Page 99 of When Ben Loved Tim

I look past him and see Danny picking up his hat. His eyes are wavering with fear, like he wants to bolt.

“Try picking on someone your own size,” I yell back.

Bryce’s face twists up. “You’re half my size, pipsqueak!”

“Exactly,” I snarl. “That’s what makes you a bully!”

His massive fists clench around my shirt. Then he releases me, but only with one hand, the other balling up. I’m about to get punched.

“Let him go!”

The hero who comes to my rescue isn’t Tim. Danny barrels into Bryce from the side and bounces off his bulk before losing his balance and falling to the floor. The guys around us laugh. I see pure terror in Danny’s eyes as he stares up at me.

“I’ll go get a teacher!” he says before scrambling away.

“It’ll be too late by then,” Bryce says, returning his attention to me.

“You really are pathetic,” I reply. “Are you sure you don’t need reinforcements? I mean, it took four of you to pick on Danny.”

I look past him and see Tim’s chest heaving. His expression is twisted up with concern, which counts for something, I suppose, but it’s not going to make me feel better when my eyes are swollen shut.

“What’s going on here?” Stacy pushes past Tim and scoffs at the scene. “Let him go,” she says casually. Bryce only spares her a glance before sneering at me and shoving me against the lockers again.

“Hey!” I hear Tim shout.

“Now,” Stacy adds, her tone firm.

Bryce finally releases me.

I brush myself off, but I don’t flee. I glare at each of them. “You’re all cowards,” I growl. My gaze settles on Tim. “You especially!”

He swallows, as if wounded. I don’t care. He’s not the man I thought he was. I’m still surrounded, so I march toward him. Tim steps aside. So does Stacy, who is looking between us in a way that would have worried me this morning, but not anymore.

I’m halfway down the hall when I see Danny hurrying toward me with a teacher in tow.

“Are you okay?” he asks.

“Where is this fight?” the teacher demands.

“Everything is fine,” I reply. “It was just a misunderstanding.”

I keep walking. Danny can tattle on them if he wants. I wouldn’t hold it against him. I’m too angry to stick around. My next class passes in a blur of barely contained rage. I can’t believe Tim just stood there while Bryce manhandled me! Which bothers me half as much as what I caught him doing. Danny had looked so small and helpless when trying to get his hat back. What kind of sick mind finds that entertaining? Bryce and his friends are a bunch of savages. Tim included. I hate him!

If only that was true. My anger slowly abandons me, replaced by sorrow. I trudge to my final class, feeling as though I’m about to lose everything that made me happy. How can I be with someone like that?

“Hey!” Danny says, already seated at the table we share. His posture is rigid, his eyes wide. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I say, sitting next to him with a grimace. “What happened?”

I only mean the aftermath, but Danny launches into a play-by-play. “Darryl has been making fun of my hat.” Which is sitting on the table between us. The ball cap is mostly red with a mesh back. Only the front is white, where black letters spell out:Keep on truckin’!“My dad gave it to me for Christmas,” Danny continues. “I don’t get to see him much.” He pauses to swallow against whatever he’s feeling. “I know we’re not allowed to wear hats in class, but I figured there was no harm in wearing it in the halls. I guess I should just leave it at home.”

“Don’t,” I say, clenching my jaw. “You keep doing whatever you want. People like Bryce—" (and my boyfriend, I add mentally) “—are just jealous because they’re too afraid to be who they really are. Don’t let them make you into one of them.”

“Like zombies do?” Danny asks.

“Yeah, exactly. I guess that’s why they went after your hat, so they could get at your brains easier, because they sure as hell don’t have any of their own.”

Danny laughs before his expression grows somber. “Thanks for saving me.”