S.A.U. (Something About U) Chapter Four: Prison Break

I sat there, one hand wrapped around the mechanical pencil in my hand while the other held down the paper to keep it from blowing away in the wind. I'd decided to avoid another heated confrontation with my family and spend time at a nearby park to get started on the stupid apology letter I was forced to write. I sighed and took in my serene surrounds.

Some lady was engaged in a deep conversation on her phone with a small blonde baby strapped to her chest in a baby carrier as she walked me on the trail and an elderly couple rode by on bicycles looking like they were having the time of their lives. A few kids were sprawled out on the neatly cut grass on blankets coloring away in their coloring books with who I assumed were the babysitters or nannies and various people flung Frisbees through the air and watched with unsuppressed jubilance as their dogs leaped up into the air and managed to catch it in their mouths. The handfull of teens gathered under the few tress here were had their fingers knotted in another's hair, kissing and grabbing one another in their private areas and what was I doing? Sitting on a lowly bench trying to think of a way I could apologize to the skank that go me suspended in the first place.

Why did life have to be so unfair sometimes? Why couldn't I just have a day were things went right for once in my miserable life?

I sighed and reluctantly glanced down at my empty paper. What could I say when it wasn't my fault in the first place? 'Dear Claire I'm so sorry that your lame boyfriend decided that he wanted to go out with a girl who didn't need to show her tits to get noticed'? I felt a small smile tug at the corner of my lips. That wouldn't be a bad idea. It wasn't like Mr. Flynn was going to read it anyway. So why not just write it down? Only I didn't. Instead, I heaved out a glum sigh and put my pencil down. What if he made us read to each other in his office? What would happen if I did? Would I be suspended longer or would I get an even heavier punishment? I groaned in frustration. I wondered if Claire was having the same issue I was having right now. Where was she anyway?

Chill out, Nina, I scolded myself and took a deep breath. It was just a stupid letter. All I had to do was right some sappy sad story about how I felt terrible about what happened and wished to make it up to her. I would even throw in a tear or two just for the hell of it. Principal Flynn would definitely buy it. I hadn't taken Drama Club in eighth grade for nothing. In a week I had to put on the show of my life and I was damn sure I could pull it off if I really put effort into it. As long as the letter was convincing and well written then-

"Nina!" a voice called from somewhere behind me. I almost stabbed myself in the neck with my pencil. Couldn't I just have one damn day of peace in my life without having to have any contact whatsoever with Bryan Warwick? Ugh.

"What?" I snapped and glared over my shoulder at him. He looked like he'd been running by the way the thick sheen of sweat on his face matted his curls to his face and neck. He slowed to a stop and bent over with his hands on his knees. What now? Couldn't he see that I was busy? Bryan straightened up and wiped his face with the sleeve of his Nobel High sweatshirt. Ugh. I hated jocks.

"What?" I snapped and drummed my fingers against the bench. "What do you want, Bryan? I'm busy."

"Yeah," he panted and took a seat next to me. He leaned his head back and the sun's angry, yellow-white rays hit his face head on, making it look shiny because of the sweat. "I've heard."

"Oh?" I replied not in the least bit surprised. He was Claire's boyfriend after all and one of the most popular boys at school so of course he would know that his girlfriend got her ass handed to her by me. I smirked a little at the memory. Most people would say that she won since she was on top when the fight was separated, but I landed more punches on her than she did on me and I gave her a bloody nose whereas she only gave me bald spots and bruises from when we both fell over.

"It's the talk of the whole school," he said matter-of-factly and turned to look me in the eyes. "Rumor has it that you got your butt whooped by Claire."

"What?" I gasped in befuddlement. This was just so typical of Nobel High students. It was clear that I won that fight and Claire herself, along with everyone who was there, knew it. So what did everyone decide to do? Side with Miss Boob Job because she was popular and could make your life a living hell if you dared to oppose her or went against anything she said or did.

"Yup, According to the Gossip Train," Bryan replied. He didn't seem surprised by my reaction.

"Megan…Megan wasn't even there!" I shouted and threw my pen and paper over my shoulder. What the hell did Megan know? She hadn't even been there to see the fight so what right did she have to declare a winner if she hadn't seen anything? Who the hell did this bitch think she was? I kicked Claire Romano's ass and everybody knew it. Everybody in school knew that all that girl was good for was pulling hair and sucking dicks.

"That's just what's going around the school. "

"So what are you doing here talking to me then? Shouldn't you be throwing your bimbo girlfriend a victory part?" I sniffed and shot him a scornful glare. "Shouldn't you be chanting 'yay, we beat on the freak and got her suspended'?" I stood up and jerked the ripper of my hoodie up. I didn't have time for this crap. I had things to attend to and if Bryan came to rub it in, then he was wasting his time.

"Nina." He grabbed my shoulders and turned me around. I shoved him back, causing him to fall back against the bench.

"Don't Bryan," I snarled. "If you came down here looking for me just to rub it in, then you're wasting your time 'cause I don't care. So stop trying to pretend that we're friend because we clearly aren't." With that, I spun around on the balls of my heels and stomped away, leaving him there gaping after me like the fool that he was.

Dinner had to have been the most awkward part of my day. Dad had left with the triplets in order to give mom and me some time to 'talk things out' and 'say what needed to be said'. So we sat at the dinner table, pointedly ignoring each other as we quietly finished up our mashed potatoes-steak-beans-salad meal. I barely tasted anything as I thought back to my conversation with Bryan in the park today. Strangely, he didn't seem like he was in the mood to joke around with my by the stern expression he had on his face now that I thought about it. He'd actually called me by my first name instead of 'freak' or 'loser' like he normally would've. What was up with that? Was it strange that now I wished that I would've heard him out? What if what he had to say was important?

I shook my head at the thought. This was THE Bryan Warwick I was talking about. The guy that went from being a good friend of mine to being my popular jock tormentor in just one summer. But I still couldn't bring myself to completely hate him. At one point, he had been a decent, funny human being before he decided that I was just being beneath him and got caught in the whole high school popularity scene he was in now. It was sad how the one person I was close to ended up being the one person I would never trust in my life again. I shoved another forkful of mashed potatoes into my mouth, too busy thinking to taste anything.

Our fallout hadn't happened overnight either. At one point, we had been the best of friends. We stayed at each other's houses over the weekends, talked about everything until three in the morning when our parents would tell us to shut up and go to bed, skipped school to go and hang out downtown just so we could just be around eachother. So then what happened? He got involved into sports and started making new friends and I reacted to this by diving nose first into books and spent more of my time in a library when I decided that I wanted to make something out of my writing ability. Time would pass and we saw less and less of each other to a point where we barely had anything to talk about when we did get together on the weekends.

Before I knew it, he ended our six-year friendship and dumped me for his new 'cool' friends like I was trash or something. We hadn't spoken to each ever since then except for when he made me the number one target for his stupid jokes and pranks. But even then, he still acted like we never knew each other. I hastily shoved the rest of my meal into my mouth in three full forkfuls. So what? It wasn't like I was depressed or anything. If he wanted to go through the rest of his time in high school pretending to be someone he wasn't and making an ass out of himself just so he could be part of in 'in' crowd then that was his problem entirely.

I rose to my feet and dumped my plate and fork in the sink and let the water run for a while. I was my own person and I didn't need to depend on anyone for my happiness. That was what it meant to be a person with character and personality. I didn't need to change to get people to like me.

I shut the water and left the eerily silent kitchen before my mother could open her mouth and say something. If she wanted to sit there and hold a grudge over yesterday, then that her problem. I wasn't going to waste my time trying to apologize or feel guilty for something I didn't start.

Diiiiiing-doooooong. I was half way up the stairs when the doorbell rang. It was probably just Dad returning from his night in the city with the triplets. I sighed and wrenched the door open….

…and almost cried out in annoyance when I saw Bryan's face on the other side of the door. Good God what had I done to deserve this? He stood there, hands tucked into the rear pockets of his skinny jeans with a coy smirk playing on his lips. I rolled my eyes and waited for him to say something like 'another night at home, freak? Don't you have a life?'

"Hey," he said and stared down at the toe of his sneakers. I nodded curtly. "What do you want?" I replied hastily. "I have things to do."

He coughed into his hand before he spoke. "Look…I'm here 'cause of Claire. She didn't wanna write that stupid apology letter she was supposed to write so she asked me to come down here and ask you something."

Was it just me or was his face turning redder and redder by the minute? Bryan shifted his weight uncomfortably from on foot to the other.

"I'm listening," I said impatiently.

"Uh, she wanted to know if you, uh, wanted to come to her party this weekend at her place." I narrowed my eyes at him in suspicion. Was this another one of his tricks? Since when did Claire want me to go to one of her lame pool parties? It wasn't like we liked each other and after the blowout we had in school yesterday, I highly doubted that she wanted to party with me somewhere let alone be seen in public with me in front of her fake bimbo friends.

"And…she couldn't come and ask me this herself?" I fixed my angry stare on Bryan's face as he responded.

"She was busy and she said that she thought that if her parents could see that you both were getting along then they would report it to the principal and both of your suspensions would be lifted."

I wrinkled my nose in thought. This had to be a trick right? What kind of lame excuse was that anyway? Still…it did seem like a good idea. If her parents saw that we were trying to make amends with each other, then they would most likely tell Mr. Flynn and then he might let us off the hook and cancel our suspension and after that we could go back to hating each other. On the other hand, what if it didn't work? What if we still got in trouble for not writing the apology notes like we were supposed to even though Mr. Flynn knew we made amends? What would happen then?

"Nina?" Bryan asked when I hadn't responded. "Are you in?" I opened my mouth to reply, but mom elbowed her way past me and answered for me.

"I'm sorry, Bryan, is it?" she asked and Bryan nodded slowly. I rolled my eyes in irritation. "Nina won't be able to go to your party this weekend because she is grounded until her suspension is over."

If this had been an episode of The Vampire Diaries, then I would've spun my mom around and compelled her to keep her mouth shut and stay out of my conversation. Why the hell was I grounded all of a sudden? Why hadn't she said anything yesterday? What the hell was I suppose to do in the house for a whole week? Bryan swallowed hard and gave one small nodded before turning to leave.

"Well, I guess, I'll, uh, see you around, Nina. Goodnight Mrs. Van Bertenschmere." He sauntered down the steps and disappeared into the night a few seconds later. I slammed the door shut and followed my mother as she slipped into the living room and switched on the TV. What the hell was her problem? Now I was grounded? For what? The fight? And if so, then which one? Both of them? I massaged my temples to calm the throbbing in them.

"Are you going to tell me what that was all about?" I snapped impatiently and waited for a reply. Instead, she just surfed through the channels with the remote in one hand and the other playing with the ends of her hair. This was just getting more and more ridiculous by the minute. She didn't have her way yesterday so now she was acting like a spoiled little girl in order to get me to cave into what she wanted?

"You are just so ridiculous," I hissed and stomped my way up the steps to my room. Like hell I wasn't going to that party. I was old enough to make my own decisions and choose where it was I wanted or didn't want to go. If mom thought she was winning this war, then she was dead wrong. Who the hell did she think she was anyway? I slammed my door shut and threw the lock on it. One thing was clear: I was going to go to that party one way or another. Today was Thursday so that left me with…with…I smacked the palm of my hand against my forehead. I didn't even know when the party was going to happen or anything. I groaned out loud.

Still, I would go to that party one way or another and I wasn't to get mom or anybody stop me from doing that.