The Coward

         On the surface, he appeared to be a coward.  Consciously, he thought of himself as a coward, but his unconscious knew better.  His unconscious continually hid the fact that he was a cold-blooded killer, always sending him feelings of avoiding confrontation.  His unconscious would tell him to “say something funny…buy him a drink…just walk away.”  His unconscious wasn’t trying to protect him, his unconscious was trying to protect the person threatening him.  This led to him being an easy target for bullying.  He had been bullied his entire life.

         Larry was friendly to everyone at school; the teachers, the students, even the janitors.  He was shy and didn’t speak much, but he was still friendly.  He wished he wasn’t as shy, wish he had just a little more courage, a little more courage to approach her.  She was beautiful, with long, blonde hair, and almond-shaped eyes with a shade of blue that would make the ocean jealous.  She had a smile that made his heart skip a beat and a laugh that made him want to be ever-so-close to her.  But it wasn’t his courage that kept him away from her, no, it was the superstar-athlete that was her boyfriend that kept him away.

         Larry was inadvertently staring at her, watching her interact with her friends, talking and laughing without a care in the world.  He started to daydream about what it would be like to laugh with her, to share his thoughts with her, to kiss her.

         Suddenly, Larry was jolted out of his daydream, when he was shoved violently from behind.  Larry flew forward several feet, ramming into one of the football players standing in the hallway.  Larry fell to the ground, his books and papers falling everywhere.

         “Hey, what the fuck!” the huge football player exclaimed. 

         Larry looked up from the floor, trying to grab his books and papers.  “I’m, I’m sorry,” the words weakly fumbled out of his mouth.

         “You’re damn right, you’re sorry!  What’s your fucking problem?”

         “I…I…” Larry turned around trying to find the person who had pushed him.

         “I…I…” the football player mocked, and with a quick, open-handed jab to the chest, he sent Larry flying backward, crashing into a cheerleader, knocking them both down, books, papers and pom-poms flying everywhere.  “Watch where you’re fucking going!”

         Larry slowly got to his feet and tried to help her up.  “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to…” but she cut him off before he could finish his sentence. 

         “Watch what you’re doing, you jerk!” she shoved his hand away and stood up on her own.

         The football player and his friends started laughing.  “Nice going Larry, you clumsy fuck!”

         Larry ignored them and started gathering his books and papers again.

         “What’s this?” the cheerleader said.

         Larry looked over.  She was reading one of his papers.  Oh, shit!

         “If only for a moment, she knew how truly beautiful she really was.  Her blonde hair as golden as the wheat fields back home, her eyes, as blue and as deep as the ocean.”  The cheerleader turned and looked at Larry.  “Who is this about?”

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