“Uh, I wanted to talk to you."
He steps closer to me.
I step back.
To further understand the depth of my mistake, David is “the man” at our high school. He’s the football team’s quarterback, an honor society student, good looking, and while I’m now ashamed to even admit it–I felt more important when I walked the halls with him. Now his close proximity just makes me feel sick to my stomach.
“About?”
“Stories floating around about us that aren’t necessarily true.”
Necessarily? Is he kidding me?
"There's not a single frickin' thing I want to discuss with you, David.”
“Jules…just give me five minutes."
"You really want to do this in front of school?"
I inadvertently raise my voice a littler louder than I intended, so I turn to check to see if anyone is close enough to hear our conversation. David doesn’t flinch.
“I just want to talk.”
“There's nothing to say. Were your friends trying to decide who'd get the next crack at me? Is watching girls your thing? Do you charge admission for deflowering virgins?”
I am so angry that I want to cry, but I hate exhibiting huge emotions in front of people. I’ve already cried once today in front of Karen, and so I refuse to do it again. My throat tightens as I take a long hard swallow and use all my inner strength to hold the sniffles back. I don't want to give the imbecile the satisfaction.
"Calm down, Jules. Let me explain.”
“Explain what? Why you treated me like a whore? I mean I should have known better right? You made it quite clear that you weren't totally sold on this whole girlfriend/boyfriend thing anyway. Remember you told me that?”
“I said that months ago.”
“Well, now you can rest easy that you don't have to worry about that anymore. I don’t want you. We're done, David.”
“But I'm not ready to end it."
Delusional douchebag alert.
"Oh it's ended. We’re done. Tada the frickin’ end."
A few students, who have been circling around us like buzzards, overhear my words and start to chuckle. Immediately David’s posture changes. His back stiffens and his eyes grow colder than I’ve ever seen them.
“You gave megonorrhea.” He makes sure to say the last word of his declaration loud enough so that everyone within earshot can hear.
More students start to gather around us. All I see are kids I’ve passed by in the hallways all my life with their eyes bulged wide and hands up to their mouths in morbid curiosity.
“That’s impossible,” I say defiantly. Determined to defend my reputation.
“You’re the only one I’ve been with. Idefinitelygot it from you.”
I look around at the crowd continuing to swell. I catch a glimpse of disgust on a boy’s face that I’ve never seen before. Just as I feared, I am the victim in all of this and David is the one who is going to come out smelling like a rose.
I wish the ground would crack open and swallow me whole.
I am shaken.
I am mortified.
