Stronger

I swear under my breath and shuffle through my disorganized papers for the 5th time this morning.

“If my homework isn't in my backpack, I swear.” I growl. “I was up all night doing that crap."

Julian laughs, walking beside me. “Jade, calm down.”

I shoot him a dirty glare. “You know, I'm not really in the mood-”

He shuts me up by leaning in and planting a soft kiss on my lips. He stares at me with his soulful brown eyes, smiles, then leaves. I sigh, letting my backpack rest in front of me like a kangaroo pouch. I watch Julian leave, and feel a smile start to linger onto my face. But the smile is wiped off quickly as the bell rings. I whirl around on my heel, starting to dig through my backpack again. Not watching where I'm going at all, I slam straight into someone.

“What the he-” I stop myself when I see the person. He must be new, because I've never seen him before today. He has a big, swollen and purple eye, and under his shirt collar is a bruise that looks suspiciously like a hand.

“I am so sorry.” The guy says, jumping to his feet and collecting all my papers that had been scattered. He offers a hand to help me up, but I ignore him. After straightening my shirt, I grab the papers from him without thanking him. We stand face to face for awhile, and my eyes shift down to the bruise on his neck. Yup, defiantly a hand print. What did he do to deserve that?

The newbie clears his throat, and casually slides his shirt back over the bruise. I look back at him, then walk past him, ramming my shoulder rudely into him as I do so.

I get about five steps away when he calls after me. “Hey, wait!”

I twist my head to look at him.

“Um-well,” he stammers, “it's kinda my first day here, and I'm kinda lost. Do you, by any chance know where room 206 is?”

I roll my eyes. “I'm heading there now. But I'm already late, so if you make me even more late-”

“Don't worry.” he says, cutting me off.

I snort, then start speed walking to class, aware of him lingering behind me. I manage to make it to class only five minutes over.

Mr. Marks stops when he sees me, his face grim. “Ms. Ja-” He stops when he sees the guy behind me.

“Adrian? You're here! Come up here, please.”

The new guy-or Adrian, whatever, somewhat saunters up to the front of the classroom. Mr. Marks puts his hand on his shoulder.

“Class, this is Adrian. It's his first day here, so lets try to make him feel welcome, eh?”

There are a few snickers around the room, and many whispers. I snicker as I take my seat, propping my feet and the empty chair next to me. A second later, our teacher points to the chair.

“Jadyn, up.” He orders me, then in a sweeter tone, he suggests for Adrian to sit there.

He does so, but I pay no attention to him throughout class. When the bell rings, I book it out of there, ramming into Adrian as I did so.



“Jade!” Julian yells, waving at me from across the cafeteria. I smile, then make my way towards him.

“Hey, babe.” I say, standing on my tiptoes to kiss his cheek.

“Why don't you find us a seat, and I'll get us our lunch.”

I agree, then sit at a table in the middle of the lunchroom. As I wait for Julian, I pull out my phone, scrolling through Facebook.

Five minutes later, Julian slides me a sandwich and brownie.

“Sorry, they didn't have soup.” He says. “But I got you a brownie.”

I smile. “Thank you, Julian.”

He puts his arms around me. “Anything for you, my love.” He says.

Interrupting our conversation, our friend Ryder slides in across from us. “Hey you lovebirds. What's up?”

Julian laughs nervously, removing his arm from my shoulder.

We sit there in extreme awkwardness, before Julian clears his throat.

“What took you so long? Johnson hold you back again?” He asks.

Ryder just smiles, taking a sip of his chocolate milk. Julian shakes his head and says something, but I'm not listening. I'm staring at Adrian from across the room. He's sitting by himself in the back of the room, his knees pulled to his chest. I find myself staring at that bruise on his neck again, half covered by his shirt. I start to feel guilty, just a little maybe. Poor guy. But then I snap out of it. What am I thinking? Since when have I cared?

Ryder breaks me out of my daze, snapping his fingers under my nose. “Hallo? Jadynnn?”

I blink, looking at him. “S-sorry.” I stammer, “i just spaced.”

Before I know it, the bell rings, and we all shuffle to class.







When school ends, me and Julian walk hand in hand across the soccer field, looking for Ryder. Just like I had predicted, we find him, darting around the field.

Julian calls him over. He nods at us, high fives a few guys, then grabs his stuff and jogs over to us. His face is dripping with sweat, but he's smiling like a madman.

“Hey! Ya'll up for a burrito run?”

“I've been waiting all day for a burrito run, man.” Julian laughs.

We all pile into Ryders Chevy truck, rolling down the windows.

“So anyway guys-” Ryder starts as we're at a stoplight, “Oh snap, hang on, hang on.” He says, turning up a song on the radio. “Yo I tell you what I want what I really really want!”

“So tell me what what you really want!” Julian pipes in.

I feel my face turn red as the two scream Spice Girls, making people walking the streets stare. When the song finally ends, I let out a breath of relief. But it didn't last long. Pretty soon, ACDCs, “back in black” comes on. Ryder starts playing the air guitar, while Julian screams the lyrics.

“What station is this even?” I scream over the music.

“98.8!” Ryder yells back.

“Oh my-Ryder!” I yell.

“What?!?”

“Please, put your hands on the frickin wheel drive!”

His hands freeze mid air and stares at me, his mouth open slightly.

“And keep your eyes on the road!” I yell.

“Jeez, such a kill joy, Jadyn.” Ryder whines, putting a hand on the wheel.

They're silent for awhile, but pretty soon they've started up a conversation that only they would understand. We pull into the closet Mexican shop, pulling in a drive through.

“Hey, ya, I'll have a, bean burrito, and whatever they want.” Ryder says, jerking his thumb towards us.

When we get our food, we pull up at a park and have a little mini picnic. As I'm sitting there with the two of them, I realize just how lucky I am. Yeah they're embarrassing, but they're about the greatest friends I could ever have. Later that night at home, I go to bed, wondering if my life could get any better.