𝐆𝐋𝐔𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 || #𝟏

Chapter 56

"Okay."

"What do you mean, 'okay?'"

"Well what do you want me to say to that?"

"I don't know, but seriously... Just okay?"

"I don't know what you want from me. It's not exactly like I'm going to insult you back."

She chuckles, "yeah. You're too cowardly to do that."

I press my lips into a thin line, sighing as I walk away.

-- ------ --

Emily sulks on the ground, slumped. She has been so torn down about her geography result, she has been huffing and sighing the whole day. She refuses to make eye contact with me, or any one of us. Abigail also just very dumbly revealed that the whole class cheated on the test using her paper, and Emily is mad at all of us. Even me, even though I had nothing to do with it. Apparently it's because I could've 'stopped them' and I 'knew but didn't tell her'.

"Who wants some very healthy, vegan carrots?" Katheryne shrills, pulling up to our table with a food trolley. "We also have special vegan celery sticks, lettuce, and also hummus. What would you guys like to have?"

At this horrible moment, she sees Aubrey pick up a glass of milk and drink it in one gulp. Katheryne is very upset, the grip on her food trolley tightening.

"STOP THIS!" Belle suddenly screeches, bursting out of the cafeteria. "Katheryne, stop... No, look at me, this isn't like you!" She grabs Katheryne's wrists, making her stare at her. "Just look at me, look at me! I can change you, you need to stop this!"

"This is the first time I've ever heard Belle actually speak," Lorelei comments - sniffing in distaste at the scene before her.

"Aubrey, put the milk away," I hissed. Aubrey rolls her eyes, finally looking up from her phone. "You will end up in the emergency room."

"I don't really care to be honest," she shrugs her shoulders. But at this moment, she starts clutching her stomach - and topples over onto the floor. "IT HURTS SO MUCH!"

Everybody immediately rushes to her aid, shaking her violently which only adds to the pain. Nurse Queen comes busting down, waddling over incredibly slowly and starts to bark at everybody. Ms Winny explodes into the cafeteria, and starts to teach a class about CPR to everybody - using Aubrey as her example.

"So, can anybody tell me the first thing to do when there is an unconscious person in front of you?" Ms Winny asks, but nobody replies.

"I-i'm n-not unconscious!" Aubrey sputters, "I'm in pain! Please, can I go to the hospital or something?"

"First, you need to check their pulse." Ms Winny very firmly presses two fingers onto Aubrey's neck - which does actually make Aubrey pass out. "If they do not have a pulse, you need to do chest compressions to the beat of 'row row row your boat. After this, give the unconscious person two breaths every thirty compressions and check their breathing. Now, I am going to perform CPR on Aubrey-'"

"NO!" Emily screams, all of the sudden out of the blue. "I SHOULD'VE PUT THE ANSWER C INSTEAD OF B, THAT'S WHY I ONLY GOT AN EIGHTY-SEVEN ON THE GEOGRAPHY TEST!"

"DUDE, SHUT UP!" Ms Winny screams back, "YOUR FELLOW PEER IS ON THE GROUND DYING FROM A LACK OF OXYGEN!"

"WELL THAT'S ONLY BECAUSE YOU MADE HER PASS OUT!"

"I DID NO SUCH THING!"

"WHY ARE WE ALL YELLING?" Abigail shouts, "I LIKE YELLING. IT'S REALLY FUN, WHO WANTS TO SING THE HARRY POTTER SONG WITH ME?"

"SHUT YOUR TRAP!"

"THAT IS SO RUDE!"

All of the sudden, Alice taps me on the shoulder. She takes my hand, leading me away from the chaos - out into the corridor just outside the cafeteria.

"I just... I wanted to tell you something..." She meekly said, visibly uncomfortable. She takes out her phone, unlocking it and shoves a texting chat in my face. "I just found out about it, and I thought that you should know. That's all, I think you deserve to know what was going on."

A text thread, with Tina and a couple of her other friends from her new school is read by me. Halfway through reading the conversation, I realised that they were talking about me. Both Tina, and Amelia were talking about me. Not in a good way, in a horrible way. Making me seem as if I was a villain who intruded on their lives - even though I hadn't spoken to either of them for the past couple of weeks.

My chest is heavy, but strangely enough I don't find myself caring that much. My heart rumbles, but it doesn't break. Instead, I find myself buried, unable to really express how I am feeling. I know later that I will cry, when I am all alone.

"The rest of the conversation is basically just them talking about you... That's basically all I wanted to tell you..."

"How did you even get in this chat in the first place? Nobody has been able to talk to Tina for ages."

"Tina's mum and my mum are friends, which automatically kind of makes us friends. I'm guessing she thought that I didn't like you either and that I could be trusted, which is why she let me onto the chat in the first place. I kept quiet mostly in it, because I wanted to see what was going on."

"Thanks Alice," I thanked. "Thanks for telling me this, and helping me."

"No problem," Alice smiled. She takes her phone back from me, "but I believe now you need to have a talk with somebody."