A Paper Cut Is The Least Of My Worries

APCLW - Chp 20

Kim’s POV

                I was starting to think that both Vinny and Fiona were avoiding me. They never came to lunch, and whenever I did see them in the hallways, they wouldn’t talk to me. I wondered if it was just coincidence or if it was because of something I’d done. I really needed to talk to them about everything. I still hadn’t been able to talk to Fiona about the breakup and I hadn’t been able to talk to Vinny about it either. I wanted to tell them so much about Will and how nice he was. I was pretty happy with him thus far, and I wanted to share that with my friends. I couldn’t do that if they were ignoring me. So, I specifically stood where they couldn’t not see me at all; right in front of the school doors.  I got there just in time to see Fiona walking in with Vinny, who looked like he’d been beaten up. I went up to them right away. When their eyes set on me, they looked apprehensive about me being around, as if they didn’t want to talk to me. What had I done to them? Whatever it was I just wanted to get passed it so I could get my friends back. 

“Oh my god, Vinny! What happened to you?” I asked him, touching a bruise on his face gently. He jumped at the contact a little and I pulled my hand away, afraid that I’d hurt him. “What happened?” I looked from him to Fiona. They both were silent, still just staring.  “What’s going on here guys? You’ve been ignoring me, what did I do?” I said trying not to cry. It was hard not to though because saying it out loud in front of them made it sound so much worse.

                “You didn’t do anything,” Vincent was quick to say.

“Then why are you guys avoiding me like the plague? Did I say something? If anyone should be avoiding anyone, it should be me avoiding Fiona.” I cast a look to her. She bit her lip nervously and looked to the ground. “But I’m not. I’m not mad about that Fiona, I promise I’m not, but I just want to know why.” I looked at Vinny, which reminded once again that he looked like he’d been beaten up. “And what happened to you?”

“I got in a fight.” He said nonchalantly, as if it was common for him to fight. Vinny didn’t strike me as the fighting type, so this came as a shock to me. “With who? Why?”

“Listen Kim,” Vinny said scoping the area. I was tempted to look around to see what he was looking for, but I didn’t. “We can’t talk about this right now.”

“Why not?” I said starting to get angry. They were definitely avoiding me, there was no way around it.

“Because we just can’t.”

“We?” I glanced to Fiona. “Why are you speaking for her? She can speak for herself, can’t she?”

“We have to get to class.” Fiona spoke up. With that, she took off towards her class, leaving Vinny and I standing there together.

“See you later Kim.” Vinny said and walked away from me.  I couldn’t believe this.  I didn’t know what was going on. I went to class and put my head down on the desk. There was no way I’d be able to pay attention with all this on my mind.

                After class was over I saw Will waiting outside my classroom. He smiled brightly when he saw me, but I couldn’t return his smile. I was too down in the dumps to muster even a fake smile back. He frowned and slipped an arm over my shoulder.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

“My friends…I think they hate me or something. I don’t know what I did, and they won’t tell me.”

“I’m sure they don’t hate you. Maybe they’re just busy.” He assured me. Yeah sure, that was the answer to their weird behavior. I wasn’t going to push it anymore though. I’d just call them later on tonight or something. I let the subject drop as Will walked me to another class and I went inside. The rest of the day was boring, which included lunch as well because once again Vinny and Fiona ditched it. I didn’t even bother to eat lunch; I just left school and went home right away. I felt so alone and depressed at the moment. I wished I could just go grab Chloe out of school and tell her everything that was going on. She only had a couple hours left, but that seemed ages away at the moment. I couldn’t wait that long, I needed someone to talk to now. Since there was no one to talk to, I was just going to use my handy cork screw and lighter to help me cope.