FIONA | ✔️

Chapter 37

Monday came and even if I didn’t have it in me to go to school and face my friends, I knew I needed to get out of the house.

My parents and my sister were watching me like I was going to break and go crazy at any minute and I knew it was coming from a good place but I still wanted to be on my own and if facing my friends for a few hours would take me away from them for a while then so be it.

The shock on their faces when I got downstairs was expected and I almost laughed but I didn’t.

I hadn’t laughed since the night of the party.

“Hi, Fiona.” Derek said making me look at him and I gave him a fake smile.

He had also been checking up on my constantly even though I hadn’t said a word to him.

“Can you drop me off at school?” I asked making everyone look at me.

“Sweetheart are you sure you want to go to school?” My mum asked and I nodded.

“I can’t run away from school forever mum so I might as well get it over with.”

“But—”

“I’ll be fine.” I told her making her let out a tired sigh.

“It’s fine, I’ll drop her off. It’s on my way to work anyway.” Derek said before getting up.

I avoided eye contact with my sister because I knew she would see right through me and I was scared of breaking down in front of her. I was trying so hard to look brave in front of them.

I walked ahead of Derek to his car but not before giving my award-winning fake smile.

I heard my mum say she was worried about me when she thought I was gone but I chose to ignore that.

I was going to ignore everything and just focus on going to school even though I wasn’t sure it was a good idea.

The ride to school was quiet and I was grateful that Derek didn’t try to talk to me because I sure didn’t want to talk to him.

As soon as we got to school, I stared at the building like I was expecting it to open up and swallow me and when that didn’t happen, I decided to suck it up and pull my hoodie over my head before plugging my headphones that were connected to my iPod in my ears.

“You can call me if you need me to pick you up or if you need anything okay?” He asked and I nodded.

“Thanks, Derek.” I told him before getting out and pressing play on my music.

Derek telling me to call him suddenly made me remember to switch on my phone. I hadn’t used it since Friday and I knew I was going to have a lot of messages from my friends but I was going to play the ignorant card with that one too.

As soon as I got to school, I could feel the eyes of people on me and for a moment, I felt like they’d all heard what happened to me and wanted to see me but I kept my head down and kept walking.

I just needed to make it to my locker and then to my next class.

A pair of sneakers made me stop in my tracks and I raised my head to see Emily with a panicked look.

Her mouth was moving but I couldn’t hear a word she was saying so I yanked my headphones out to hear her.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her and this time, I could hear the whispers of people around me.

“That must be her.”

“Isn’t she the girl that’s been hanging out with Alexander Reed and his friends lately?”