Love Song

Love Song

A Jaz Johnson Novel

Copyright 2015 © Jaz Johnson

All rights reserved

This book is fiction. Names, characters, places, incidents, and events are entirely fictitious. Any resemblance to any actual events, works, persons, dead or living, is coincidental, and is beyond the intent of the author.

No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, stored in, or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system in any form, whether it be electronic or mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without written consent of the author.

To all of my friends and family, thank you for being there through all my nonsense. Thank you for brainstorming with me, and telling me when I am absolutely not making any sense. You keep my feet on the ground and my head in the clouds.

Thank you!

Shout out to Annie! I love you for crindging at my typos.

To my amazing wonderful fans (if you exist), thank you for reading! When I can’t bring myself to write for me, I write for you, hoping to bring you another story that you’ll love.

Thank you!

If you enjoyed the book, leave a review! I’d love to hear from you!

1

              Climbing onto the red and yellow jungle gym, Marceline crawled into one of the yellow tubes, sitting still and looking through one of the carved out holes. Her heart rang in her ears as she heavily panted. Half a moment later, the two boys that she’d been running from came rushing to the park’s entrance. They looked around frantically, one asking the other where Marceline had gone before the both of them took off in a blind pursuit. Marceline’s freckled, sun-kissed forehead plopped against the dyed rubber with a soft thud of relief.

That was close.

Shifting her body, she stretched out to lay down in the ventilated tube, one arm folding behind her head while the other rested on top of it. She sighed, closing her hazel-green eyes.
Punks
, she thought.

She’d found them in her school’s courtyard picking on some freshman and trying to steal his money. Marceline was never one for bullying, so she decided to throw some rocks. Nothing too big, but she hadn’t expected any of them to make contact, much less to the head. And what’s more, she didn’t expect them to find where she was hiding and to actually go after her. But whatever. She was faster than them, and arguably smarter.

But now she had to go all the way back home. Running to this park was out of way. But if those kids had kept following her, she didn’t want them knowing, or even guessing, where she lived. A necessary sacrifice.

She groaned; it was a long walk home. It was when she finally made the decision to move that she heard what sounded like shouting. Her eyes sprung open with alarm. She shot up with a start, banging the top of her head against the dyed tube with a loud thud. She flinched, wincing as she hissed, holding the top of her head.

Mumbling a swear under her breath, she crawled out of the tube with a bitten bottom lip, stinging in her eyes from the pain. Coming to the edge of the tube, she looked around for the source of the screaming, expecting to maybe see some guy stealing something from some woman, in which case she would crawl back into the tube, and call the police. She was heroic, but she wasn’t stupid. She knew what she could and could not handle.

But what she saw was a girl being kicked on the ground by three other girls. The girl was in a fetal position on the ground, face tucked towards the ground with her hands protectively over her head. It was the three girls that were screaming.

Marceline nearly fell out of the tube in shock at the level of violence the girls were partaking in.

“H-Hey!” she shouted over at them, reaching out with her hand.

And as she did, her balance was offset, causing her to fall out of the tube and onto the acrylic-padded ground. She groaned, hurriedly trying to get to her feet. She didn’t know how long they’d been at it, and she wanted it to stop.

“Hey!” she shouted again, this time jogging into a dash towards them. “Stop it!”

One of the three girls gasped when she saw Marceline coming over, drawing the attention of the others. All of them mumbled in panic to one another before running away from the victim.

She remained in her protective ball as Marceline skid to a stop beside her, glaring in the fleeing girl’s direction, who were glancing back every now and then to see if Marceline had started chasing them.

Marceline wasn’t about to leave the girl on the ground by herself, though. Not after the damage she had just seen her take. She turned around and squatted beside her, pushing her dark chestnut hair back from her face.

“Hey?” she questioned as she ran her eyes over her body, looking for any signs of blood.

Seeing none, she sighed with some relief. A moral victory for getting to her before any serious damage was done. She waited for a response, which she did not get. Frowning, she reached out to her, trying again.

“Hey …”

The moment Marceline touched her arm, the girl flinched away, her head jerking up from the unexpected gentle touch. Marceline’s hand flinched back when she did, her hazel-green eyes meeting the wide and frightful slanted brown ones.

There was an awkward and thick moment of silence between them as the girl glanced towards the three girls, who by now, were almost out of sight. Blood-shot eyes darted back to Marceline’s in both confusion and realization. Her posture slowly straightened, though her neck remained in a submissive bow.

Feeling a sudden twinge of guilt, Marceline drew her hand back, her eyes averting from the girl’s. Getting a look at her up close, she noticed that she was older than she had initially thought – perhaps around her nineteen years. The school uniform she was wearing had made her think otherwise from a distance, but she remembered that there was a private school only two blocks away from the park.

“Sorry … Are you okay? Do you have any bruises?” Marceline asked with concern, her eyes finding her frightened ones again.

Again, there was no response. Marceline began to feel herself coming to a loss. She’d never stuck around after a rescue this long before. There was usually a swift ‘thanks’ or ‘I’m fine’ before they took off in embarrassment. But this girl just stared at her.

And then it dawned on her. Though she didn’t think it was completely likely, she had no choice but to take her ethnicity into consideration. The girls that had run were Asian as well, and so the thought of the girl not knowing how to speak English occurred to her.

Her eyes darted about awkwardly as she tried to think on her feet for another way of expressing what she was trying to say.

“Uh … Are you …
okay
?” she asked with more emphasis, gesturing to her own body.

She pointed back behind her a moment later, trying to imply that she was talking about the girls that had run off.

“
Okay
? Are you
hurt
?” she asked slowly, this time gesturing to the girl’s body, who slightly inched away.

Her brow furrowed some as Marceline’s hand approached. But finally, she got her answer. Not vocally, but with a nod. The girl’s hands wrapped around her arms as she nodded, averting her eyes.

“Oh …” Marceline sighed with some relief. “Good. Do you … Do you speak
English
, or?”

She didn’t answer, but shot Marceline a look like she was both insulted and wanted to be left alone. Marceline’s hands shot up in an apologetic surrender as she grunted and stood up.

“Okay, sorry. Forget it, geez. You’re okay. That’s all I care about. I’ll leave you alone.”

She got up and started to walk away, but couldn’t help but notice that the girl had yet to stand up. And her concern wouldn’t let up. Maybe they had broken her leg? She turned back around and the girl’s neck craned upwards to look at her with caution.

“Just … Can you at least stand up? Prove your legs aren’t broken so I can go home?”

Another stare off. The girl’s eyes narrowed, giving Marceline her answer. Marceline spun around, throwing her arms up in frustration as she started walking towards the park’s exit.

“
Whatever
, kid.”

              “Hey, where’d you go yesterday? You took off like a bat out of hell.”

Todd, one of Marceline’s friends, whined the moment Marceline had approached their table in the cafeteria. They always showed up early to school so they could get in on the only decent thing about it – the muffins they served for breakfast.

Marceline sighed as she sat down at their usual table. Jess and Greg had yet to show up. Jess probably wouldn’t. Greg was probably trying to get his car to start.

“I threw some rocks at some jocks and they chased me.”

“Uhm, why?”

They were picking on some freshman. You know I don’t tolerate that.”

“That’s what the teachers are here are for, Marc,” Todd said with a scoff and a shake of his head as he picked up his carton of chocolate milk.

“Yeah, right. You know they don’t give a damn.”

“Well, you’re going to get your ass kicked one day. And I’m going to have no idea where you are to help you.”

“Like you’d do anything anyway,” Marceline challenged with a smirk. “I’ve seen you fight, Todd.”

“In like,
fourth grade
. Come on, cut me some slack. I’ve been working out.”

“Pumpin’ them marshmallows, right?”

“Oh, shut up. That’s the last time I offer to help you not get beat up.”

“Yeah, yeah. Hey, Greg,” Marceline called out to Greg as he entered the cafeteria from the side entrance.

Greg’s head shot over in their direction, catching the end of Marceline’s wave, and Todd’s nonchalant nod of acknowledgement. Marceline tore off a portion of her muffin, chewing on it as her brows scrunched at a sudden memory.

“And speaking of getting beat up. I helped some other kid yesterday, too. Some girl. I think she was like our age. From the private school over there. These other girls were beating her up, and I scared them off. And you –“

“What are you, a super hero? You got an M in big bold gold under that plaid shirt?” Todd scoffed a laugh.

“Oh, shut up. But yeah, this girl. She didn’t even say
thank you.
She was looking at me like she was going to
kill
me.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know! Well, first she was looking at me like I was going to kill
her
. But then I asked her if she spoke English.”

“Uhm,
why
?”

“Because she wasn’t
answering
me. And she was Asian. I was just covering my bases.”

Todd’s hand slapped against his face as he shook his head.

“You just go around insulting the public.”

“I wasn’t insulting her, I was just –“

“Hey guys,” came Greg’s late greeting as he plopped down at the table beside Todd.

His short blonde curls were still damp from his shower. He raked his hand through his hairline with a sigh to keep his hair back before leaning forward on the table, elbows propping him up.

“What’s this about insulting the public?” he asked with half a smile.

His canines were everything, as was his accent. He looked between them both, waiting for an answer. Marceline rolled her eyes, but before she could defend herself, Todd rushed in.

“She assumed some girl couldn’t speak English because she was Asian.”

Greg’s eyes widened some as they fall upon Marceline’s narrowed ones.

“What? Aw, Marc, that’s not –“

“I
wasn’t
insulting her. I only asked her because she wouldn’t
answer
me!”

“Sure, sure,” Todd subdued, waving a medium ebony hand dismissively.

Marceline frowned as Greg laughed. She rolled her eyes, biting into her muffin again, giving up on the argument and sharing the rest of her day.

********

“So, what are you doing this weekend?” Jess asked, rolling her gum to the other side of her mouth.

She’d shown up late to school, but early enough for gym. For one purpose and one purpose only – to scope out the boys. It one of the three classes they shared. She had two with Todd, and one with Greg. The one she had to herself was a study-hall. She only had eight periods, including lunch, while the rest had nine. She’d played her cards right sophomore year.

Marceline shrugged, watching Jess tie her black, green-tipped locks up into a messy bun.

“I don’t know. Mall. Movies.”

“You want to see that new one that just came out?”

“Which one?”

“The horror one.”

“Ugh, no.”

“You’re such a pansy.”

“I’m a god damned hero, thank you,” Marceline barked, resting her chin against the palm of her hand as her elbow came to prop up on her raised knee.

Jess rolled her brown eyes, her neck tilting back in a groan.

“What else is out?”

“Comedy or Action.”

“I could go for some action.”

“
I’ll say
,” Jess scoffed, brows rising as she turned around to save herself from the scowl she knew was coming.

“The hell?”

Jess shrugged her exposed tan shoulders as she slowly turned back around, her head tilting innocently from side to side.

“I’m just saying, Marc. It’s been like … what? Five months since your last break up?”

“
And
?”

“And … You could use some action.”

“You’re disgusting.”

“Hey, I’m just saying. Your attitude is showing. And that’s a telltale sign.”

“My attitude is showing because you’re being disgusting.”

Jess rolled her eyes, giving another shrug as she turned towards the gymnasium from the bleachers they had parked themselves on. Sometimes Marceline couldn’t help but wish that her friends didn’t speak English. Maybe not Greg; he was a sweetheart. But definitely Todd and Jess. They always had something to say about everything that had
nothing
to do with them.