You Beat Him Up For Me?

         I smiled as I gazed at myself in the mirror. Today was the day. The day I was going to tell my long-time crush, Joey Stevens, that I liked him. I was dressed in my favorite jeans, my tight dark ones. My gaze lingered on the pink heart shaped patch that cover the rip in the knee. I remember how it’d gotten there, you see, my best friend Jacob Christopher and I were walking in the woods one day. We were playing around and Joke accidentally pushed me too hard. I tripped causing me to roll down the small hill below us, I ended up ripping the knee in my pants and breaking my wrist. And then Jake let me ride on his back home.

         My gaze rose to the silver bracelet on my left wrist. Well it wasn’t really silver, it was just colored silver. It was a thin chain with a heart shaped charm on it. My birthday present from Jake. I wore a necklace from my girl best friend, Sophie Woods. It was light blue with the moon and stars on it. My shirt was my favorite part though. It was a black t-shirt that had my favorite band’s name on it, Atreyu.

         I looked at the clock, 7:27 a.m., time to leave for school. I put my purse over my shoulder and picked up my book bag before turning off my bedroom and leaving for the school. “Hey Novalee!” yelled Jake from behind me.

         He ran to catch up as I was half way out of our neighborhood. “Hi Jake,” I greeted him happily.

         “Do you have plans after school today, it’s Friday remember?” he asked.

         “You forgot, I’m telling Joey today,” I said.

         I looked at him and caught part of his angry look as he turned away from me. “Yeah, I forgot,” he said.

         Jake was the first person I told about my crush on Joey. Since then, or at least I noticed, Jake’s hated him. It could have been that I liked a jock and I Jake and I were emo, but that was beside the point.

.o.o.o.o.o.

         That afternoon in the hallway I caught up to Joey. The butterflies were suddenly hitting me a bomb had just exploded. “Hey Joey!” I exclaimed to get his attention.

         “Oh, hey, Novalee,” he said.

         “Um, so listen, I wanted to tell you I, I,” I stammered.

         “Spit it out,” he said.

         “I like you,” I said.

         He just looked at me. “I don’t date ugly girls,” he said.

         It was like he slapped me across the face. I wanted to cry. “Oh, okay,” I managed to say before walking away. I walked out of the school and started in the direction of home finally allowing myself to cry. But all of the sudden I heard people chanting, “Fight! Fight!”

         I wiped away my tears and turned to see what was going on. And there fought Jake and Joey. Joey’s face was all bloody and Jake had blood on his shirt. All of the sudden everyone was running as hard as they could away from the scene as the principal walked out. Jake caught up with me gasping for breath. “What were you doing?” I asked.

         “Fighting Joey, what did it look like?” he asked, with an angry edge still on his voice.

         I shot him a look. “I knew that, but why?” I asked.

         “That jackass broke your heart,” he said.

         I smiled at him. “You beat him up for me?” I asked.

         He nodded. “I broke his nose for you.”

         I hugged him. “Thank you,” I said.

         “It’s whatever,” he said. He hugged me back as he added, “How else can I prove my love for you?”

         I blushed and looked at him. “You love me?”

         He nodded coyly. I don’t know why I didn’t see it before. I got on my toes and kissed him. I could feel the love in it as he kissed me back. As we let go I said, “I love you too.”