Romance Fan Fiction ❯ Past and Present ❯ Guys are Scary ( Chapter 2 )

Erica's stop first almost the first. There was a stop before hers that only had one person, so it was a long time until she got to school, about forty minutes.

Erica walked into the school commons and saw immediately that it was packed with people. She grinned. She loved people. So many people, Erica thought remembering that her old school had just over one hundred kids. She rushed to her locker, 2915, and put her books away, leaving her binder, algebra notebook, and algebra book in her bag.

Erica speed-walked back to the commons and wandered around looking for a group. She sighed and gave up after a few minutes. Then, she made herself swear that she would look at lunchtime. She sat down at an empty table, staring at the analog clock. Seven twenty-five, it read. “Twenty minutes,” Erica muttered bitterly. “Great.” She sighed again. Erica folded her arms on the table and put her head down.

Look, something whispered in Erica's head. Erica looked up, and saw a girl with long black hair coming toward her. “Hey,” the girl said as soon as Erica looked up. “Why are you sitting alone?”

“I don't know,” Erica said, only realizing how stupid that sounded once she said it. Of course, Erica reminded herself, it sounds better than saying you were looking for a group, and couldn't find one.

“You can sit with my group if ya like,” the girl offered.

Erica smiled. “Sure.”

The girl held out her hand. “I'm Sandra,” she announced.

“Erica,” Erica replied taking Sandra's hand and shaking it.

Sandra nodded and said, “Follow me.” She turned the way she came and walked toward a rather large group by the front of the school. The group seemed to have a little less, or more than, fifteen students, all of them ranging in age from freshman to senior. It also looked like it was mostly guys. Erica's heart beat faster the closer she got.

“Hey guys!” Sandra said, more than loud enough.

“Hey, Sandra,” a few people replied, some enthusiastically, some not so much. Some people just turned and looked at her, then, they'd turn to Erica. When it came to this, Erica trembled. She could easily handle the spotlight. In fact, she loved the spotlight. Sometimes she'd do almost anything to be in it, but this time was the complete opposite. This time, she'd do anything to get out of the spotlight. She tried to occupy herself by counting out how many girls there were, and ignoring the guys.

“People!” Sandra exclaimed, calling everyone's attention “Meet Erica.”

“Hey,” Erica said. Sandra started going down the group. “That's Kenny and Luke,” she started, then added, whispering into Erica's ear. “They're kind of pervs. Mostly Kenny.” Then continued again, back in her normal voice, “That's Katrina, Angelica, Moka, Scott, Brandan, Andrea, Marissa, Andre, Richard, and Jackson. There was assortment of hey's, hi's, yo's, what's up's, nods, waves, and other greetings. Jackson said nothing until everyone else was done at which time he walked up to Erica and, smiling genuinely, said, “Hey. How are you?”

“Good. You?”

“Good.” Then nodded and stood beside her. She relaxed almost immediately, only to be tensed up again. She felt someone put their arm around the middle part of her ribs. She froze. She turned to look directly at them.

He was an African American boy that was taller than her. Erica noted his size, and saw that he was a little larger around the waist. “Hey,” he said, his arm still around her, “I'm Kevin.”

“Hi, Kevin,” she replied, trying to keep the nervousness hidden. “I'm Erica.” Erica's voice was small and quiet. She had only used that voice once, and that was for good reason.

“Uh-oh. Erica, watch out! Kevin can be a real player sometimes!” Katrina said, winking at Erica. Erica's legs almost came out from under her, but Kevin had a grip on her.

Kevin ignored Katrina. “Come on,” he said, “I'll show you around the school.” He turned around, making Erica do the same. He lowered his hand to around her waist.

Erica's heart beat fast. There was a light pain. She was suddenly scared and excited, happy and sad, and weak. She was mostly terrified. She had only felt this when there was movie scenes that had the characters about kiss or kissing, or when she knew something exciting was going to happen She turned back to the table, her face pleading for help, but no one noticed her. She had to think of a good excuse. She bit her lip, hard.

“Umm... I... have to... talk to... Jackson about something.”

Erica lied, wiggling away from Kevin.

“Okay.”
“Alone,” Erica added quickly.

“Go ahead.,” Kevin insisted.

Erica wanted to run to Jackson, but she restrained herself. She wanted to hug him hard and burst out in tears. She was terrified. When Erica appeared in front of him, he had a confused look on his face. The confused look quickly melted into worry.

“Are you okay? You look nervous.”

Erica was trembling. She sat down stiffly and stared off into space. Her eyes were dull and shock was scrawled on her face. Her lips were pursed together. She remained silent.

“What's wrong?” Jackson asked.

“Nothing,” Erica said quickly. “Nothing's wrong.”

“Don't give me that crap! I know something's wrong! Tell me!” Jackson said, his voice raising.

“I... I... I can't tell you,” Erica answered.

Jackson quieted down“Why not?”

“I want to tell someone though...”
“Why. Not.”

Because I promised my family that I wouldn't, Erica almost said, but didn't. They never told me not to tell anyone... she thought.

“My brother, he would come into my room at night, and, umm... move me, like my legs.”

Jackson stared in disbelief. “You're kidding,” he said.

Erica shook her head. “I wish,” she muttered.

“That must bring a lot of awkward moments.”

Erica nodded. “And now, I'm scared of guys.”

“So Kevin made you uncomfotable?”

“Yes. Very.”

“I'll talk to him,” Jackson said, walking off.

“Wait. Promise you won't tell?”
Jackson nodded.

“'Kay, thanks.”