You're Pathetic

“Hales, you look terrible!” Charlotte comments at the breakfast table. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, Charlotte,” Halsey lies through her teeth. She could not sleep all night because of her kiss with Nathan. Halsey was torn whether to tell them of it or not but after seeing how Lincoln almost had a fight with Nathan, she decided that it was best to keep it a secret.

But she cannot forget the incident. Halsey feels ashamed of herself for not being able to stand up against Nathan. Her hands tremble whenever she thinks of him and her heart is beating too fast. She lowers her head, hiding her face behind the curtain of long hair as she eats her cereal.

“Lincoln, did you say anything to upset her?” Charlotte asks her son.

“What? No! She’s just too flustered by her burnt hand!” He exclaims.

Charlotte sighs and sips on her coffee. Even though she is 40 years old, she looks a lot younger than her age. She shares similar features as her son with strawberry blonde hair and a charming persona. There are hardly any wrinkles on her face and her smile is radiant. She maintains herself quite well with many of the neighborhood women throwing jealous glares at her whenever she passes by but Charlotte doesn’t care. 

For her, only her family matters.

She owns a music lounge in the area, the only one in their small town. Fiercely independent and protective, Charlotte brought up her son on her own and later, even took in Halsey. Lincoln doesn’t know who his father is and Charlotte is unwilling to talk about it with anyone. The only thing people know is that Charlotte is an unwed mother and she is proud of it.

“Halsey, are you going to work today?” She asks.

“No, I have to babysit for the Smith’s tonight,” Halsey replies. 

“Good, then can you drop off a parcel at the Antons’ house on your way?” Charlotte requests her. “They’ve ordered a guitar for their kid but neither of them can make it to the shop today coz of work. So they asked us to deliver it.”

“Sure!” Halsey says with a smile. “I’ll deliver it after school.”

“Great! I’ll be late tonight. There’s a band playing in the lounge and it’ll be packed.”

“Do you need any help?” Lincoln asks. “I can stop by.”

“No, it’s a school night and you two gotta wake up early tomorrow!” Charlotte says at once. “I’ll manage it.”

Halsey and Lincoln glance at each other, both worried that Charlotte is taking up too much stress lately. Making a mental note to pick up some calming balms for Charlotte, Halsey picks up her bag and heads for school with Lincoln.

The school is only a short ride away on the bus. Students are buzzing in the campus, talking loudly or heading for classes. It’s the first day of their lives as seniors and Halsey is excited to know more about her classes. Lincoln walks alongside Halsey, chatting with her about their class schedules. Several girls are giving him flirty glances but he barely notices them.

“We’ve got Chemistry together,” he sighs. “But that’s it.”

“I’ve got a free period at 12 PM,” she says. “What about you?”

“Nope,” he sighs. “My one’s at 10 AM.”

“Oh no…”

It seems that their class schedules are not matching. Halsey is a little disappointed because having Lincoln around makes her feel more comfortable than sitting alone at the library.

“I’ll head off for class,” Lincoln says. “See you!”

He dashes off towards his first class. Halsey waves at him and turns to walk towards her locker. To her surprise, there is a crowd gathering around her locker. They seem to be whispering among themselves and pointing at her.

“She’s so busted!” One of the students giggles.

“She must’ve made Lydia really mad.”

Halsey is confused and she tries to make her way through the crowd.

“Excuse me!” she says to them and finally reaches her locker. To her utter shock, her locker has been vandalized!

Green goo-like substance is splashed all over her old books and the word ‘sl*t’ has been spray painted all over the locker’s door. 

Halsey is stunned by the sight. The people around her are jeering and taunting her in whispers. 

“Isn’t she the one who always hangs around Lincoln Wright?”

“I heard that she pissed off Lydia by flirting with Nathan!”

“Woah! Two guys?”

Halsey’s heart is beating too fast and she suddenly feels suffocated. She quickly runs away from the crowd, too humiliated to face any of them. Halsey doesn’t know where she’s running but she marches towards the emergency staircase and dashes all the way up until she reaches the roof.

Once on the roof, she closes the door behind her and leans against it, weeping hard. 

All her life, she tried to keep her head down and work quietly so that people would leave her alone. She doesn’t want to be bullied by others nor be overly friendly. Her focus is only to get good grades and live a relatively peaceful life. After her parents died, she shut herself in a shell where only a few people were allowed to enter.

Suddenly, she is in the center of attention and she cannot stop panicking. Lydia thinks that she stole Nathan whereas in reality she was the one who was assaulted by him!

Halsey sobs alone, the stress of the kiss and bullying too much for her to grasp.

“You really have nothing else to do except crying, huh?”

She is startled to hear Nathan’s voice and looks around. He’s lying on the ground, seemingly asleep.

“I-I…” she stammers. 

She squirms under his cold gaze.

“You’re really pathetic,” he states and gets up. His silky hair is almost shining under the bright sun. The shirt he wore is untucked and his tie is also slightly loose but even with a messed up attire, he looks like a Greek God.

Greek God of war.

Halsey doesn’t comment but stares at her knees. Whose fault is it? She thinks. Her sadness is starting to be replaced with anger which shocks even her. She is rarely angry, preferring to restrain her emotions but after last night, she cannot help feeling enraged. 

Yet, her fear of Nathan overwhelms her anger.

Nathan stands up and dusts off his clothes. “Girls like you cry and cry for a savior to save them,” he taunts her. “A desperate plea for attention. What a sad life you’re leading.”

Halsey’s lips quiver and she wants to retort at that. She doesn’t want anyone to save her; she just wants to be left alone.

But she bites back her retort. Nathan only looks at her with disdain and walks away, not looking back at her. 

…

Lincoln is staring at the mess at Halsey’s locker. One of the boys he plays basketball with informed him what happened and he rushed to see the scene.

“Who the hell did this?” He demands from the boy.

“I heard that it was Nathan and his friends,” the boy claims. “Apparently, his girlfriend got pissed at Halsey for some reason so he and his friends-”

Lincoln doesn’t wait to hear the rest. He can tolerate Nathan badmouthing him but insulting Halsey is unacceptable to him. Lincoln is outraged but he knows that fighting with Nathan isn’t enough.

He’ll have to beat the son of a b*tch in his own game.

Within seconds, he bursts into the basketball coach’s room.

“Coach!” 

An elderly man in his fifties looks up at him. The man is Coach Nelson, one of the strictest teachers in the school. He has been coaching the team of Bayers’ High for over twenty years and leads them with an iron fist.

“Lincoln?” He frowns. “What’d you want?”

“I’ll accept your offer,” Lincoln reveals. “I’m gonna play for the basketball team.”