Misunderstood

01

I stayed up all night analyzing and rereading the letter. There must be something I'm missing, there has to be. She can't keep anything to herself to save her life, there's no way I wouldn't have figured it out.

"Get ready for school, your mom already left for work so I'm driving you." I didn't need to turn around to know whose voice it is. My mom's boyfriend; Derek, obviously has no sense of privacy.

"I'm not going."

He takes a step closer to me, "your mom left you alone to mope around all summer, the least you could do is make things easier for her and go to school."

I scoff, he has to be fucking joking. "she didn't leave me to mope around all summer, she understood the pain I'm in since my best friend fucking died. I know you may not have any friends or a heart for that matter, but some of us actually feel emotions. You should try it sometime, it could be good for you."

I don't get why he cares, I'm not his child and I never will be. He's made that pretty clear, so why play the dad act now? He never cared in the past when I needed him so why care now?

His fists curled up in balls as if he has the balls to hit me. "You're going to school end of discussion" his voice filled with anger.

"Fine but I rather die than have you take me to school" I slammed my door in his face. Blowing out a breath of frustration.

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Walking through the school doors has to be the hardest part of this. My first school year without her, my first time walking through those doors alone. I felt tears well up in my eyes but I refuse to let them fall. Everyone's eyes were on me, I could tell they felt sorry for me. The inseparable duo was no longer together.

I kept my head down as I walked to my locker. "Happy first day of junior year" I whispered to my best friend's locker that's next to mine. It's covered if flowers cards and posters, it's a sweet thought I guess. It's just ironic that half the people who wrote cards didn't give a shit about her until after she died.

I'm finishing up at my locker when I see Mikayla coming toward me. Sometime a while ago she decided that she was going to make me and Anna's life a living hell. Since Anna isn't here anymore I have to take it all which I was used to anyway.

I slam my locker closed not bothering to lock it. The last thing I need on my first day is to spend it talking to Mikayla. She can put on a face and pretend she cares, but she'll always be the same old bitch she's always been.

I finally make it to my first class; AP Lang, without any contact with anyone. I sat in the back trying to stand out as little as possible, taking out my stuff to take notes. I might be going through a tough time but I promised my dad that no matter what I would always stay on top of my grades.

"Leilani Bailey come to the guidance office. Leilani Bailey to the guidance office" the muffled voice over the intercom says.

Everyone looks back at me while I gather my stuff. "So much for laying low" I mumble to myself. I pick up my stuff and leave out the class not waiting for the teacher to write me a note.

The hallway feels emptier than usual. it's so quiet you could hear a pin drop. I walk faster than normal when passing by each window to the classrooms, not wanting to be spotted by anyone. I finally make it downstairs to the guidance office and walk to my counselor's office area

I knock on the door and open it not waiting for her to say come in. Just knocking to give her a warning that I'm coming in.

"You called me down here," I say closing the door behind me and taking a seat. I've been in this seat too many times. all the memories I tried to bury come rushing back. I shouldn't be here again, I shouldn't even talk to her after she betrayed me.

"Yes I did, we haven't talked in a while and I want to know how you're doing. I emailed you over the summer-"

"I know" I cut her off. I don't want her to get the wrong idea about why I'm here.

"Oh well um, how was your summer?" Mrs. Baker hesitates.

"Are you kidding me? Anastasia died on the last day of school. this is my first summer ever without her, so what do you think?" I scoff, what kind of question is that? How is she just going to pretend nothing happened, like I didn't lose my platonic soulmate?

"We can talk about that, how do you feel about her death?"

"You think I'm going to talk to you about how I feel? I'd be an idiot to make that mistake again." Freshman year Mikayla's bullying only got worse especially when she became friends with the other bitches at our school. But when Anna's dad died everything went downhill. We made the mistake of talking to Mrs. baker about how we felt and how hard everything was. She promised it would stay between us but when we got back to my house; her mom, my mom, and Derek were all waiting for us. Our parents were freaking out and basically interrogating us. Derek on the other hand was livid, it was the first time he ever put his hands on me.

From that day on we never told anyone how we felt about anything besides each other. Mrs. Baker apologized to me more times than I can count but I could never truly forgive her. Not only did she betray my trust, she lied to me and because of that, I got hurt.

"Can you just tell me the reason you called me down here? I'm supposed to be in my AP Lang class right now," I say a bit harsher than I meant to.

"Uh- yes, sorry, let me go get someone hang tight."

I take out my phone and scroll through Instagram until I hear the door open and I quickly put my phone away. I turn in my chair a bit so I'm facing both of them at the same time.

"Leilani this is Everette, Everette this is Leilani."

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Short first chapter but my other chapters will be longer.