the reader and the writer (On Hold)

7. a state of denial

Tw: mentions of abuse
(These are mentioned in Cathy's backstory, which I will label for anyone who wants to skip that bit)

Cathy's POV:

Great. It's Monday again. I'm not ready for this day. I have double maths and none of my friends are in my class, on top of all this, Jane caught the bug going around school so she not in today, so by extension, Anne and kat aren't in either.
For goodness sake. Of all the days to be healthy, this is the one I get.

At school (Cathy's POV indirect):

Cathy looks through her bag and finds a book. It's an enemies to lovers book, one of her favourite genres, but only to laugh at the characters being oblivious. She thinks the relationships are toxic if not written correctly, but she'll read it anyway.

The bell goes for first and she "accidentally" hits hear head on the table before going to maths.

She completes the day, ending with pe
(which sucks when your friends aren't there) and heads home.

As soon as she gets back she calls Jane while doing some English homework.

"Are you alright Cathy? You seem a bit down." Cathy smiles.
"I'm feeling a little better now."
Jane laughs before responding, "good. We can't have you being upset, now can we?"
Cathy shakes her head while writing something about whatever poem she had to annotate.
"So, what are you writing?" The older questions.
"Poems. GCSE. You know, that bull shit." She sighs and puts her pen down, her thoughts coming to a block.
"What one are you doing?" Jane says, clearly looking for something.
"Something about war, I think." She responds, her head meeting her desk quite hard.
"Hey! That wasn't necessary, now was it?" The younger girl just nods in response.

A sigh is heard from the other end of the phone, "oh Cathy, what are we going to do with you?"
She shrugs in response to the question and mumbles a response.
"I don't know. Die?"
Cathy hears a loud ghasp from her friend.
"Catherine parr! You are not allowed to die. You are too young!"
She lifted her head from the desk, giving Jane a look.
"I am less than a year younger than you! You know what, if I can't cause a permanent sleep to myself, your not allowed to either." She crossed her arms and faked a frown.
"I know that, silly. Alright, let's make a deal, last one to die gets a £10 in the will. Therefore, if one of us dies at any point soon, we will be in permanent debt to the other."

She can't hold the fake frown anymore, no, instead she bursts out laughing. "Me? In debt to you? For eternity? Yeah, fuck no."

Jane ignores the swears. "Great! Then neither of us can die."
Cathy sits in thought for a second before smirking, "Y'know, I might just go ask for a £10."

Cathy goes to stand, "don't you dare. Sit. Now."
The smaller one laughs and sits, as she is told. She picks up her pen to continue writing.

"I bloody hate poems. Of all things, why poems? I swear, schools only goal is to torture us! No one actually enjoys poems." Jane nods in agreement.

"Yeah, poems definitely suck. Those are the reason that I only got a 6 in English."
The younger one sits in shock, "Your getting 7s?! I'm only just bloody passing and this is meant to be what I'm good at!"

The 2 discuss poems and other random topics of conversation that they think of, by the time that they get towards the end of their conversation, it was well past midnight.
They say their goodbyes and go to bed.

Well, Jane did. Cathy, however, was stuck awake. Her brain going around in circles.
I love her!

No, no. We've only known eachother for 2 months or so.