Before Us (GirlXGirl)

Chapter 10

The alarm blared and Lainey rolled over on the air mattress. She maybe fell asleep an hour before she woke up.

Lexi climbed out of bed and turning it off, "morning." She smiled softly, yawning.

Lainey raised up and sat on the air mattress, "good morning." She tried stretching her arm and groaned, softly moving it back.

"I have a sling you can use." She said as she left the room and came back with it shortly after.

She handed it to Lainey and Lainey took it with her good arm. "Can I just stay here today?" Lainey said quietly.

"Lainey, we have two weeks left, you have to go. What if you miss something important?" Lexi asked.

"I don't even care anymore." Lainey growled softly as she rubbed her pounding head.

"You will care when you don't have a high school diploma and have to repeat senior year." Lexi raised her brow.

"Come on, I have clean clothes you could wear." She smiled, tossing her a stack of clothes. Lainey took them and went into the bathroom.

She changed and used some mouth wash. Lainey searched through the medicine cabinet for any pain killer at all and found some 800mg Tylenol. She popped back two with some tap water. She brushed her fingers through her moppy hair and left the bathroom.

Lexi drove them both to school and Lainey tried her best to avoid the big crowds to her classes, realizing she did not finish her homework the night before. She was able to work something out with the teachers after explaining she worked until 3am and had family issues over the weekend.

In the hallway after her last class, she saw Jess at her locker. She looked concerned when she saw her, Lainey didn't blame her. She was hungover, had an hour of sleep, was noticeably bruised from her dad and not to mention the arm sling. Her messy hair even frizzier and messier. She looked like a mess. Lainey looked away from her and continued on her way to her own locker.

Jess followed her, "what happened to you..." she stopped, watching her as she struggled to open her locker.

Lainey continued to put her books in her locker before going home with Lexi again. Without emotion and not looking at her, Lainey said, "I thought you didn't care anymore."

She sounded drained, she was emotionally drained and not to mention exhausted, so this was the real Lainey coming out now without holding back.

Jess didn't say anything for a bit. She rolled her eyes and closed her locker, staring at her, wanting Lainey to look at her back, "of course I care about you, but it's kind of hard when you're self-destructing and won't let me in."

Lainey just stood there looking down at her feet. It was more than just that. She didn't want to self destruct when everything else fell apart right in front of her, she just couldn't help it, nobody can.

"I won't let you in because you're too busy letting Chase in." Lainey scoffed as she rolled her eyes and reopened her locker again grabbing her laptop for her assignments.

"I'm letting Chase in? Are you fucking crazy?" Jess's eyes widened.

Lainey quickly chimed in, "I see the way you look at him. I heard you two the other night in the tent." Lainey finally looked her in her eyes, if it really was Jess, she could not have denied or lied her away around that. She thought Jess would've raised her voice or looked angry, but her eyes softened.

"Lainey, It's not Chase that I want..." she stopped as Lexi approached behind Lainey.

Lexi not realizing they were even speaking placed her hand on Lainey's shoulder to grab her attention, "you ready?" She smiled softly at her and then back at Jess.