Magnetism

6 - breathe

**TW- description of assault, nothing too graphic**

Next week passed much the same as usual. A lot of classes, lunches shared between Ivy and I, homework. Life was peaceful and calm yet incredibly boring.

I'm not quite sure why I was outside when it all happened. I felt the cold air through my finger tips and the smell of leaves through the breeze. Ice filled my lungs as i walked further and further off of school property. The sun shone vividly, seconds before it all I remember I looked up. Squeezing my eyes shut, I tilted my head towards the sky and let myself bask in the pleasantness of the day.

Perhaps it was that it I was having too nice of a time? Maybe I had become too relaxed? Conceivably, something out there required something to go wrong for me? Whatever the reason, the boring week shattered and along came a hell of a lot more events  then I needed.

The first indication of everything that went wrong was just a sound. A scream that ripped through the air, silencing everything is it's path. Instinctively my body whipped around. My eyes scanned the area for the sound, they scoured the surface area of the school yard hunting for source. My head wanted me to move, to get away from the noise where distressing things were clearly happening. It must have been a few minutes that I was standing there, listening to the sound entering my ears and trying to figure out exactly where it was coming from.
**
All of me was completely consumed by the violent sounding scream, it paused for a couple of seconds then restarted again. Gradually becoming weaker and more diluted but the chatter of people around. I wasn't paying enough attention around me to realise the presence that came over my left soldier... not until I felt them

A breathe traveled from my neck down to my collar bone

Their hand slid firmly down my arm, to my left breast, to my waist and then to my butt.

None of me was thinking, my body was reacting and I didn't know I was doing it until it happened. But his hand was still there and despite my squirming and desperate attempts to move out of their grasp they wouldn't let go.

As I stood there, hot tears rolling down my face, instincts took over. To begin with my elbow jolted backwards went sharply into this persons rib cage. I turned around, my fist connecting with the persons stomach. My joints shook and my breathe quickened. There was now a person right in front of me doubled over, panting in pain. They looked up at me, he looked up at me, with venom in his eyes. From there everything is fuzzy, all I can remember is backing away slowly, his eyes fixed on mine.
**
A buzz of people surrounded him and I, but my legs kept bringing me further and further away. His icy eyes were burning into me, a familiarity hung within them but I couldn't place exactly what it was then. He wasn't the only one staring at me though, plenty of people were looking, watching, questioning. I could feel the assumptions in the air, eyes gleamed with gossip my thoughts dancing between reality and what was to come.

It was all too much.

The feeling is difficult to describe but there was no mistaking it. I suppose the easiest way is as if you have forgotten how breathe, it was as if I had been holding the worlds longest breathe and suddenly my lungs were compensating. Nothing was clear. My vision was blurred, my thoughts were darting but emotions were all over the place. Everything was spinning.

I wasn't there yet I was; it was almost as if I was an onlooker watching everything from a blurred screen. Everything was so slow yet terrifyingly fast. A racing pulse shook my body and the feel of something damp spread down my cheek. My back was then against something hard, a wall. Almost immediately I sank down against it, scrunched in a crossed legged ball trying to understand what was going on.

That was where she found me. I have no idea how she found me or why she was there but infront of my blurry eyes emerged the outline of Ivy. Due to my state I couldn't focus on her features or her emotions but I knew it was her from the distinctive sound of her voice.
"Brooke" a single word, my name, from her it sounded like more then that, it sounded like hope.

I blinked, attempting the focus on her. Seeing clearly was my goal however my breathing was making that impossible and that just made me panic more and-

"Brooke. It's me, it's Ivy" her hand tentatively grasped mine "I'm going to help you stand and up and take you indoors"

That's what she did. I can't remember how or where or even how fast but the next think I remember is the blurry outline of some kind of classroom. Her gentle arms pulled me slowly onto the floor with her kneeling right in front of me. Growing more and more frustrated that I couldn't see her, I tried talking. I ended up hiccuping instead making an unrecognisable noise come out if Ivys mouth

"Let's try something else okay?" She asked nicely

"I'm going to touch you okay." A breath. "I'm going to put my hands right on your rib cage and when I squeeze I want you to take a breathe and hold it until I stop"

The fuzzy hazy state I was in was becoming even more unbearable. All of me was on fire and I could feel my limbs shaking. As much as I would usually hate that I was here like this, that thought barely crossed my mind. She was there...looking at me with her stupid doe eyes and instantly I felt my head nod.

Her hands reached onto my ribs and lightly applied pressure. I let my lungs fill up with air once again. In the background Ivy was saying something to me but that just blurred into everything else. My air was burning to come out of my lungs and I tried, I really tried, to hold it but I just couldn't.

"Oh it's okay...it's okay" she said sweetly "come on let's try again"

So we repeated it again, unsuccessfully. As she kept doing it I was holding my breathe longer and longer. Slowly but surely, she was no longer a blur but herself once again adding another level of relief to my lungs.

"I think you can stop now" I whispered

"Good"

We both sank down against the wall looking into the others eyes. Ivy placed her hand in my lap and I delicately intertwined my fingers with hers.