Chapter 1: Introduction
The cafeteria was painfully deafening. A hundred conversations roared in my ears as I trudged past the long line of overpriced Salisbury steaks. The smell of fried food assaulted my senses at every step. I was met halfway by the giant Styrofoam cups of generic cola and plastic bowls of mystery soup.
A trio of girls behind me giggled about their cheerleading practice. I pretended not to hear and ducked past them into the sea of bodies.
"Troy!"
I could hardly keep my eyes from rolling as I muttered the obnoxiously loud greeting, contrasting it with the acidic sarcasm that accompanied it. The Friday afternoon crowd in the cafeteria had been inordinately high, which meant finding a seat was impossible, save for the one next to my primary tormenter. And so here I sat, fuming over the vile slur hurled across the table by the handsome yet horrid jock.
His words rang in my ears like a hideous cacophony - "I've got more meat down there than you'll ever have." The crowd erupted into crude laughter that stung my pride and intelligence, overshadowing my universal unpopularity.
Next to us, a senior girl whispered to her friend, "I heard Sam's got the size of a toothpick." I clenched my fists, my fingers digging into my palms.
Seething, I glanced at Troy from the corner of my eyes. He was laughing with his friends, nonchalant and utterly at ease. Him and his cohorts swapped smutty tales and lewd jokes, their booming laughter puncturing the sea of noise in the cafeteria. "Sammy" the girls called me. To them, I was a joke, an outsider to the sporty world.
Discreetly, I tried to shift focus from his crude and insensitive words.
I scanned the rows of students, wondering if I could make a dash to an empty seat further away. All hope slipped from my grasp when I saw that the lunchroom was packed to capacity. The jocks and cheerleaders on either side of me, swiveled to watch my every move.
Troy glanced at me, the satisfied smirk evident on his tanned face. "What's the matter, Sammy? Not man enough to handle the truth?" I felt the weight of embarrassed stares from my peers, and an unexpected surge of anger flickered inside me.