Free Meant to Be by Tiffany King Page B

Mark and I had discussed earlier
that morning.
    “You again,” said the same elderly nurse from
the day before. “What can I do for you today?”
    “I got hit in the head by a softball and I
think it may have cut my head a little. I was wondering if I could
get some ice.”
    “Come around the counter and let me check it
over.”
    I walked around the counter and sat on the
padded stool the nurse pulled up for me.
    The nurse clucked as she checked over my
head.
    “You were right, you have a cut and a small
bump, where it hit your head,” she said as she placed a wet cold
washcloth to the wound.
    I winced as the cloth touched my head. The
side of my head was definitely tender to the touch.
    “I’ll get you some ice. Do you want to stay
here for a while?”
    “No, I don’t want to miss homeroom two days
in a row. Can I take the ice with me?”
    “Of course you can.”
    Sam and I said our goodbyes and headed out
the door.
    “Are you sure your head’s okay?”
    “Yeah, it only hurts if I touch it. What a
jerk that guy was,” I commented.
    “Oh, you’ll see many of those around here.
Most of the students here were born with a silver spoon in their
mouth, and are used to getting whatever they want. Having mommy and
daddy bail them out of trouble is the norm. You and Mark will have
to be careful. That guy was Matt Farrell, and he’s a number one
jerk. He seems to get a high out of messing with people. His dad’s
loaded, so he’s used to getting his own way.”
    “Keeping our feelings secret seemed so simple
this morning,” I muttered as we walked through the classroom
door.
    The rest of the morning passed without
anymore incidents, and even though I heard no more comments, I
could still tell that many of the students were speculating about
what had happened that morning.
    Though I knew I should be concerned about
what they were discussing, I was more anxious to see Mark again.
Now that I knew who he was, and had spent part of the morning with
him, I didn’t like being separated from him at all. Which left me
wondering how Sam felt not being with her guy all day? She had
filled me in with a few sketchy details in-between classes on how
she had been able to find her dream guy. I was able to glean the
basics, like the fact that he was our age, but graduated early and
was taking college courses. I intended to find out more after
school.
    The hours seemed to be going in slow motion
as I waited for fifth period to arrive. In my head, I was mentally
counting down the minutes and was relieved when fourth period
ended.
    Grabbing my stuff, I hurried off to meet
Sam.
    We both opted to eat inside, hoping to avoid
another scene. We settled on a bench outside of the school
library.
    “How was fourth period?” Sam asked, as she
unwrapped her tuna sandwich.
    “It was fine. I was supposed to be reading,
but I was too anxious to focus on the book. It’s a good thing I’m a
speed reader, or I would fall behind in class,”
    Sam didn’t have to ask me why I was anxious,
she already knew. It was nice that we shared so many common bonds;
it saved us from having to explain every little detail.
    I took a big bite out of my own sandwich,
just as the person I had been obsessing about all day walked around
the corner. I sucked in a quick breath, causing the bite of
sandwich to go down the wrong tube.
    Coughing out of control, I reached for my
bottle of water to try and wash the sandwich down and stop the
coughing fit. Mark reached over, patting me on the back which made
the situation worse. His touch flustered me; already choking, I
could not handle losing the limited air I had in my lungs.
    “I don’t think she can breathe with you
touching her,” Sam commented, in a dry voice.
    Mark looked at me. I confirmed Sam was right
by a nod of my head.
    “I’m Sam,” she said, holding her hand out,
giving me an opportunity to pull myself together.
    I was disgusted with myself. So much for
acting cool and collected, I thought as I