Free The Beginning of Never (The Never Trilogy #1) by O. E. Boroni Page A

to pull Nathan along with me
but he stopped me again, and forced my eyes to meet his.
    "I’ll be fine," he said, but still, I
hesitated. James turned me around and led me out.
    *
    Nathan met me sitting down with
my left hand around my midriff, and my teeth, nervously biting away at the nail
of my right thumb. He didn’t know it, but it was a significant improvement from
tapping my foot, which I had done all throughout my classes until my French
teacher had threatened to throw me out. Then I'd had to find a more quiet way
to manage the whirlwind of agitation inside of me.
    My thoughts had run rampage in the wait for him, imagining
every possible scenario that could have taken place after I left. How much
trouble had he gotten into? Had he been sent to the headmaster again? He was
bound to be in deeper trouble this time around, and it'd be entirely my fault.
I reasoned too late that I should have stayed to at least bear this with him.
He shouldn't have to take the heat alone.
    "Here's your textbook," he said.
    I was startled because he was now standing just a few
feet away, and I hadn’t even realized when he had come in. I rose and took the
book from him, but immediately he turned, and started to leave.
    "Wait!" I called, but he didn't stop.
    I found myself going after him, and just before he
reached the door, I reached out and lightly touched his arm. He stopped then
and turned around, but his stare was still so cold that reflexively, I took a
step back.
    "What happened?" I asked, but he didn't seem
to have heard me because his eyes were now searching my face, and for what, I
had absolutely no idea. I was about to repeat my question when his eyes finally
settled on mine; my stomach tightened in response.
    "It's fine,” he said. “I handled it."
    "Did the headmaster call for you?"
    "No."
    I was surprised. "How
come?"
    "Because I left him there. James helped him to the infirmary."
    I was shocked. I wasn’t sure what to feel, but one
thing I did know was that I was disappointed.
    "How could you just leave him there?" I
cried. “Didn't you see how badly he was hurt?”
    "Yes, I did see how badly he was hurt, and that
was why I got out of there before I did any more damage," he said acidly,
and then his tone increased like he was finding it very difficult to control
his temper.
    "He hit you, and you still just stood there.
What’s wrong with you?"
    I was silent for a few seconds as I tried to understand
what he was saying.
    "I thought ..." I began, but he interrupted
me.
    "Do you know how much more they could have hurt
you?"
    Then he exploded. "What were you even doing in
that class?" His tone was still not loud enough to be heard outside the
room, but it was loud enough to frighten me. It made me defensive, so my tone
went up too.
      "I have an
assign –" I started, but again, he didn't let me finish.
    "Why couldn't you come back? Didn't you see them
in there?"
    "What was I supposed to do? Walk away?"
    "Yes! Exactly!” he yelled again as if he couldn’t
understand why it hadn’t occurred to me. “That was exactly what you were
supposed to do, at least until there were other people present. This was the
same thing you did last week; instead of trying to get help you kept on trying
to take on four boys! Are you out of your mind?"
    He was furious. "The hallway was empty and school
had closed for the weekend. What happened to calling out for help? What
happened to screaming? What happened to running away? Anything could have happened,
or did you think that shoving you around was the worst thing they could have
done?"
    He stopped then and exhaled, while I just stared
blankly at him, too stunned at his outburst. With one last glare, he thrust his
hands into the pockets of his camel-colored coat and strode out of the
classroom, leaving me to feel like a bucket of ice had just been poured over
me.
    I went after him.
    "Nathan!" I called out when I saw him start
to climb up the stairs at the end of the floor, but he didn't