Salvage - 2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2.

“So, Erik tell you about yourself.” Mira asked, tossing her blond hair over her shoulder to see Erik better.

“Yeah tell us about yourself.” Ryan looked barely animated but it was better than totally angry.

I looked at Erik and watched as he grew even more uncomfortable under the pressure. “I’ll start. So where did you move from?”

His hands slowly moved from his side to his neck. He started to scratch the skin lightly. He looked around, his anxiety growing. “Well I lived in Terran before coming here. I lived there for about four years.” He started to scratch his neck harder.

“Wow dude, calm down. You’ll hurt yourself.” I reached out and moved his hand from his neck back down to his side. I looked back up a his face. His neck was bleeding now. That dude sure did a number on his neck. I quickly reached up and covered the wound as it started to ooze blood more steadily. He didn’t seem to be all that comfortable with my hands covering his neck.

“We need to go to the nurse’s office! NOW!” I pulled him up and rushed him out of the room. I sprinted down the halls, pulling Erik along with me. I slammed the Nurse’s door not caring how much it hurt my shoulder and ran in.

“He needs help.” I threw Erik in front of me. The nurse calmly and quickly examined his cut. After she bandaged it up she gave us both passes to get back to class.

“Make sure to not move your neck to much or you’ll reopen the wound.”

“I‘ll try…” Erik almost tried to start scratching his neck again before she swatted his hand away.

“Don’t.” The nurse scolded Erik. As we left the room I looked at Erik. He was looking at me.

“You know you didn’t have to do that.” He said softly. “But thank you for caring.” He smiled and looked at the doorways as he passed them by.

“So what’s your next class?” I asked after a few moments of silence.

“Intro to Lit.”

“Well there is the class but since first block isn’t over we still have to go back to homeroom.” I started to frown. Distant memories were working their way up into my thoughts. I just wanted to be alone. I stood outside the door to homeroom for a little bit after we had returned.

“You gonna come in?” Erik asked. His gray eyes looking intently on my face. I looked down. Trying to force a smile. I never wanted anyone to see me like this. I just wanted him to go back into the classroom.

“Why? Did I do something wrong?” He asked with a frown.

Did I say that out loud? Probably. “No, I coming back in.” A false smile already planted on my face. He didn’t smile but he went back in.

We sat down and people asked Erik questions. He kept looking back to me. But I just wanted to be invisible. To not be seen. It would be a fair punishment for being such a failure. Such a useless person who only screwed things up.

As soon as the bell rang I jumped up and bolted out of the room. I ran into Aaron in the hallway. I could spot him easily in the crowd. He was pretty tall. He had light brown hair that he didn’t like to cut. It wasn’t too long but it was long enough so that when he was leaning over you could see his face. People tended to avoid him but he didn’t view it as a negative. People didn’t mess with him after the whole James incident. They knew how violent he could become and he was now avoided at all costs.

When he spotted me I tried to smile. He walked up and stood next to me. “What’s up?” He asked after he slung his arm over my shoulder. People watched with barely disguised disgust, but Aaron was oblivious to it.

I looked up at him. “Nothing.” I smiled again but I could feel myself falter. His gaze softened.

“Marker. Tell me what’s wrong?” He leaned over and put his face close to mine. I could feel his breath and I looked away.

“Nothing. I just need sometime to myself.” I said walking away fast. I felt horrible for not letting Aaron know what was wrong. But then again what would you expect from a failure like me. I’m nothing but a screw up who makes things harder for people. If I hadn’t been Aaron’s friend then he would have never came out and he would still have more friends. If I wasn’t friends with Isabella then she would have had much more time to spend with other people like I knew she wanted to. I was just an inconvenience to everyone around me. I went down to the schools bottom floor and sat down in one of the halls. Teachers always forgot about here and I knew that no one would bother me here. So much for first day. I sat against the wall and pulled my legs up to my chest hoping to shield myself from anyone. I didn’t deserve such a good life and my father was proof of it. His death was punishment for me being such a failure. I couldn’t save him, why was I even here if all I was destined for was to mess things up.

“Marcus? Are you there?” I quickly wiped my eyes clean of any tears as I looked up to the speaker. His black hair was covering his face but no one in the school had naturally black hair. Some of us had brownish-black but only Erik had black hair.

“Just please leave me alone.” I hid my face even further into my arms. I looked up at him through the spaces between my arms. He was knelling down next to me. He was sad.

“If that’s what you truly want.” He said it slowly, giving me time to say I wanted him here, but I didn’t. He would be much better off not being around me. He got up and walked away. He paused and took one final look at me before he walked up the stairs.

After he left a new wave of tears found their way out of my heart. I messed everything up. Erik was such a nice person he could have much better friends than me. Anyone was better.

Dad, why did you have to die? Why did you have to leave me so alone?