Author's note : I would like to mention Jazzy Morga who helped make some grammatical corrections to the first draft of this story. Thank you for your help, mate. You're a great editor and an even better friend.
Liam Ellis is feeling not as chipper as usual today. The eighteen years old Jewish boy is waiting in the library, wearing a sweater to stay warm. He reads a textbook, making notes silently, one hand tapping on the desk. As he sits there, the boy anxiously waits for his best friend Sarah to show up. He is feeling a bit depressed and knows that talking to her will only make things even more complicated and difficult to sort through, considering how they've gotten distant lately.
Finally, she arrives. Looking up from his book, Liam smiles lightly at Sarah as she approaches, sitting down opposite him. The dark haired fellow nerd places her bag on the chair beside her, looking at him with her usually brooding eyes. She then takes a sip from her water bottle, before placing it down on the table as he watches her with his warm, gentle expression.
"Hi, Liam," she says, giving him an apprehensive smile. The two of them have known each other since they were ten and have always been close friends. Unfortunately, that friendship has been gradually strained by some of Sarah's choices. Being part Jewish on his mother's side, Liam has been the target of bullying by some nasty other kids, who would often call him a 'kike'. At first it was behind his back, but once they realized he is too meek to retaliate, they'd use the label in his face.
Sarah has generally helped him to cope with it, telling the others who were after him to piss off. And he is very grateful for that. However, it all changed from a month ago when she started hanging out a lot with some of the girls who were taking part in bullying Liam, despite the boy telling her how their clique have regularly mistreated and verbally abused him. In fact, he discovered they were already secretly friends before that but Sarah never told him, with him only finding it out by himself.
Right now, the two friends find themselves at a difficult spot, not knowing what to do to ease the tension between them, unable to do much else than let it stew for a while. Liam doesn't really like it that much, both because he hates being confused by his best friend's presence and also prefers actively seeking solutions to just sitting and waiting for the problem to leave by itself.
"Hi Sarah! Any plans for today?" he attempts a casual greeting, still trying for a smile despite how awkward the meeting is for both of them. Sarah attempts to return the gesture with her own, her eyes looking at him a bit guiltily. She knows that hanging out with people like Mary Ann and Reese is damaging her friendship with Liam but they are part of the cool kids group.
"Not really. Probably just going to stay here for the entire lunch break and then go to classes. After that it's just for studying at home," she grumbles slightly, miffed at herself for having nothing more interesting to do. Turning to Liam, she asks "What about you though?"
Liam shrugs with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I'll probably be reading like you. You know I don't do much more than that. Maybe go for a short walk," he replies, drumming his fingers on the desk gently. He is, for now, content to be with his best friend here and not having to worry about any harassment from someone else. "So, are you planning to go hang out with Mary Ann and Reese again?"
Sarah rubs her weary eyes. "Listen, I know you've got a beef with them, but they are my friends too and the two of them really aren't that bad. They've only been a bit mean before....."
"A bit mean?" Liam repeats slowly, willing himself to remain calm. "Is that what you call someone hurling racial slurs at me, your best friend, since we were kids?" He couldn't believe how she was trying to justify their actions like that. To her credit, Sarah does look quitea ashamed at her own attempts to trivialize the emotional abuse her new friends have put her lifelong best friend through. But she still wouldn't give up.
"Please, Liam," the girl is now begging in her sweetest tone. This makes it difficult for him to get mad at her. "If only you would try to talk to them like I've suggested. All you've got to do is give them a chance.." And there it is. The anger has returned. Fortunately, Liam has always been good at containing his temper, although when he gets pissed, he does shout quite a lot.
"A chance! What bloody chance do I have to give them? To heap all those derogatory remarks on me all over again and again? Blimey, Sarah!" he cries out, shaking his head, visibly upset. Sarah is upset too at the outburst but can understand her best friend. After all, the two girls she is hanging out with have indeed been remarkably cruel in their words to him. Suddenly, she could feel someone standing behind her.
"Hey, snotty! What are you doing here?" A strong hand grasps Sarah's hair, pushing forward and pressing her face onto the table. The thin boy quickly glances up towards his best friend's attacker, readying himself to shout at her, before groaning loudly as he realizes who the person is. He should have been able to recognize her voice.
Jenna Peryton is standing there in her sports clothes, one hand keeping Sarah's face pressed to the desk, the other on her hip. The eighteen years old is the star of the basketball team and also plays mixed martial arts, giving her a very chiseled body. She has been bullying Sarah for many years, ever since that one time Sarah called her a dumb blonde. Jenna wasn't supposed to hear that but she did, and took great offense to that. She has constantly been hazing Sarah constantly after that. It was kind of understandable at first, given what Sarah called her, but she took it way too far and then also targeted other geeky girls who have done nothing to her as well.
Her nickname for Sarah originated from when Sarah had a violently sneezing fit in front of everyone and covered her own face in the mucus, disgusting everyone except Liam, who handed his friend his handkerchief to wipe it away.
Right now the girl is winking at Liam, like she always does. The basketball goddess has been flirting with him a lot over the past four years, trying to get him to go out with her, but he has always refused, given how she treats his best friend. Still, he can't deny that, her mean tendencies aside, Jenna is quite attractive. With her long blonde hair that she is always messing up to make it seem like she just came back from Basketball practice, perfect alabaster skin and athletic figure, she is gorgeous.
Her friend, Serena, is also beautiful, standing behind Jenna and smiling brightly at him. She is wearing her usual black leather jacket, looking cool as ever, grinning every second and every day. "Hey, Liam. Hi, snotty," she says, directing the second part at Sarah, who is flailing about wildly beneath Jenna's hand, her face still trapped on the table.
"Jenna," Liam begins with a sigh. He is not ready for this confrontation right now. "Will you please let Sarah go? I'm begging you. What do you want from all of this?" The moment those words left her mouth, he realized what a mistake they were. She grins at him in that mischievous prankster way before turning back to look at her best friend Selena, whose presence he only notices now.
Jenna then puts on a thoughtful expression, her beautiful face wearing a fake frown. "Well, I suppose I want many things. But at the top of my list is you going on a date with me," she says with a cunning glint in her eyes. Sarah starts visibly struggling beneath her firm grip, but fails to fight off the stronger girl who is pinning her down now, as Serena snickers behind them.
Liam sighs again, looking aside, disliking the fact that he is actually blushing a bit now. "You want me to go out with you when you're bullying my friend and many other students like that? Really?" he finally asks, a bit exasperated at all this. A lot of other guys would kill to be in his shoes but he doesn't like Jenna that way. Yes, she is really pretty and a sports star, but the girl is also quite arrogant and spoiled as well, always making fun of and putting down others. The number of times he has seen her and her friends giving swirlies and wedgies to young kids just makes him disgusted.
"Maybe I will stop doing this to Sarah. If you give me a little...incentive," Jenna says with a suggestive grin, licking her lower lip. The boy rolls his eyes at this, before standing up and walking around the table, placing his hand on her wrist and trying to dislodge her grip on the back of his friend's head. Unfortunately, she is much stronger than him, and even with both hands, he couldn't even make her budge.
"You could just give me a little kiss here, you know," the sporty girl now taps her cheek with her free hand, looking at him with lust-filled eyes. "Or maybe we can snog. If you really want to shut me up, you can always just stick your cock in my mouth."
Suddenly, the bell rings, signalling the time for the start of the first class as Jenna is forced to reluctantly leave with Serena, who mutters "It's a shame we can't go further." Jenna just snorts, before turning back to face Liam and blow him a kiss, making his face go scarlet. He shakes his head before checking to see that Sarah is alright. Fortunately, her nose isn't broken.
He breathes a sigh of relief after finding out that his friend is alright, before helping prop her up and then gathering all their stuff together. The boy is still flushed with embarrassment after Jenna blew him a kiss but tries to hide it. Unfortunately, Sarah notices this. And it also infuriates her. She huffs, turning away from him in annoyance, making the confused Liam frown.
"Well, um, glad that you're all right now," he manages, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. Sarah glares at him, making him flinch. "I better get going now then. See you later, okay?" Liam quickly rushes off to his next class, not wanting tardiness to ruin his perfect record. Unbeknownst to him, Liam's rush to leave only makes Sarah angrier.
He manages to arrive at the Physics classroom on time. Gasping for breath, the boy sits down at his seat, panting. Liam quickly fishes his stuff from inside the bag, placing them in front of him. Sorting out his stationery, the boy is alerted by the familiar sound of footsteps approaching the door. Looking up, he sees the same person as earlier walking into the room.
