A Drop In The Lake

tearing tears

Alessa

Walking back to the table, tray in hand and Cameron hot on my heels, I'm met with a suggestive looking Brook and an unamused Tony. My phone vibrates in the pocket of my sweatshirt, but I leave it until I place my tray onto the table.

Cameron takes his chair and slides it closer to mine while Tony shuffles away from me.

I know Tony isn't my biggest fan, but I mean come on. What did I do to him?

I lean over to whisper into Brook's ear, "What's up his ass?"

Cameron shifts next to me, eyeing Brook and I suspiciously.

"I told him we couldn't have sex last night because I'm on my period," Brook whispers back not so quietly.

My cheeks flame as last night's events take center stage in my mind. I go to look at Cameron for an out when my phone vibrates again.

I pull my phone out of my pocket to find a message from an unknown number. Unprompted, my stomach begins to churn with nerves.

When I finally unlock my phone a haunting message pops up.

Unknown: Alessa.

Unknown: It's Max.

The words slam into my eyes and horror registers in my face as I look up to Cameron.

Cameron's about to say something when my phone vibrates in my hand, signaling an incoming call.

I answer, ready to confront Max, when a chipper woman's voice comes over the phone, "Hi Alessa, this is Alison from OarPass News, and I was hoping to get an exclusive interview with you about Rhea's passing."

The hand holding my phone shutters. My emotions drain from my system. My heart stops beating.

What the hell is happening?

Cameron moves next to me, grabbing the phone out of my hand.

"Who is this?" Deadpans Cameron into the phone.

I know the moment he gets a reply, because his face takes on a similarly blank expression as my own. He sets the phone down on the table and hangs up.

All reason leaves my being as bile rises in my throat. I jump up from the table, rush up the stairs, and into the bathroom. Pushing open the bathroom stall, I begin to dry heave.

"Alessa!" Calls Cameron, running into the bathroom.

"Alessa." Soothes Cameron as he kneels down next to me and grabs the hairband falling out with my bun. He wraps the hairband around his wrist and gathers my hair back into a tight bun at the top of my head.

"Cameron I'm so —" I begin, but the second my mouth opens, my dinner comes crawling up my throat and into the toilet. The vomit scratches my throat as it rushes into the toilet bowl, tearing the tamed tears out of my eyes.

"Shhh." Soothes Cameron. "It's alright, calm down."

"What the hell is going on in here?" Booms Brook's voice.

Another rush of hot vomit flows out of me and Brook rushes over.

"Alessa." Hushes Brook, moving to my other side.

The sound of Brook's worry sends more tears and snot running out of me along with my huffing voice, "I'm sorry Brook. I didn't know she was stressed. I didn't mean to kill her."

Our moment is interrupted by Tony running into the bathroom, exclaiming, "Alessa. Your phone is ringing like crazy —"

He halts at the sight of me leaning over the toilet with Cameron and Brook at my side.

"Give me her phone." Demands Cameron.

"No Cam... don't!" I plead, reaching for my phone.

Cameron ignores my pleas and asks, "What's your password?"

"253772" Supplies Brook.

With that Cameron opens my phone and scrolls through my voicemails and text messages, when he comes across the messages Max sent me, he gripes, "That fucker."

"What is going on in here?" Demands a teacher from the bathroom entry.

"Mr. Boxer, Mr. Salvadore. What are you doing in the women's room?" The teacher's voice comes again.

Cameron moves from my side, shutting my phone off, and walks up to the teacher. "Alessa's not feeling too well right now. Could you call the health center and have them come to pick her up?"

"Sure. Mrs. Hennings can stay with Alessa, but Cameron and Anthony, I'm going to have to ask you to leave the bathroom." Settles the teacher, moving to leave the bathroom.

"I'm sorry, but I will have to decline, I'm not leaving Alessa's side." Argues Cameron.

I turn around to see the teacher huff out a sigh as she leaves the bathroom.

Cameron turns back to me, tears brimming at the side of his eyes.

     "Cameron." I cry.

Cameron kneels down to grab my body into a full-on bear hug.

"I know. I know." Hushes Cameron.

"I'm sorry. I don't know how to — I don't know." I sputter out.

"I'll talk to my PR agent. We'll get this figured out. Don't worry." Continues Cameron, shaking slightly with his tears as he rocks us back and forth.

My emotions filter through me as I choke on my teary hiccups. My hands shake with unfound stability and right now, more than anything in this world, I just want to go back to this morning. Things were so simple before they weren't. My eyes puff up, constricting the tears threatening to spill out.  My heart splinters into a thousand pieces as images of Rhea's body, floating next to me, flood my subconscious.

Everything goes numb as saliva and tears pool on my sweatshirt. Cameron holds me back from running off to who knows where.

Words leave Cameron's mouth, but nothing registers.

Then everything goes black.

What's happening?

My head pounds to the sound of a mallet hitting a drum. Blackness sways before, mixing with a barely there grey, striping my vision. The urge to say something pummels me, but my brain doesn't follow my lead. There I remain, in a screaming silence.

_____________

Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
so I know that I usually put spaces before paragraphs, but when I copy and paste the chapter into Wattpad it doesn't keep the formatting unless I do it on my computer, but then it doesn't keep the indent so IDK.

Anywho....
today's chapter was a lot so I understand if you skipped some parts <3
(I still luv y'all)

So. for today's question, I want to know what your favorite word is...

I know it's specific, but I realized today, that I love the word:
nimmt (takes in German) -- I don't know what it is but the word just sounds so cute and fun!