Alissa

DISTRUST

"No she won't," Kevin steps in front of Alissa.

"So you trust her now?" Lucas raises his hand in confusion.

"No," he looks back at her. "But I don't trust you either. You have a reputation to be an asshole, a bully. What makes you think you're looking like the innocent one here? Why don't you reveal your secret so that we can all trust you?"

He winces.

"But Kevin," Holly says. "He does have a point. She joined like two days before the break started and now we're all here. What are the odds?"

He doesn't turn around. "Holly, weren't you said to be the supposed valedictorian next year? Aren't you the girl who follows all the rules and stays out of trouble? The odds for you being here was the least if you ask me."

Sarah resists a chuckles but it breaks out anyway. Apart from saying the right thing at the right time, she also has a habit of laughing at the wrong time. Everyone pretends to have not heard it.

He steps forwards and stretches his arm out, beckoning Lucas to give the phone back. He tosses it back to him and Kevin catches it swiftly with the other.

He turns back and hands the phone to Alissa, their hands touching for a brief second.

"Don't make me regret this," he walks past her.

***

It's been an hour since Megan started to hate her dying mother and a six foot three boy who never even looked at her in the hallway when things were normal.

Alissa and Aman are sitting with their backs against the locker while Derek is pacing around the hallway, taking it on himself to drive him insane trying to figure out who HEL is.

Cody, just like Megan, is sitting alone, looking at the ground with nothing but fear in his eyes. A Palestine in his mind, he's mentally far away from the rest of the group. His parents have seen his confession by now, he's sure of that. What if his mother hates him now? After all, ignorance is bliss. They'll probably be getting a divorce now, he thinks. He can't focus on one thing. Too many scenarios are going on in his brain at the same time. Parents fighting, divorce talks, his mother taking a little too many sleeping pills.

His eyes start to water again, when he blames himself—for the millionth time—for breaking up his family. Helplessness and powerlessness dawns upon him, making him want to scream until his lungs give out.

"I'm going back home," he declares out of the blue, catching everybody's attention.

They all look at him with sympathetic eyes. "Are you sure you can do that? Without his permission, I mean," Aman asks.

"He has ruined my life already. What else does he want from me," he gets up, jerking his legs to wake them up.

He continues when no one says anything. "Good luck, guys," a hollow smile curling his thin lips upwards.

He pulls open the washroom door, setting one of his foot inside, when the calming sound of chiming bells, that these teenagers have begun to dread, rings again.

Cody halts midstep and looks over his shoulder at Alissa Gray. With goosebumps just like everybody else, his hands shiver waiting for Alissa to read out the message.

Nobody leaves without my permission or else, their secrets will be instantly out.

Cody collapses on the ground, his heavy frame making a deep thud on his fall.