I stayed quiet not being able to say anything.

“Jocelyn which one of us do you think his imaginary girlfriend wanted to talk to!” The french braided girl asked the short hair girl.

“Hmm I don’t know Maki maybe Tina!?” She turned to the girl with different colored bangs.

“EW HELL NO!” The three of them laughed while the short girl with big glasses smiled awkwardly.

“I KNOW!” They all yelled in unison. Each time they spoke they were stabbing me straight through my chest. “SADIE!!!” They all turned and looked at her.

“Cmon Sadie you have to stop being nice to ugly people.” Maki caressed Sadie’s cheek. I know I’m not that much of a looker but you guys can’t be talking!

“What did you say!?” Jocelyn shot an angry face at me.

“Nothing…” when could they read minds…

“I’ve never talked to him before.” Sadie nervously stuttered, her glasses feel onto her nose, she pushed them back in place.

“Hey he doesn’t even seem to be in our grade!” Tina stood up from her seat, “What the girls from your grade think you’re ugly so you come to make a move on underclassmen? Eww you disgust me!”

“EWW.” The three yelled as I fell onto my knees feeling so humiliated. These are just words from people I don’t know I’ll be fine… I’ll be fine later today… I’ll be fine tomorrow? AHHH STUPID CATHERINE I SWEAR IM GOING TO KILL HER FOR THIS DAMN IT ALL!

“Just get the hell out of here you weirdo and never talk to us again!” Jocelyn yelled sending shivers down my spine. The three of them went back to talking with each other ignoring my presence. I got back up looking lifeless and feeling like sand getting blown into the wind. I noticed Sadie looking at me feeling bad, I smiled at her, then turned around walking away as my tears flew down my eyes. I noticed Catherine watching the four girls from behind a tree. She noticed me looking at her, I gave her a smile filled with rage. I GRABBED HER HAND AND QUICKLY WALKED FAR ENOUGH WHERE NO ONE COULD SEE US.

“WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME THERE ALL ALONE!?” I yelled at her. How could she do this to me when I was trying to help her!? “YOU HAD ME STANDING THERE LOOKING LIKE I WAS CRAZY, LIKE I WAS A CREEP! I WAS TRYING TO HELP YOU OUT BUT YOU JUST DISAPPEARED ON ME… WHY!?” I was out of breath not know whether to feel rage or embarrass.

“I got scared.” Yet again she showed no emotions in what she said.

“No wonder you can’t make any friends.” I rubbed my eyes. I don’t understand her, I don’t get how she can ask me to do what she wants, she can talk to me so causally just because she’s blackmailing me, but when it comes to talking to anyone else she can’t. “Why is it easier to threaten me but harder for you just to talk to someone else?”

“Because you can’t hurt me in this position but they can.” No emotions on her face, she looked more scary then the 3 girls that just chewed me out.

“You can’t just have me doing anything you want until I graduate, eventually I’m going to leave and you won’t even be able to stand on your two feet.”

“I’m scared. I’m scared of everyone.”

“But I can’t see that! You say you’re scared but I can’t tell what you’re thinking, I can’t tell what you’re feeling, you look like a machine with no emotions on my end!”

“Beep boop.”

…

I sighed hard, the first bell rang. “I’m going to class.” I walked away from her, I didn’t want to see her at all. I was tired, I was humiliated, and I don’t know how she could possible be Emi’s sister… Emi’s sister? Since when did I start calling her by her nickname? I made it to English before the second bell rang and sat at my seat, Emma was too busy talking with Kristy and her friends to notice me.

“Awww feeling down cuz Emma didn’t say hi?” Daniel said quietly for once.

“Shut up.” Mr Denzel came into the room starting class. After class I walked through the halls and noticed Sadie walking with her group of friends. Quickly I hid in the traffic and noticed Catherine watching them as well. Catherine was holding a pen in her hand. She was right that pen did look high quality. She watched them intensely walking a few feet behind them. She was breathing quickly and looked a mess, she tried tapping Sadie’s shoulders but each time she came close to doing it she would stop and look at the ground in shame. Bleh why should I even care about her? I kept walking to my next class. The rest of the day I spent thinking about Catherine and how she kept hesitating to call out for Sadie. Her problem was so simple just return a pen she borrowed! She was making it out like it was life or death.

After school I waited outside the school’s entrance yet I had no idea why. I could just get on my bus and go home. I could just leave and enjoy the rest of my day in peace. I was tapping my foot on the ground nervously. My heart was beating more and more. I saw the group of girls walking out talking and laughing with each other. Sadie was just there smiling. Then it hit me, all three times that I’ve witnessed the girls together Sadie always stood there with them not saying anything. She’s always smiling around them but almost never talks, and when she does speak she always sounds scared and nervous just being around them.

Is Catherine just scared of the three girls who always surround Sadie? Yes she mentioned being scared of everyone but if she’s scared of Sadie then why return something? Sadie must’ve given her pen to Catherine when the other three girls weren’t around. Maybe Sadie is someone who doesn’t scare Catherine as much because of that? It’s just a stupid pen this shouldn’t even mean that much so why does this matter so much to Catherine!?

“Cathy is a year younger than us,” the memory of Emma talking to us during karaoke resurfaced. “She has a hard time making friends.” I clenched my teeth and fist. DAMMIT!

The four of them walked out of the entrance, I was blending into the crowd, following them without being seen. DAMN THEY WERE RIGHT I AM JUST A CREEP! My heart was shattered, I had tears flowing down my eyes. I just need the three of them to leave Sadie’s side for just a moment. There are several areas to leave the school from, the main entrance is located at Building A, going down the road leads to several homes and apartments close by with outlets near. Many students that live nearby always go after school. Building B is where the parking garage is at and where the bus stops are for students that live farther or for those wanting to go into the city. Building C leads out to just a main road that takes you to the highway.

They walked into the areas with all the outlets and spent some time shopping. I was getting very tired just tailing them, trying my best not to stand out. Finally they finished shopping. They started saying they’re goodbyes to each other and went there own ways in separate directions. This sounds almost too convenient. I followed behind Sadie at a safe distance and started thinking how would I even start a conversation out of nowhere? How should I even approach her in the first place? I’ve been following her this entire time and there’s no way she could fall for the I live around here lie. I took a deep breath and Catherine popped into my mind. I hate you so much… I walked up to Sadie and tapped her shoulder.

“Hello!” I stuttered, she quickly bent down in fear and covered her head, her glasses fell onto the floor, quickly she put them back on closing her eyes.

“IM SORRY PLEASE DON’T HURT ME!” She yelled out loud as I looked around my surroundings, nobody was around to hear this misunderstanding.

“Hey I’m not going to hurt you please lower your voice!” I quickly said trying to calm her down, she was crying. “We go to the same school I just have something to tell you.” I tried calming her down, she looked at my face and backed up, then she crouched down, her twin tails flew back. Surprisingly her glasses didn’t fall this time.

“You’re from earlier…” she quietly spoke frightened.

“I know this looks and sounds weird but I really need to talk to you about something.” I was shaking. Now how am I going to explain everything to her? We were both anxious and waiting for the other to respond, she looked like a turtle hiding in its shell. “How about I buy you a drink?” I smiled, there was a close vending machine near us. “Stay here please don’t run away!” I pleaded and ran to the vending machine. I bought myself a Diet Coke and bought her some type of strawberry drink. I ran back to her, she stayed, part of me believed that she would run away the moment I left her alone.

“Thank you.” She stoped crouching but hesitated to grab the drink in my hand.

“Thank you for staying, now then.” I coughed on my hand. And looked her straight in the eyes.

She bowed down quickly before I could say anything.

“I’m sorry I can’t go out with you I’ve only met you today and I’m not looking for anyone!” She closed her eyes scared of what was going to happen to her. I turned red.

“I’m not here to ask you out!” I shouted, she flinched back, this time her glasses falling onto her nose.

“You’re not?” She turned red, “Then why would you follow me all the way out here unless… YOU’RE GOING TO DO SOMETHING TO ME!?” she got on her hands and knees. “I’m sorry please don’t hurt me!” I stared at her hoping my luck would come in again and have nobody around to watch this situation. Her glasses were back on the ground. She didn’t pick them up this time, she should really get new ones.

“How many times do I have to tell you I’m not going to hurt you!” I swear recently I’ve just been meeting weirder and weirder people. “Look I’m here to ask you for a favor from my friend.”

“What does your imaginary girlfriend want from me?” She was back to crying, she thought I was crazy.

“NO!” She was startled again. “Look I’m friends with Catherine in your class and she’s asked for my help since she’s to scared to return the pen you let her borrow!” She looked at me from the ground closing her eyes, she put her glasses back on and stared at me.

“She’s scared of me?” Sadie asked confused, “Am I really that scary looking!” She looked really concerned, “NOOO PEOPLE THINK IM A MONSTER!” she went back to crying.

“Hey stop crying she doesn’t think that!”

“She doesn’t?” She stopped crying instantly.

“Look she’s just nervous whenever you’re around with your friends, I’m not going to sugar coat it but they’re pretty mean! Catherine’s just scared of their presence but I know she wants to be close friends with you.” She was paying attention to what I was saying. “Listen I’m just asking you to find some time where Catherine can return the pen you let her borrow. It’s very important that she’s the one who returns it.”

“Is that it?”

“Please, I’ll push Catherine on my end to go up to you, I don’t know how it was for you the first time you talked to her but she can seem distant and serious all the time but she really wants to have friends, she has poor communication skills and sucks at expressing her feelings. Please be patient with her. I’m not saying you need to be friends with her for my sake but I beg you to help her get out of her comfort zone.” I reached my hand out towards her.

She grabbed it with a smile as I lifted her up.

“You’re a good person.” She said.

“Nope you’re wrong, I’m doing this simply because I’m selfish.” I just want Catherine to have another friend to mooch off of besides me. The moment she finds someone new is the moment I can get away from her and have my bench back.

“Hm!” She pouted and drank her juice, “Woah this is so yummy!” I laughed and looked at the ground.

“What’s so funny!?” She asked nervously.

“Thank you for listening.”

“Of course! Oh what should I call you?”

“It’s Ezra! And I already know you’re name from earlier.”

“I’m sorry about that, they do that with everyone they meet, they like to keep a very small circle.” She bowed down apologizing for them.

“Why do you go around with them knowing they’re mean to everyone?” I asked.

“They’re just like Catherine, scared of others, they choose to push away people by being mean, the same way you want to help Catherine grow is the same way I want my friends to turn into better people. You can’t help troubled people change if you just leave them because they’re trouble.”

“You’re a better person then me.” She had a whole different ideology then me. I believe bad people will always be bad, there is only short change but never long term change, someone can say they changed, stab you in the back, then come back again and say they changed again yet you’d still be afraid of them and no one can blame you for that. If that’s the case then why am I helping Catherine outside of school? Just because she’s blackmailing me doesn’t change my virtues so why am I helping someone like her? In my world view someone like her is bad, this is confusing me.

“It was nice meeting you today Ezra I hope the girls can one day apologize to you.” She smiled. Even if you want to help them change you’re scared to speak up to them, so what exactly are you going to do to have them change their ways? This was all about Catherine and now you Sadie have me trying to figure out what exactly I believe in. You’ve turned me into a hypocrite in just one statement. We could have ended this conversation with you apologizing for them but why did I have to ask that question?

“It was nice meeting you too.” I gave a fake smile, “I’ll let you go now!” She bowed once more and walked away. The further she walked the more emotional I became, what exactly do I feel for Catherine? She’s evil, she’s flawed? She’s misunderstood? If I really do believe bad people can’t change no matter what then once again why am I trying to help Catherine? The only solution I can come up with was me doing all of this for my own selfish reasons.

The next day I arrived to the secret place, I walked in silently. Catherine was eating a few cookies she brought from home, she watched as I stood there looking at the ground without saying anything. “I made sure to have Sadie give you some time to return the pen.” I then turned and faced her emotionless face head on. “It’s your choice on what you do next, return it or don’t, I don’t care!” Catherine then smiled at me, I smiled back.

“Thank you Ezra.” She said, I turned around and sat down grabbing my bag to eat my lunch.

“You know you could have at least told me her name, it would have made it easier to just ask the other three to let me speak with Sadie alone.” I started munching on my meal.

“I doubt that, they would have torn you apart just like they did yesterday.” We both laughed and it felt so natural yet weird. From my hatred towards her growing from yesterday to laughing besides her today.

After English I walked through the halls and spotted the four girls walking together with Catherine following behind them again. This time Sadie called out to the three girls and said something to them. The three of them listen to what she had to say then went on ahead to class without her. Sadie stood against the wall like she could tell someone was following her. So she can notice Catherine following her but couldn’t when I was doing it yesterday? I really am good at being a creep… I felt dead inside. There Catherine looked at the pen and held her heart tightly. She looked up and walked over to Sadie. Sadie smiled at her before Catherine could speak.

Catherine handed her the pen, Sadie took it from her and grabbed both of her hands. Catherine no longer wore her expressionless face, she still looked scared but at the same time she looked happy, they both did, they walked together smiling and talking to each other towards their next class. I walked towards my next class. I can’t believe all of this happened over one stupid pen, at least with Catherine making another friend I’m a step closer of getting rid of her from my life. I heard my phone give a notification, I quickly checked it.

“I NEED YOUR HELP AGAIN!” From Catherine, I swear this better not be something stupid again. I laughed walking to my next class. At least it’s Friday and I have the whole weekend to myself to relax. I’m sure nothing could possibly ruin my weekend…

I started crying in the hallway.