The Henry Sessions Read Free Page A

Elsie, ready to… I don’t know. I wanted to yell at her and kiss her and keep her safe from disgusting guys like John.
    “What the hell, Logan?” John shouted and pushed me. I pushed him back, waiting for him to hit me. I’d instigated the fight, so if I threw a punch I would get expelled for sure, maybe even get charged for assault.
    “You were practically molesting her in front of the whole school!” I yelled at him.
    “It’s not molesting if she wanted it!” John shouted back.
    We were both trying to out-shout each other when Jason got into the mix. Then I realized Elsie was gone. Luckily, someone said they saw her running to the exit, so I took off after her with Jason right behind me.
    We caught up with her, and I swear, it took everything I had in me not to just tackle her to the ground and… I didn’t know. Those damned teenage hormones firing on all cylinders.
    Jason went back to his date right after he realized that Elsie was fine, that we were just acting like children. There, alone in the dark hallway with Elsie, I was filled with so many warring emotions, the main one being protectiveness. I didn’t want her with guys like John who didn’t respect her, but honestly, I didn’t know one guy deserving of her. Me? Hell no. I was just a horny teenage guy too. “You shouldn’t have let him do that,” I told her.
    “We were just dancing.” She looked like she was about to cry.
    I didn’t know what to say to take that look away from her face and ended up saying the first thing that popped into my head. “Now the whole school will see that you’re easy.” I didn’t know why I said it. I meant to say the school would think she was easy. “Elsie, I didn’t mean it like that,” I added quickly.
    “I hate you,” she said and flipped me off.
    “I didn’t mean it like that,” I said again, but she was already gone. I faced the nearest locker and pounded my head into it repeatedly. Nina found me like that a few minutes later.
    “Are you okay?” she asked me.
    “I’m great, Nina,” I said. “What the hell does it look like?”
    “It looks like you got jealous because John was touching Elsie.”
    I took deep breaths to stave off the headache. “She’s like a little sister to me, alright?”
    Nina didn’t look convinced but she nodded anyway. “Fine. Can we just go back to our homecoming dance?”
    I took her by the hand and led her back into the gym, glad for any kind of distraction.
    “Well, if you look like a whore and quack like a whore,” she said under breath.
    That was the first time I noticed the nasty streak in Nina, but at that point in my life, she was the only female left who could still stand me, so I just asked her to can it.

 
    I didn’t stop coming over to the Shermans house but Elsie made sure I felt the chill. She froze me out, refusing to even acknowledge my presence. One night, during dinner, her parents asked flat out why she was so angry with me.
    “Because Henry is a jerkface,” she said and kept eating.
    The Colonel eyed me but said to her, “Can you expound on that?”
    Elsie shook her head. Jason spoke up. “It was because at the homecoming dance last week, Elsie’s date was touching her inappropriately and Henry put an end to it.” Jason yelped. I was pretty sure Elsie kicked him under the table.
    Mrs. Sherman shot me a look of gratitude. She loaded my plate with another slice of meatloaf and another heap of mashed potatoes. “Well, we really appreciate that, Henry.”
    Elsie sputtered. “What? You’re taking his side?”
    “Yes. He did the right thing,” her dad said, and her face turned even redder. “Who knows what the boy would have done to you if Henry hadn’t put a stop to it.”
    “It didn’t occur to you that maybe I was letting John touch me?”
    The Colonel’s eyes narrowed. “I should hope not.”
    “Oh my God, you’re so sexist!” she shouted and pushed away from the table.
    I was pretty miserable by then, my earlier feeling