As It Was (COMPLETED) (wattys2023)

True Colors

I had just stepped outside of the heavy doors of Oasis Academy when I was assaulted. It had been a quiet month of no more than a few dirty glances thrown my way and rumors spread like a California wildfire. But somehow the literal kick to the face was a wakeup call. I had started to settle in, even if it was only speaking a few words a day, it was a step froward in the right direction. That ended the minute a pointed red heel made contact with the bridge of my nose and jaw.

First there were gasps and the same hushed whispers that followed me everywhere I went. Then the cheering for whatever girl was taking her bitterness and aggression out on me. I didn't try and fight back, I couldn't. Not because I was physically incapable of it, because I deserved this. I deserved to feel even half the pain that every family felt having to step foot in that cold, dimly lit room to identify their child, their wife or husband's, dead body in front of them. To live the rest of their lives knowing the kid sister of the two eighteen-year-old boys who had killed their loved ones walked out of the school alive.

"Stop!" I recognized the low growl and wished for once the idiot jock would see me for who I was. "What the fuck is wrong with you, Holly!"

The red filling my vision now wasn't that of the cherry-colored shoe, but the dark crimson of blood. I felt hands grasp my upper arms, just below my shoulder blades, and jerked away, crying out as I kicked at the air in front of me. "Let go! Let me go, Clark!"

I could tell by the dozens of sympathetic eyes on me that not only was I a sight for sore eyes, but I would undoubtably be referred to as a freak from here on out as well. My eyes traveled up the long legs of the person inhabiting the red heels to find a beautifully painted face. I'd passed her in the hallway on a few occasions, one of them being with her in a cheer uniform, but now she was wearing a thin navy sweater and over her school shirt and a pair of black pants. Her lips, exact shade of her heels, curled back a little seeing how I'd lost it under Garrett's touch. "Fucking freak. I hope you rot in hell with your piece of shit brothers."

As much as my head urged me to stand and defend myself, my heart wanted nothing more than to curl up on the asphalt beneath me and sink into the ground. Everyone's eyes were on the two of us. Me, the girl currently in the midst of a mental breakdown. And Garrett, their starboy with a soft spot for traumatized chicks with dark pasts.

"You all have five fucking seconds to get out of here!" Garrett spat behind me. Within three of those seconds, the crowd had dispersed into the parking lot and to their cars. Fearing I'd start screaming under his touch, he moved so he was in my line of sight. He was a giant, blurry mess, but what I saw as clear as day was the blood that dampened his hand when he pulled it from touching my nose. "Come on. I think Mr. Andrews is still here."

I wanted to refuse his help and did not want to be under the attentive eye of our eccentric art teacher, but I found myself rising to my feet shakily, avoiding Garrett's outstretched hand as if my life depended on it.

One, you're okay. Two, it was just a fight. Three, it's a bit chilly today. Four, I hear the Autumn leaves crinkling beneath my shoes. Five—

"My goodness, what the hell happened?"

I don't know if I was more startled by hearing a teacher curse or that he didn't immediately pick up the landline on his desk and call my parents, but it did a number on bringing me back to reality, and I fell back into a panic. I started to open and close my hands, hoping it'd prevent them from going numb.

A classroom was the last place I needed to be right now.

"Holly Park attacked her." Garrett buried a hand in his dark hair, eyes on our art teacher. "Like, blindsided the hell out of her. I was on the football field, Javi saw it and asked if it was the new girl."