Chapter Nineteen

The past revisits Russ' life.

“What happened to your eye?” Hayden gasped when she saw me.

Piper’s face turned red. I rubbed her shoulder letting her run off away from me. She looked up at me and sighed. Malachi had an excited smile on his face until he turned and saw me. Hayden walked up to me and touched the swollen eye. I flinched away and stepped back. “I was playing football with Blake. I’m not a very good player.” Malachi smiled and patted my shoulder.

“Pathetic boy,” he started walking towards the choir room. I followed him and Hayden.

Someone’s arm grabbed me. I whipped around and looked straight up at Parker. “So it is true.” His gaze was all over the swollen bruise on my face. “Who did this to you, Russ?”

Hayden walked up, “get away from him Parker. You don’t belong here. I gave you your time yesterday, now get lost.” She stepped in between Parker and me.

He glared down at Hayden. “Shut up Hayden, this is more important than stupid drama.” She gasped. “Russ, tell me what happened.”

I shook my head. “Go away Parker.” Parker’s hand reached out and grabbed my wrist. His fingers tightened and pain shot up through my arm. I tried to pull away but he wouldn’t let go.

“Parker, get lost,” Hayden screeched. He pulled me closer.

“Tell me right now Russ. Did your dad do this to you?” People started to notice the situation.

Malachi ran back from the choir room. He grabbed Parkers wrist. Malachi wasn’t small. He would be able to protect me against Parker I was sure. “Let go of him, Reeves.”

Parker’s blue eyes became intense and I could see pain rippling through the deep pools. Finally he let go. “I can take care of myself. I don’t need you, you made sure of that.”

My fingers carefully massaged my wrist where he grabbed. Hayden grabbed my shoulder and started pulling me back towards the room. Malachi squared his shoulder and waited for Parker to walk away before following us.

We walked into the choir room. Every eye was watching me, again. When I came here I didn’t want to be looked at. I had now turned into the talk of the whole school. Poor Piper, she was probably getting the worst of it.

Malachi had set up his band. He and I had called and planned through the night. His chocolate eyes looked over me carefully. He was gauging my mood, making sure I was alright. From the moment I set eyes on Malachi I liked him. He was a true genuine person that truly cared for other human beings.

His eyes flicked from me back to Hayden. She was also watching me carefully. I attempted a smile, it failed. She smiled for me and patted my shoulder. We had started STARs practices in the morning now. The football team was the last on my list now.

I stood in the front of the group. “Love,” I said loudly and everyone started listening. “It something we’re constantly looking for isn’t it?”  A few heads nodded up and down. “Songs are written about it every second of every day. There is no doubt that love is what truly makes the world go round.” I had the attention of every single person in the group. Malachi had his hands cross on his chest. His guitar hung across his waist. “So why not sing about it?”

The faces began to realize what I was starting to talk about. “So you find your favorite love song. We’ll do it. I believe that giving every single person their turn to shine is what we’re missing. Who cares if we win tournaments? Who cares if we beat the All Stars? We’re all great here and we should be able to show it off.”

Someone yelled an agreement from the back. I smiled with pain in my swollen face. “We’ll perform our top numbers in two weeks for the school. Then we’ll have a benefit concert at the end of the semester all the proceeds will go to charity.”

Mrs. Williams looked proudly up to me. She smiled brightly and clapped her small hands. Her arm went around me when she stood up and she pulled me close. “I think this boy just saved our team.”

The team started thinking about their songs. They were happily trying to decide songs with their group of friends. Hayden was dancing around me helping a young girl with her choreography.

Malachi walked up to me and punched my shoulder. “Hey man, what do you think you’re going to do?”

I lifted my face and looked up to him. “Actually, I need your help with that.”

Chi smiled and sat down next to me. His guitar sat on top of his folded leg. “I had a feeling you would ask and I think I know the perfect song.”

Reviews

[Rhea752]

this book is still amazing!!! :P

[Zachary_James]

This book was amazing good job