Page 24 of Behind the Bars

I cringed. “But—”

Her hand landed on my forearm, and there was a sense of despair in her voice. “Please,Eli?”

She called me Eli; only Katie and Mom called methat.

I knew pulling up my shirt was going to shock her. I knew she’d have a hard time seeing what the guys did to me, but I knew it would bother her more not knowing. I untucked my shirt from my slacks and pulled it up, displaying the black and blue skin that was the result of Todd and his friends using me as a punching bag in the locker room after gymclass.

“Elliott!” Jasmine cried, her hands flying to my side. She lightly touched the bruises, and I cringed a bit. “Oh my gosh. I can’t believe those lying assholes!” She jumped off the dumpster and started pacing. “You have to come with metonight.”

“What?”

“You have to…I-I don’t know! You have to stand up to these jerks! I get it, you don’t want to fight back, but they aren’t going to stop because they think you won’t stand up tothem.”

“I-I d-don’t think that’s a goodidea.”

“No, we have to.” She grew more and more emotional as she paced. “There is nothing I can do to stop them from hurting you. I’ve tried everything, but maybe if you stand up to them—ifwestand up to them, we can win. I know we can. You and I can be, like…the two musketeers. All for one and one for all, yaknow?”

“I…”

“Please. I just…please.”

I didn’t know how to say no to her eyes. I didn’t know why the bullying bothered her more than it bothered me, but it did. There was no way I could say no to her as she sat on the verge of tears. I hopped off the dumpster and nodded once. “Okay. Let’sgo.”

Chapter Six

Elliott

“You should go in without me,”I told Jasmine, my throat tightening as nerves swelled in mygut.

“What? No way!” she replied, pulling me by my forearm. “The only reason I’m even a little okay with being here is because you’re with me. I hate everything about theseparties.”

“Then why have you been coming everyweekend?”

She lowered her stare for a moment before glancing my way. Her eyes were filled with guilt, and I realized exactly why she was standing there on Todd’s porch, about to enter hishouse.

Because ofme.

“They said they’d stop bullying you if I came toparties.”

I grimaced and stuffed my hands into my pockets. “Because that’s not embarrassing atall.”

“Elliott…”

“You don’t have to stick up for me, you know. I can handlethem.”

She shook her head. “But you shouldn’t haveto.”

“But I do. I’ve dealt with people like them my whole life. It’s not your j-job to protect me, and trust me, having a girl stand up for me isn’t going to help any. My sister has been doing the same thing for years now and nothing has changed. Coming here was a badidea.”

“Just come with me,” she begged, clasping her hands together. “We can have fun and mock them for mocking us, and then you can stand up for yourself, and I’ll stand up for you. It’ll beperfect.”

I bit the inside of my cheek and stared at the flickering porchlight.

“Please, Elliott?” she begged. “Think of it this way: you going into this party isn’t me protecting you, it’syouprotectingme.”

“You’relying.”

“I’mnot.”

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