Page 8 of Advice from a Sunflower

“Did you finally come to your senses and join us lower specimens here on earth, Angel?” he pushes.

An insult and a compliment all tied together in one. I wonder what Marnie ever saw in this asshat. I refuse to give him the attention he craves, but he won’t take the hint. His arm begins to snake around my side and creeps its way up to my chest under my sweater. I try to push it away, but he’s surprisingly strong and manages to get me pinned to the tree with my hands behind my back without anyone noticing.

“Seriously, stop it. Get away from me,” I protest, attempting to wiggle out of his touch.

“It’ll be fun, I promise. Just loosen up a bit so I can pull that stick out of your ass and replace it with something more enjoyable.”

He lifts my shirt and presses himself against me, a cold chill slithering up my spine behind his touch.

“She said stop, Atkins,” someone says from behind us.

I wince as Ryan turns to see who it is, smashing my hand against the rough bark of the tree under our combined weight.

“Eli! My man. Hey, Mouse, Eli came to join in the fun.”

“Seriously. Let go of her. She’s here with me,” Eli presses, walking around us to show his face in the bonfire light.

Ryan loosens his grip on my wrists and nods to Eli, shoving me over to him like a ragdoll. I nearly fall face-first into the ground before Eli catches my hands, and I land hard on my knees. They exchange a handshake above my head as Ryan mumbles something to him and then walks away.

He and Eli became friends when Eli joined the baseball team last spring. He promised me that it was just for more padding on his college applications when I griped about it being out of his character to join organized sports.

“More opportunity for scholarships,” he’d said. He swore that it wouldn’t affect our friendship—what little we had left of one.

That was, until he joined and surpassed guys on the team who had been sitting on the bench for two years. It didn’t take long for our bus ride talks to come to a screeching halt as he began having practices before and after school, catching rides home with his teammates. Then, he quickly started attracting the attention of every girl in the school as they realized what a beautiful creature he truly was when his face wasn’t buried in homework or books. Before I knew it, he had moved all his books out of my locker, and we barely saw each other passing in the hallways anymore.

“He’s an asshole,” he mumbles as I climb back up to my feet.

I try to brush the dirt off my jeans, but it’s caked into the fabric from the impact of my fall. It’s going to be a nightmare to scrub out later, especially with our washer being broken.

When I refuse to respond, he crosses his arms over his chest and leans against a tree. He looks so natural and comfortable in his skin now, a stark contrast from the wiry boy I once knew. His wispy black hair is tucked back into his worn-down baseball hat, little strands peeking out from the sides. It’s no wonder girls swarm him at school.

“What are you doing here, Mouse? This isn’t typically your scene.”

“My scene?” I bite out, my bitter tone matching the one Marnie has spewed at me for years. I’d be proud if I wasn’t already so flustered. “Sorry, I didn’t realize I was being confined to specific scenes by you now. What would you say is my scene, Eli? My bedroom? The library? And what happens when I stray from that scene and find myself somewhere that I don’t belong? I get attacked?”

I lift my hands to put air quotes around the word ‘scene’ for dramatics, then immediately feel stupid. He’s the only person who’s ever given me enough time to get my thoughts out and the first thing I do after months of not speaking is punish him with an anxiety-ridden rant.

He shakes his head at me, his eyes finding the dark, starless sky before returning back to my flushed face. “Chill out. I wasn’t saying you don’t belong here. I just meant that you don’t typically come to these things.”

Neither did you, I want to say but hold the words back before they jump off my tongue. If he hadn’t been here, Ryan would have been having his way with me in the back of some broken down pickup truck by now.

“Marnie made me come,” I explain in a lowered voice, staring down at my Chucks. The light blue canvas is almost completely stained with brown from walking in all the mud and dirt. It took me three months to save up for these shoes and now they’re ruined.

I hate this town.

“Since when do you listen to her?”

My head moves back and forth pathetically. “I’m not sure. Maybe I had a brain aneurysm. I should probably make a stop at the hospital on my way home.”

He smiles a little at my crude joke and then we fall into an awkward, lingering silence. When I can’t take anymore, I clear my throat and lift my hand in a wave, stepping away from him to begin my walk home. I’ve had enough excitement for one night.

“Why don’t you let me drive you? It’s probably not safe to walk alone after such significant head trauma.”

I stop, considering the offer for a few seconds. “Don’t you want to stay and hang out?”

“No, I’ve made my rounds. I need to get home and study for an Anatomy test, anyway.”

My shoulders lift in a shrug, which he takes as acceptance and leads me over to his car.

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