Sinking

Chapter 1. Glass Face

Maddox ended up with a 2 inch long scar on his face after that night. The doctors said that should've hit his left eye but a miracle denied that. Maddox was relieved, until he went back to school. He went straight to school 3 days after the incident. Which surprised him, he wanted to stay home for a week at least. But alas, he went to school on a breezy cold morning.

God, why did this happen to me? First I almost get blinded, and now I'm going back to school 3 days later? Why is this happening?
Usually on school mornings I would wake up and brush my teeth, eat breakfast, but today my Mom made me clean up my room! Ugh.
I put on my outfit for the day and head off for the bus. I am already dreading this day. I can already see the insults; 'scar face' 'car wreck' 'glass face'. Todays gonna be a mess.
I usually would walk up to the bus stop with my friend Calvin, but it seems he's not here today. I feel like he could've been the one spark of hope in my day.
I walk up to the bus stop and surprisingly nobody says anything, I thought that maybe people would make fun of me but nobody did. Maybe today won't be so ba-
SCREECH
I felt my heart stop.
I look to my left and I see my school bus scratching the road with its brakes. I can faintly see my bus driver, he looks surprised with a phone in his hand. And he looked like he was adjusting his blonde hair too.
As the bus pulled up to my group, I felt like I needed to tell him something.
"Bro put your phone down when your driving a literal school bus! There's kids onboard!" I yelled.
"Don't tell me what to do!" My bus driver Harold yelled back. He was around his 20's, he probably just graduated, he decided he needed a job so now he's our bus driver. A terrible bus driver.
"Go sit down!" He then yelled one last time.
I grunted and walked towards my usual bus seat. In the 6th row, right in the middle. And on the left side.
I put my face against the window and I feel a sharp pain on my face.
It seems my face hasn't fully healed yet, so I just accidentally went ahead and put a freezing cold window on my flesh exposed wound. I got stitches, but the doctor didn't do a very job.
We went on our usual route for a while, except this time I was very tense because Harold proceeded to look on his phone while driving. Someone oughta knock some sense into him one day.
As we got to the next stop, I wasn't paying full attention, so when my friend Natasha suddenly yelled, "HI MADDIE!" I got startled.
"Jesus you almost gave me a heart attack," I said quietly.
I then remembered I had a huge scar on my face so I put my hand over it quickly. Very quickly. I accidentally slapped myself.
"Why weren't you here Maddie?" She asked. She's been calling me Maddie since we were in 3rd grade, and honestly I kinda liked it.
"I was sick," I replied, "I'm feeling better now though."
"Oh okay!" Honestly I'm glad she fell for it.
Usually I wouldn't lie to Natasha, but today was different. I have no idea how I'm gonna hide this scar for the rest of the day, I'll probably just go and fall asleep in the nurses office.
"Soooo," Natasha paused, "did you hear about Calvin?"
"What about Calvi-"
"HEY MADDOX!"
Holy-
"Oh hey Natasha."
"Hi Andrew!"
So it seems that we've already arrived to the next bus stop. And Mr. Andrew over here made my blood ice cold.
"Maddox where the hell you've been?" Andrew asked, "honestly I thought you were dead," he snickered.
"He's sick," Natasha answered for me.
"Oh really? Let me feel your forehead," He requested.
"Okay."
"We'll move your hand first, I need your full forehead."
Uh oh.
If I move my hand, then everyone will see my scar, my terrible huge scar.
"Uh no that's okay-"
"Aww c'mon Maddie, if you won't let Andrew feel it then let me feel it," Natasha said.
"Uhh okay."
I slowly put my hand off my face and the windy breeze from outside hits it like a truck. I shiver slightly but I don't think they noticed.
Don't see the scar, don't see the scar, don't see the scar, don't see the scar! I kept thinking to myself as Natasha put her hand to my forehead.
SCREECH!
The bus comes to a halt and I feel like my soul fell out of my chest. Not to mention I hit my scar on the cold window again.
"Ouch! Ah-"
"Maddie what happened?!" Natasha quickly yelled out.
"Quick Maddox show your left cheek, it it bleeding?" Andrew said.
God damn you Harold.
I guess there's no other option.
The moment I showed my cheek, I could hear Natasha slightly gasp. I feel bad now.
"Oh wow Maddox," Andrew proceeded to say, "what happened?"
I guess I owed them the truth.
"Well I was actually gone for 3 days because I was in the hospital, there was a car accident right on my window, and a glass shard pierced my face."
"O-M-G!" Natasha yelled. She quickly came to hug me, "I'm so glad you're okay!"
Great, if they're gonna be loud then everyone in the school will know, I thought.
I quickly shushed them and gestured to other kids on the bus.
"Ohhh, you want to let other kids to know? Got it!" Andrew quickly replied.
"No wait!-"
It's no use, he already went to the back of the bus to tell everybody.
"You'll be juuuust fine Maddie!" Natasha said, still hugging me.
I thought about telling her to let me go, but eventually I just accepted it.
...
Kids are whispering in the back.
That kid is texting someone.
Someone just giggled.
I'm way too nervous for this.
As we close in on the school, I see a lot of kids on their phones. Hopefully they're just looking on Instagram or Snapchat or whatever.
"C'mon Maddie, I'll follow you on your way out," Natasha is a nice girl, but times like today I just want to be alone.
"Not today Natasha sorry."
"Oh... Okay."
I felt bad already.
I slowly walk down the steps of the bus and I feel the cold breeze up against my scar. It felt like nature just wanted to hurt me.
I put my hand up to my scar again, slowly this time. It was quite nice actually, the feeling of my warm hand touching my badly stitched wound.
As I walk through the front doors I find almost every kid whispering. This can't be good. I thought.
There's so many different expressions all around, shocked, smiling, sorrow. They must know do they, they know about the accident.
I walk in slowly and it felt like everybody was staring at me, I'm sure nobody was at the moment, but then, "Move your hand!" It was from the left.
I look to the left and I see a small blonde kid smiling.
"Um, why?" I asked.
"Move it!" The kid yelled.
Welp, this is it. I thought.
I slowly move my hand from my face. And that nice warmth on it from my hand fades.
The scar has been revealed.
The kid snickered, "Look it's glass face boy!"
Called it.