Free The Year of the Great Seventh by Teresa Orts Page A

not so surprisingly, as I spent my lunchtime hiding in the library and running from class to class, purposely late to avoid the hallway rush. God had heard my plea. Maybe Nate had transferred to another school, and I would never have to see him again.
    That evening, Mom lent me her car to drive to the independent theater on Sunset Boulevard. The movie theater, located across from Chateau Marmont, featured independent films that hardly anyone watched.
    I stopped at a cell phone store across the street from the theater as something was wrong with my cell battery; it wasn’t holding a charge. But once I parked the car, I realized the store was already closed. Since I was running late, I decided to leave my car there and walk across the street to the theater.
    I grabbed my purse from the passenger seat, and while I was locking the car, I heard a noise coming from behind one of the empty cars beside me. I stood on my toes, surveying the car where the noise was coming from, but I couldn’t see anything in the shadows. I quickened my pace toward the street.
    I stood on the side of the road, waiting to cross over to the movie theater, but the dense traffic was making it impossible. I could hear steps coming from behind. I glimpsed back to find a man with an unbuttoned shirt coming toward me. He was carrying a half-empty bottle of whisky. He was approaching quickly, and I was anxiously trying to find a gap in the traffic to cross the street.
    “Honey! Do you need any help?” the man called.
    The traffic light changed to red and the traffic jammed in the street. I squeezed through the cars and got to the other side. Then I sprinted to the safety of the movie theater, holding my purse with both hands.
    I got to the box office, gasping for air, and joined the line to get my ticket. At that exact moment my phone beeped. After combing my purse to find my cell phone, I discovered a text from Tyson letting me know they were already inside the theater and were saving a seat for me. I purchased my ticket and rushed up the escalators to the upper floor.
    The movie was playing in theater number five, but I could only see the doors to theaters one through four. I walked on down the corridor, squeezing through people who were waiting to get into the other theaters.
    I finally spotted a sign at the end of the corridor pointing to theater number five. It seemed to be around the corner. I advanced toward the end of the corridor, dodging the people standing around, and suddenly I recognized a group of people only a few yards away from me: Nate, Stacey, and two of their friends.
    I stopped and hid behind a group of strangers.
    Was the whole universe conspiring against me? No one from school ever came to this theater. Why were they here? I had to get past them to get to theater five. I held my breath and told myself I could do this. I could walk by them and pretend I didn’t know Nate and that his words hadn’t hurt me.
    Bringing my gaze down to the floor, I accepted it wasn’t going to work and hated myself for being such a coward. I left quickly, rushing out of the movie theater without glancing at them again. I couldn’t jolt the image out of my mind—Nate, all smiles, waiting outside the theater with his friends. It was as if it had been ironed into the back of my brain.
    I ran down the street as fast as I could, hoping the wind hitting my face could erase the image flooding my mind. The sound of cars flying up the street echoed inside my head. Nate had humiliated me like no one ever before.
    Someone called my name from behind, making my heart skip a beat. “Sophie, wait please! I need to talk to you!”
    I glanced back to see Nate running behind me. Turning to look at him once again to reassure myself that I wasn’t hallucinating, I shouted angrily, “Please leave me alone.”
    I continued walking, as I didn’t want to hear whatever he had to say, but he was following me.
    “Sophie, I know I behaved like an idiot. I want to apologize.