For A Brief Moment

Chapter 18: I want to go home

Cassie was in pieces as she ran into the girl's locker room, running towards the furthest corner she could, before her body fell against the wall, falling to the floor. she held her knees to her chest, her face burring itself into the gap. She struggled to catch her breath, her sobs breaking every time. Her makeup smudged on her jeans, and the salty tears stung the cuts.

"Cassie, Cassie you in here?" Chrissy whispered franticly before she rounded the corner. Cassie looked up as Chrissy looked in such pain for a minute, "Buttercup."

Chrissy ran towards her, collapsing to her knees, before wrapping her arms around her shivering body. She hushed Cassie as she unfolded there and then, letting out every little cry she held back. They just sat there, pain surrounding them both in different ways, as her tears showered her knees. Minutes had passed, but they felt like hours. She heard Chrissy sniffle a little, before looking up at her. She had begun to cry also at the sight of her best friend breaking. "Chrissy," she whimpered, "Don't cry, please." Cassie tried her best to calm herself down so she could comfort her best friend.

"I'm sorry sweetie, I just hate seeing you like this," her eyes clouded over as she spoke.

"Chrissy, I'm sorry," she apologised, wiping her tears away, with the sleeve of her pink cardigan, before reaching over to Chrissy's face, and whipping her tears away, gently.

"Why are you sorry Cas, you have nothing to be sorry for- "she cut herself off as she looked in shock at Cassie's face. "Cassie, what happened?" her hands reaching over to her face.

"I'm okay, Chrissy, I swear."

"This isn't okay Cassie, what happened?"

Before she could respond, the door opened again, making the two girls jump against each other. They heard shoes click against the floor, getting closer towards them. As the figure rounded the corner, the girls breathed in a sign of relief.

"I thought I would find you both here," Ms Marshall spoke softly, before squatting down to them. "Are you okay and- oh my, Cassie, what happened?"

She was silent, paralysed with fear, she couldn't keep lying but she was too scared to tell the truth.

"Cassie?" The teacher questioned, clearly concerned. "Cassie, sweetie please, I'm here to help."

"Cassie," Chrissy whispered, "we just want to help."

She couldn't, speaking it in words, made it real, meaning she couldn't undo it. Speaking it into the air meant admitting to years of pain and abuse, something she didn't think she could ever do. Deep down, Cassie believed that because it had happened for so long, she,  in some sick twisted way, she wouldn't be able to live without it. Without the pain and fear, because deep down, she believed she deserved it.

She cried, her head falling to her knees again. She was inconsolable. The physical pain she had experienced was only the tip of the iceberg, the emotional abuse, that is what kept her caged like this, what scared her from speaking.

Ms Marshall left for a while whilst Cassie and Chrissy sat there, on the locker room floor, before she later returned with another set of footsteps following her. Cassie lifted her head a little, pecking at who had entered with the kind teacher, only to see Sebastian. She let her head fall back into her knees, them shielding her from the world around her.

"Hey shorty, it's just me," he said, squatting down to her. She again lifted her head up lightly, staring at him. He reached his hand out, causing her to flinch. He quickly retracted his hand, sorrow in his eyes. He would never hit her, and it pained him to see her flinch at him. "It's just me, just little old me," he whispered. "I would never, ever, not in a million years, hurt you, okay." Ms Marshall watched, a few steps away, as she saw the three students in front of her.