Chapter 123: School
*You can take your “I’m okay” hat off now. It’s just me. Fall apart. I’m not going anywhere. – Erin Van Vuren*
Her nails were done. Her hair was pulled into a tight French braid. The outfit had been chosen specifically for the day. Dark jeans, long sleeve t-shirt for her mom’s favorite band, rocker boots with both laces and buckles. All the work that she still had to turn in was in her black backpack. Her phone was fully charged and in her pocket.
There was no makeup on, and Dean had no intention of putting any on. She walked into the kitchen and JD stood up from the bar and opened his arms to her. He had returned to school at the beginning of the month. Last week, he had not gone in on the day of Jolene’s divorce.
Dean was engulfed into a hug and rested her cheek on his chest as she listened to his heartbeat. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she took a deep breath. His cologne filled her nose, the scent was calming her.
“Where’s your cologne?” Dean asked quietly.
“In my bathroom.” JD grinned. “You don’t need it.”
He knew that since he had gone back to school and she had not, she had been wearing his cologne. When he asked her why, she shrugged and said that it made her feel better. Calmer. Safer.
Reaching over, he grabbed the small gift bag on the island close to his cereal. JD moved away just enough to give her a little space to accept the bag. Opening it, Dean found a bottle of his cologne, a small box and a short note. Unfolding the blue stationery, she read the elegantly written words.
*Dean,*
*You’ve got this. You can do anything that you put your mind to. I got you a bottle of my cologne. Wear it, carry it, whatever you need to do. I’m here for you whenever you need me.*
*I love you.*
*Jonathon David*
Dean swiped at the tears at the corners of her eyes. JD tipped her face up to him and kissed her lightly. He then brushed the tears away with his thumbs.
“I love you, Dean.” He said with his heart in his throat.
She slipped back into his arms and buried her face in his chest. It was several quiet moments later when she finally looked up at him. He smiled down, the hands that were gently rubbing her back stilled only briefly at her words.
“I love you, too.”
Smiling, he leaned down and kissed her. It was a light kiss, but all his heart was in it. He gave her a light peck before reaching into the bag and grabbing the box.
“I didn’t want you to feel like you had to choose between this and your princess necklace. So I got you a bracelet instead.”
Opening the box, he removed a silver slip bracelet with a heart in the center. One half of the heart looked like an angel’s wing and the other was smooth with *Forever in my heart* engraved on it. JD flipped the heart open, with it opening down the middle on hinges on the sides. Inside it was a small picture of Mary with a giant smile.
Instantly, Dean knew what picture it was. Michelle had given Dean a camera just before Mary had taken her to DC and the Smithsonian. They had been at the zoo, by the panda exhibit and Dean had told her mother that when pandas give birth, the babies shoot out like a sprinter going for the finish line.
Mary had burst out laughing at the random facts that her fourteen-year-old daughter knew. Dean thought that at that moment, her mother never looked more beautiful. Using her new camera, she snapped the picture. The same picture that was now in a small locket that JD was slipping on her wrist.
“I’m only a phone call away if you need me.” He whispered just before he pressed a light kiss to her temple.
Four hours later, Dean texted Reese.
*I need to leave.*
Within ten minutes, her teacher was receiving a message that Dean was being checked out. She gathered her belongings and went to her car. All morning, people tried to be nice. Maybe a little too nice. And uncertain on how to treat her.
Her friends, the same ones who had been at her mother’s funeral, weren’t sure of what to say.
Teachers averted their eyes.
Kids she didn’t know gave her sad smiles.
Those she did know stuttered through unfelt condolences.
When she went to lunch, she sat at the regular table, only to have her friends sit just a little ways down from her.
She was exiled.
Alone.
Dean sat in her car crying and did the only thing she could think of. Only seconds later JD replied that he was about to go to lunch. He asked if she needed him, and she didn’t reply. A few minutes later, as she was halfway across town, he messaged her again. Her phone rang as she pulled into the other school’s parking lot.
Grabbing her backpack, she walked in like she was a student. Remembering the vague layout of the school, she went down the hall and towards the cafeteria. JD sat at a table with Deon and Craig and a few others on the swim team.
Dean walked straight to them and dropped her bag on the floor. She crawled into JD’s lap and buried her face in his chest as the tears began again. JD held her close and the top of her head.
“I’m here.” He soothed as she gripped his shirt in her hands.
Deon squeezed her leg. “You want anything to drink?”
She didn’t respond, but JD said the name of her favorite soda and Deon stood to go get it from one of the vending machines. A teacher approached the table.
“Mr. Dunning-.”
“That’s his stepdad’s niece and she recently lost her mom.” Craig cut the teacher off. “Give her a fucking break.”
The woman arched an eyebrow at him as JD pulled out his phone. He clicked on Reese’s name and the call connected almost immediately.
“Hey, yeah, no she’s here.” JD said into the phone. “I think it was too much. I’m going to take her home.”
“I don’t want to go back to that school.” Dean said quietly. “They don’t treat me the same.”
Deon sat the bottle and a cheeseburger and fries from the line on the table. “Why don't you transfer here.”
“Hell, yeah.” One of the girls at the table said. “We need more good relay girls.”
“Yeah.” The girl across from her offered her a high-five. “Sucked losing to you. But if we could steal you, I’d call that a win.”
This was what she was hoping for when she went to school this morning. Just to be treated like herself. Not afraid that anything that was said would make her shatter. The odd treatment had caused her to shatter. She just wanted to be treated like Dean.
Not the school pariah.
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