Prom Night

v. playing by the rules

CH 5

MAYA FELT TENSE.

She had been feeling tense all weekend, on edge. Like any move could bring the nausea and the memories and the feelings back. But no matter how calm she tried to be, the bitterness lingering at the back of her throat would not budge. She had blamed it all on her sickness from the dinner party. I just ate something bad, mom, don't worry about it.

But it seemed like she had every symptom of every illness in the book. She had the jitters and the shakes, the headaches, the fever, the fatigue, the muscle ache, etc., etc., you name it she had it. And it all seemed unexplainable to her mother but Maya knew why. She was making herself sick with everything that was going on.

Stop, she would harshly spit out whenever her mother ran her fingers through her hair, guilt slamming her, but her selfish desire to not be reminded of them anymore won over the possibility of hurting her mother's feelings. She couldn't control herself. It was a nightmare. Maya had never been good at lying; she'd never had to.

"Oh my God. Sweetheart, why do you have so many bruises?" Her mother had asked the night before when Maya was in the middle of taking her sweatshirt off and her shirt had ridden up, exposing the ugly splotches bruising her waist and her stomach. The bruising went beyond that; they were along her hips, bottom, inner thighs, and shoulders; ranging from kneecap bruises, to finger splotches to hickeys. She tried not to look at them whenever she stood in front of a mirror.

Maya shrugged her off, walking into the kitchen to avoid looking at her. "They're from gym class, we we're playing a game of volleyball, and things got intense. You know how I am."

Her mother had stayed silent; Maya could feel her eyes on her as she pretended to look for a snack inside of the fridge. "We ran out of those yogurt cups. You...you hadn't been eating them, so I stopped buying them."

Maya straightened up, feeling foolish. "Oh." How long ago had her mother stopped buying her favorite yogurt? How long has it been since she's been down here looking for a snack? Talking to her mom about anything? But she knows the answer to that. Since the night she was raped and didn't tell anyone, least of all her mother.

"I'm glad you're playing something again, M. I know how sporty you are. And of course, how competitive you get." Maya felt her eyes start to well up, so she dared not to turn around. "Be careful, sweetheart. Please be careful, Maya."

But that was yesterday, and now she's here on a Monday morning, standing next to Gus Terrance. It was third-period Advanced P.E., but since this was a private school, it was a block period. Every day starting today would be block periods, meaning about two hours of her day would be spent with each one of these crazy fuckers. But at least she hasn't seen Peter, not since Friday night in her bathroom. He has a meeting of sorts with a university dean of some other fancy-ass school, but all Maya had really grasped from Gus' explanation was that she would be free from at least one tormentor.

Gym class was usually something she looked forward to; oddly enough, that excitement seemed to die when she realized she would share that class with captain of the football team, Gus. But hey, she had always shared this class with him, and they had even practiced together a few times. She clenches her fists at the memory because fuck, she had even had a crush on him at some point, but then again, so had everyone else.

The thing about Gus was that even though he wasn't the leader of the little trio, he had always been the more good-looking one. Maybe it was the blue of his eyes that captivated people, his head of dark curls, or the way he smiled at people like they shared an inside joke. Whatever the case, there was no questioning why he was popular. Attractive? Check. Charismatic? Check. Good connections? He was a Remington's best bud, check check check.