Anxiety Attack

Chapter 28

Finley' P.O.V

I sighed deeply as I trudged into my history class, just ready to go home and sleep for hours like I have been doing for the past week, the week where I haven't been talking to Eli.

And even though this class was with Mr. Parker, I still wanted to stab my eyeball with a pencil.

I kept my eyes down as he talked, keeping them firmly placed in my paper where my messy handwriting had scribbled notes. He was talking about oligarchy and forms of dictatorship and suddenly the dreaded words came out of his mouth- "Everyone get in partners and do this worksheet."

I sighed again, even more deeply as everyone scrambled to be with their friends while Mr. Parker handed out the worksheet. I stayed where I was, knowing I had no friends in this class and I was about to settle for working by myself yet again when I heard a tentative voice come from the side.

"Wanna be partners?"

I looked over and saw a girl with dirty blond hair and blue eyes smiling at me.

"S-Sure," I agreed, deciding that i needed to get myself new friends, or, rather, some friends in general.

She smiled at me, showing her braces. "I'm Ashton," she offered.

"F-Finley," I answered.

Ashton sat down next to me and Mr. Parker handed us our worksheets." "Okay," she began. "Oligarchy is a form of dictatorship, which is an example of tyrannical government-"

I sat back and listened to her talk, and thought to myself, maybe I don't need to hide who I am at school.

Then I understood what Eli was yelling about.

...

At lunch, I went off on my own again, sitting in the corner of the cafeteria as it was too cold to eat outside. I had just bit into my sandwich when Ashton slid into a chair across from me.

I blinked at her as she smiled. "I saw you by yourself," she explained, fiddling with her fingers. "Thought you might want some company."

I smiled. "It's o-okay," I said.

I looked at her lunch tray and saw that she didn't have one. "Aren't y-you going to e-eat?" I asked her, frowning. By lunchtime, I was starving and couldn't wait to eat.

Ashton smiled slightly. "I'm anorexic," she explained, as if stating that she had braces, that's how easy she made it sound.

I blinked and stammered, "Oh I'm s-sorry, I didn't mean-"

"It's okay," Ashton reassured me. "It's my problem, I choose to do it and it's my problem, not yours. Besides, you didn't know."

I nodded, understanding. "F-For the record, i-if it helps, you're r-really skinny. You're pretty, and you d-don't need to do th-that to yourself"

Ashton laughed. "Thanks, but you wouldn't understand. My sister's a model, and even though she's a good six inches taller than me, she's good twenty pounds lighter. Not good for your self-esteem, especially when your parents always compare the two. "

I pondered that for a couple seconds then said, "Well, you're n-not your sister, you're Ashton."

Ashton smiled, a bright smile that I hadn't seen on her face. "I've just met you, and yet you're nicer than my entire family so far."

I shrugged.

Ashton chuckled and then swung her feet up to rest on another chair. "So what about you?" she asked. "Anything frowned on by society wrong with you?"