Care

I stare at Luca.

I stare at his question.

Why does he want to know?

Why should he care?

"Theresa." He acts as if I can't hear him, "Who did that to you?"

"You did." I whisper.

"What?"

"You did!" I yell.

Every emotion that has been bottled up inside of me from the moment I met Luca, rises up in me in the form of anger, and I push him. I push him with all of my might, and he stumbles back. "YOU DID THIS TO ME!" I scream at him and tears flow freely from my eyes. "It's your fault they attacked me! If you didn't talk to me, they would have left me alone!"

Luca's eyebrows pinch together, I can't tell if he's concerned for what I'm saying, or maybe angry that I pushed him.

"Ever since I joined this STUPID club!" I keep yelling because it feels good. It feels good for once to let out my emotion. "You have RUINED my life!" a sob escapes my lips and I crouch to the ground and burry my crying eyes into my hands.

"It was Abby, wasn't it?" Luca says and his voice is low and calm. And at the mention of my attackers, my head whips up, "It was Abby and her group," he affirms his suspicions when I look at him. "I saw them following me today before I talked to you." he shakes his head and for a second I think he might actually apologize. But instead he walks past me.

"Where are you going?" I stand and follow after him.

"They can't treat people like this." he gestures toward me and he looks, angry... maybe. I can't tell.

"So, what are you going to do?" I ask, "Go beat them up? don't you see? that will only make it worse for me! They'll hate me even more if you stand up for me." I grab the sleeve of his shirt to stop him from going. "Leave it alone, that's all you can do."

"That's not all I can do." he slips his sleeve out of my grasp.

"You're not some knight in shining armor!" I yell at him, "You're Luca Freaking Zhang! You don't care about people, remember?"

"That may be." He raises an eyebrow, then takes a step closer to me, "But I do care about my teammates." He says in a low voice. Then he looks up past me to Travis, who has been standing dumbfoundedly for this entire conversation. "Travis, take her to the clubroom." he says, "Clean her up, I'll be back in a little bit."

"I don't WANT your help!" I say to him.

"Well, it's not mine," He says, "It's Travis's. So stop being an idiot and let people help you." His eyes narrow at me, then he turns to leave again.