“Don’t do that! Don’t do that ever again!” I snapped, pulling myself away from him. Hugs and kisses, I scoffed at the thought. I couldn’t handle it from him. Hugs were for those you cared about. I didn’t care for him. Kisses were for those you love. I didn’t love him. Not anymore.

Mike flinched and pulled his arm back. If I hadn’t stopped him he would have given me a bear hug and kissed my cheek with his smoke filled mouth. I broke up with him for a reason. I didn’t want his tobacco-addict lips against mine. But some would say he broke up with me. Why you ask? Because his smoke filled a** was too good for me.

Ha. Funny.

As if. I was the straight-a, freshman, cheerleader. Maybe not a head cheerleader, but I was smart, athletic, and cute. I don’t think you can beat that. I wasn’t Jessica Williams (the unintelligent, cute, head cheerleader), but in my book I was way better. So whatever. The only people who would believe that he was even A LITTLE better than me were addicts themselves. So again, I say “whatever”.

“OHHH!” Gilbert Vasquez teased, “REJECTED!”

Our cafeteria table burst into hysterical giggles. Mike flushed a crabby, unattractive red and moved away. For a star sophmore basketball player, he was very soft. I watched his back and felt a little guilty. He was a smoking addict, but he wasn’t proud of it. He had tried to quit like I told him to, but he gave up. But he wasn’t proud of it. It was the one and only thing I couldn’t fault him for.

In everyone else’s eyes- those who thought I was right to let him go- think he’s just the cocky star player. He was the guy who caught a break and wants to enjoy it. He wasn’t, though. Not to me.

I watched him settle into a seat two tables away filled with some of the other basketball players. He met my eyes and I mouthed the only words I could think of.

“I’m sorry.” He shook his head and looked down. I turned back to the table and saw Jessica staring at me.

“You shouldn’t do that, Erica.”

“Do what?”

“Apologize.” I turned away from her. “You have to remember he isn’t just the basketball smoking addict. He’s worse, okay? Remember that.”

I peeked at her hard gaze and nodded. She wasn’t smart academic wise, but as a senior she was the smartest person I knew. Mike was worse. He did way worse, but that still didn’t matter to me. I wronged him just as much as he wronged me, no matter how much I looked like the victim.

Shane Grayson, who sat across the table, also a freshman and basketball player, gazed at me questioningly. I met his gaze and he immediately looked away. He was probably mad at me. He was one of Mike’s friends. I sighed aloud. Mike was popular too so whatever I seemed to do to him mattered way too much.

It felt like slowly everyone would turn from me. I bet if Jessica wasn’t by my side everyone would have turned from me. I glanced at Mike again.

Everyone was turning already, but they weren’t turning from me. They were turning from him. I’m sorry, I thought again.
-to be continued-