Apex Predator

Scars

The next day I bounded over to Quinn as she arrived.

'Tana, what are you doing?'

'Just wanted to see how you're feeling?'

'Well, I'm fine. But you can't talk about that here. Reputation, remember?'

'Oh yeah.'

We walked down the corridor to class.

'You know, you could just bring your walls down at school. Nobody will mind. I heard being vulnerable and in touch with your feelings is totally in right now.'

'Nobody wants to see that.'

'I do.'

She stopped walking and turned to look at me.

WHY DID I JUST SAY THAT? LIKE SERIOUSLY?

'Sorry, that just slipped out.'

'No, I liked it.'

She kept on walking again. I tried to keep my mouth shut to stop me from doing any more damage. We reached her locker and she looked at me as if wondering why I was still there. I remained where I was.

'You can go now.'

'I wanna stay. You have English right? My class is right down the hall from yours. Not that I'd been looking or anything I just happened to notice and...'

WHAT WAS WRONG WITH YOU, SAN?!

'Well, what I meant was I'll wait for you and then we can walk together.'

'Yeah, ok.'

I tried my best to hide my excitement.

Quinn opened her locker and unzipped her bag, putting books into it. She stood on her tiptoes and reached up to get a form which was stuck to the top of her locker with a magnet. As she stretched her cheerios top came up slightly, showing her stomach. I took a sharp breath in. Her skin was covered in scars. Some looked like they'd been there for years, others were clearly more recent. Quinn's head turned suddenly to look at me, before realising what I had been gasping at. She lowered her arms quickly.

'Are you ok, Quinn?'

'I'm fine.'

She looked mad all of a sudden.

'But...'

'Forget you ever saw anything, ok? Just leave me alone. Stop meddling in my life.'

She slammed her locker door and pushed past me as she made her way to English. So much for going together.