Fourteen by C.M. Smith Page A

and shrugged.
    “It happens.”
    “It sucks.”
    “Yeah.”
    I looked around to see that almost all of the kids and parents were gone. The small amount of sun we’d seen today was disappearing behind the clouds, and I grabbed his elbow, pulling him toward the abandoned jungle gym. I stopped him at the bottom and grabbed onto the sides before stepping up onto the bottom rung and climbing up to the top. After situating myself and dangling my legs in between the bars, I looked down at him.
    “You coming up?”
    “I guess so.”
    I held on to the bar I sat on and watched as he climbed up, getting settled next to me and holding on just as tightly as I was.
    “What are we doing up here?”
    “When you were little, did you ever think that sitting up here made you feel like the king of the world? You could see everything in the playground and watch everything everyone else was doing?”
    “Well, no. I do now, though.”
    I giggled and leaned over to gently bump my shoulder against his.
    “I’d climb up here when someone would say something mean about me,” I said, looking out over the expanse of the small playground. “No one else was really brave enough to sit up on the top like this, so I felt like it was my escape.”
    “How long have we been . . . ?”
    “Since middle school, you’ve all been making fun of me for my weight.”
    “Did you ever have someone fight for you?”
    “Christina and Vince wanted to, but I wouldn’t let them.” I looked over at him, resting my chin on my shoulder. “It was never their battle to fight.”
    “It’s okay to ask for help sometimes, Anna.”
    “I’m not dragging anyone else into this when I don’t have to. Christina and Vince are their own little unit, and I wasn’t going to let something like them defending me cause them to be made fun of, too. They have their own lives; this is mine.”
    “You can’t always be this stubborn.”
    “Yeah.” I grinned. “I am.”
    “I’ll fight for you.”
    I snorted and looked away from him.
    “You’re going to have a hell of a time when we go to school tomorrow, Evan. Don’t worry about it.”
    “I don’t care about that.”
    “You won’t until you’re in the middle of it.”
    “You’re really always like this?”
    “Yes.”
    “Good to know.”
    “This is me, Evan. I’ve never compromised that for anyone, and I won’t do it for you.”
    “I don’t want you to.”
    I looked back over to the playhouse. A few children were running through the doorways and laughing innocently when I felt his hand covering mine. He trailed his fingers over the back of my hand and slowly worked them underneath my palm.
    “You’re not like anyone else,” he said, sliding his fingers in between mine. “It’s hard trying to pin you down.”
    “That’s bad, I’m guessing.”
    “No.” He laughed. “You’re different and I like it.”
    “Mm.” I looked back out over the playground.
    While we’d climbed on the jungle gym and had a conversation about how stubborn I was, the kids and their parents had abandoned the playground and the sun had begun to set behind the trees. I didn’t know how I didn’t hear parents call their kids or the shouts and tantrums when they were told that they had to leave, but Evan and I were the only two left on the entire playground.
    “I do!” Evan exclaimed, bumping my shoulder with his.
    “Okay.” I laughed, looking over at him once more.
    He tilted his head to the side and pursed his lips.
    “I mean it!”
    “All right!”
    “Believe me.”
    “I believe you!”
    “Are you lying?”
    “Yes.”
    “Anna!” he exclaimed.
    “I’m being honest with you!”
    “Why do you think it’s so hard for me to like you?”
    “Because you never have before!”
    His face fell and he shifted uncomfortably, looking out toward the playhouse again.
    “I’ve made mistakes, Anna,” he said. The muscle in his jaw twitched. “This isn’t one of them.”
    “At least, not yet, right?”
    I snorted