Cathy opened the door to the classroom and was, as expected, greeted with several faces turned towards her inquisitively. She was prepared for this to happen, but wasn't sure what she would do to resolve the situation, she just hoped the teacher would break the silence. “You must be Cathy” said the man in front of the blackboard. He was old and rugged, with a beard reaching down to his chest. “Please take a seat wherever there is a seat open”. Cathy sat down at the nearest desk she could find without an occupant. “Class, this is Cathy. Cathy, this is class. Please take out your textbook and we'll proceed”. Cathy slumped the heavey textbook down onto her desk, trying to ignore all the eyes scanning her up and down.
Cathy spent most of the class watching her classmates, trying to find someone she could befriend, as she knew this was best done early. The teacher prattled on as Cathy was scouting her surroundings; the usual group of bimbos, jocks and nerds, not really groups she was felt at home with. Out of all the people in her class, only one was seated alone except for Cathy. It was a guy, with short blonde hair and freckles. His face didnt have any discernable features, he just looked “average”. He was seated on the same row of desks as several others, only he had moved one seat down from everyone else. He seemed to be watching the teacher, but Cathy thought she could see a bored, uninterested mind behind the lazy eyes. The lazy eyes moved to meet Cathy's. She was startled by this and looked away quickly, even though she knew he had caught her staring. She buried her head into the textbook and hoped she hadn't scared him away already. “This must be my future friend” she hypothesized. During reecess Cathy decided to make her move. She waited to see if he was leaving his desk for lunch, but to her joy he pulled out a lunchbox and stayed seated at his desk. Cathy waited a moment still to make sure noone else approached him, but noone seemed to even aknowledge him. Cathy dug up her own lunchbox, built up some courage, and trottled over.
“Can I join you for lunch?” Cathy asked him, doing her best to put on a friendly smile. “What?” the boy replied. This was a turn of events not planned out within Cathy's mind. Does this boy not understand the concept of lunch? If he doesn't how would she explain it to him. Cathy's mind eventually concluded that he must not have heard her, so she asked again, more clearly this time. “Can I sit with you and eat my lunch?” This time no answer. “Well?” Cathy said, trying to ignore the audience they were attracting. The boy seemed embarrased by everyone watching him as well, and looked annoyed at Cathy. “Why?” he said. Cathy was taken aback by this. “Well...I just dont know anyone here and thought maybe you and I...” “I'm sorry” he interrupted. “I'm not interested, please leave me alone”. Some of the bimbos began giggling at the situation, and Cathy felt she had embarassed herself and returned to her desk. She opened her lunch and began eating, ignoring every eye that was on her, just studying her sandwhich whilst devouring it. Now and then, during the rest of the day, Cathy would give a glance towards the boy who shut her offering of friendship down, but he never glanced back. Cathy had been rejected before, but never when just asking to eat lunch with someone. She was annoyed at how much this boy annoyed her. She felt she did everything right, she had pushed herself to try to befriend someone new, she had smiled and been polite, she had even picked out the target she thought would give least resistance, still she was left embaressed.
The embarresment evolved into anger over the course of the day, and reached its zenith when it was time to walk home. Just as she stepped out of the schoolyard, she saw the back of that dreadful would-be lunchcompanion walkin down the same road as her. She spent the next 10 minutes walking behind this boy, cursing him silently to herself. On the road home Cathy eventually reached a decision to never be friendly again, only to utterly smelt when a cute little pomeranian dog ran towards her and started cuddling her legs. She knelt down and started petting the dog, grinning at this fluffy ball of fur. “Tom, get Princess Marshmellow, will you?” Cathy looked towards the voice calling, it was a lady across the street doing laundry. Cathy looked back to the dog just to see it get lifted up by the sworn enemy she had met that day. He didn't say a word as he picked up the dog two feet away from her, not even a glance. He walked across the street and into the house, closing the door behind him. “Who is this horrible guy? Not even a look at the girl asking to be his friend a few hours earlier?” Cathy was fuming as she walked towards her own house a block away. “At least I know his name”
Cathy woke up the next morning, and the first rational thought that came to her mind after the departure of her best-left-alone dreams, was him. All she had wanted to do was to make a friend to make her transition into the new school easier, instead she had made a fool out of herself and ostricised herself from everyone. She descended the stairs to join her parents for breakfast before heading to school. As she approached the school gate, she saw the idiot standing outside. She approached him and tapped him on his shoulder. It was first when he turned around and faced her that Cathy remembered she hadn't planned anything to say; “Why did you do it?” she blurted out. He looked shocked initially, but when he realised who had suddenly approached him, his shock turned into annoyance. “I don't need a reason for wanting to be alone!” he replied. “Well that's no way to turn down a simple request!” Cathy replied, abit nervously as she felt his mood turn from annoyed to angry. “I don't know who you are or why you are desperate to eat lunch with me” He took a step towards Cathy. “All I know is that the feeling isn't mutual, so leave me alone. This is the last time we speak.” Cathy was frozen to the spot, unable to say or do anything. He stared her down a bit before he turned away and started walking towards the school. Cathy felt like crying. She felt as if she had just been told off by her parents for doing something bad, only she was so sure in here mind that she was innocent. She quickly collected herself to avoid attention from the other students and walked towards the school as well.
The next feew weeks went by without any big changes for Cathy; school was boring as usual, her fellow students ignored her as usual and the boy ignored her even more. She spent the days pretending not to think anymore about him, but even she knew that was a lie. One day an incident occurred on her way home from school. She had stopped by the local kiosk to by a candybar, and stepped around the corner of the store to throw the wrapper in the bin. As she rounded the corner she saw three men further down the alley. “You're such a loser, you know that?” “Yeh, why haven't you just killed yourself yet?” Two guys were pinning the third to the wall. Cathy felt she should leave for her own safety, but was startled when she saw that the boy pinned to the wall was the boy. For reasons unknown to Cathy she yelled out “Hey, Idiots. Go away”. All three of the guys stopped and stared at her. “Oh look, it's his girlfriend” one guy said, the other smirking at the remark. They let go of the boy and started approaching Cathy. She had no plan to get herself out of this situation, instead she felt she was in too deep to run away, and took a step forward. “Please go away” Cathy could hear instantly how pathetic she sounded. “Oh please? Well if you say please I guess we just have to go?” The two guys laughed as they kept approaching her. “How about we instead see whats underneath that pretty dress you have on.” Cathy was felt the seriousness of the situation and looked to the boy who had been pinned to the wall for help, but he just stood there staring. “You should learn to mind your own busine....” he cut his sentence short and stared large-eyed at something above Cathy. Cathy was confused and was suddenly pushed aside by the clerk from the store. “What on earth is going on here?” He passed Cathy and approached the boys who were walking backwards. “You guys better fuck on out of here before I beat the shit out of you” threatened the clerk. The boys hurried off, but not before kicking the third boys backpack over so its contents spilled. The clerk turned to Cathy. “You two as well, fuck off. No loitering behind the store” he said as he went back inside.
Cathy approached the boy who was putting his things back in the backpack, nervous towards his response. Cathy knelt down to help him. “You can go.” he said, not giving Cathy a glance. She ignored his request and started picking up his things. To her surprise he didn't give any more protests to her helping him. When they were done they got back to their feet, Cathy staring at him, him staring at the ground. “Why did the...” Cathy started before she was interrupted. “Because people are shit” the boy spoke with contempt. “Well not all of us” Cathy said. “Most of you” he replied. “You should tell someone” Cathy instantly regretted saying this as the boy met her stare. “I shouldn't do anything, you should leave me alone. Thanks for helping me with my books, but I have no interest in you, don't take it personal.” His eyes were getting angry again. “Why can't we be friends” Cathy pleaded this time, knowing she might not get him this vurlnerable again. “Because I have nothing to offer you, I just want to live my life in peace. Please leave me alone!” his eyes looked pleadingly at Cathy. “Leave. Me. Alone.!” He stormed off, leaving Cathy feeling dumb and embarassed for the second time.
It was summer, and school was out. Cathy had enjoyed sleeping in, not waking up before noon. This pattern, however, was interrupted this morning. Cathy was awakened by a loud bang, followed by yelling. Cathy rose from her bed and dashed to the window to see who dared disturbed her beauty-sleep. As she pulled the curtains aside she saw a car racing off, leaving just smoke, and a person, in it's wake. It was the boy again. Whenever there was commotion around the neighbourhood it seemed his family was involved. Several nights they could hear yelling from their house, and it always ended with someone slamming the front door. The boy stood in the middle of the road, staring after the car. His fists were clenched, and he seemed to be ready to explode at any minute, but it didn't happen. Instead, he turned around and headed slowly back to his house. Cathy could see him walking up to his porch and sit down on the steps, burying his head in his hands. Cathy didn't know if it was kindness, insanity or wanting what she couldn't have, but she felt she had to go talk to him. Cahty got dressed and hurried down the stairs. As she was tying her shoes she thought about how stupid a person has to be to approach someone who has on several occacions stated they want to be left alone. Noonetheless, Cathy walked with conviction towards him. She stopped just outside his line of sight to build up some courage, then she entered their yard. He lifted his head when he heard her steppes. Cathy could see him quickly and subtly drying tears from his eyes. “Hello?” he said with a face of annoyance. “Hey, how is your summer going?” Cathy said, trying to be nice, not remembering that this probably isn't the highpoint of his summer. She looked at him with kind eyes and a smile waiting for his response, but none came. He just stared at her, more inquisitively this time. “Rough morning, huh?” Cathy continued, abit nervous. “What?” he said, almost angrily. “I just heard yelling and saw you in the middle of the road and figured something had happened”. His looked now changed into a deathstare, and Cathy felt she had overstepped. “Why the fuck would you spy on me?” He said while he rose to his feet. “Oh, I didn't...”-”Why the fuck do you think this is any of your business?” He was approaching Cathy now, and she began moving backwards. Just as Cathy thought he was going to continue his barrage of questions, his face changed from angry to resigned. He closed in on Cathy and put one arm on each of her shoulders. Cathy was staring down, and she could feel his breath on her face. “Look at me” he said. Cathy was surprised by his soft tone, which was in strong contrast of the angry voice he had used seconds earlier. Cathy met his eyes, and noticed for the first time their bright blue color. As she was staring at him, she felt lost in his eyes. Not in love, but intrigued by the thousand stories they seemed to tell. “I don't know why you insist on being like this, but I don't want your sympathy” he said calmly. “But I..” “I don't know or care what it is you need, but I won't give it to you, so here is what I want you to do. Leave me alone. Whenever you see me, don't approach me and don't talk to me.” He gave her one last look and turned towards the house. Cathy was in awe of the speech she was given. “I just wanted to make a friend, and turns out you're the biggest jerk I've ever met.” Cathy didn't realize what she was saying until it was already out. He stopped, turned around and walked towards her again. His eyes pierced hers again. “Listen, I don't care what you think of me, ok? You may not understand this, but I prefer it this way. You have nothing to offer me, and I am not what you need. Turn around and forget me.” He turned around, walked into the house and slammed the door behind him. Cathy stared in frustration at the closed door for a moment before she stormed back to her own house, and though she did not understand why, tears where pouring down her face.
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