Ashes to Ashes

WHEN I DROVE INTO THE SCHOOL PARKING LOT this morning, there he was. Waiting for me right out front by the doors. He looked for my necklace, which I wasn’t wearing. I tried to hurry past, but he stopped me and begged me to talk to him. To let him try to explain. I kept shaking my head, and by the end of it we were both crying. Alex walked by, and I could tell he was wondering what was going on, but he kept going. The bell rang and Reeve finally let me go, but then when I walk out of first period, there he is again.

“Cho, I’m begging you,” he says. “Please, for God’s sake, talk to me.”

“I already told you I don’t want to talk to you.”

He throws his head back in frustration. “Fuck! I love you, Cho. And you love me, so let’s just—let’s just go somewhere and figure it out!”

People are slowing down and looking. They’re looking at us. I grip my books harder. “There’s nothing to figure out! Just leave me alone!” I start walking away, and Reeve runs in front of me and blocks my path. “Get out of my way,” I say.

“No. Not until we talk!”

“You never want to talk, and now all of a sudden you want to talk. Well, it’s too late, okay?” I try to move around him, but he blocks my way again.

I see Alex walking in our direction, and I think he’s just going to keep going, but then he stops short. “Dude, let her go,” he says.

Reeve’s eyes practically go black. “It was you, wasn’t it? You told her. You shady piece-of-shit motherfucker.”

“What are you talking—”

And then Reeve punches Alex in the face, so hard that Alex goes stumbling backward.

I scream, and then I run over to Alex. His nose is bleeding freely, he’s holding his arm to his face, and the blood is soaking through his shirt. “Oh my God, Alex. I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” I say. My hands are shaking as I fumble in my bag for a tissue, and then I try to wipe up his face, but he moves away from me.

“You’re crazy!” he yells at Reeve.

Mr. Mayurnik is already hustling Reeve away to the principal’s office.

“I’m so sorry,” I keep saying, over and over.