Salty Licorice

Chapter 54

Avery's POV

It might sound strange but god does it feel great to be back at school. It's a perfect excuse to avoid going home as well as it keeps me from making excuses as to why I'm not coming home. It also makes it easier to not have to hear my parents talk about their plan for my future or my brothers constant teasing and taunts about my sexuality. Plus side about my brother is that he at least accepts that I'm not straight, but the down side is he uses it as an excuse to make fun of me.

At least at school I feel like I can breathe a little easier, that was till lunch. Now I feel like my head is going to burst.

I watch as Spencer is sitting with Liz and her friends two tables over from ours and Spencer isn't acting very friendly, but more like flirty. Every time Spencer puts her hands on Liz I feel my pulse quicken, just pure rage. With every smile, every hair twirl, every whisper and giggle, all of it just makes my stomach lurch and clench. My jaw is starting to ache from the amount of pressure I'm putting on it from clenching it so tight and my hands ache from the tension of constantly flexing them into fists so tight my knuckles are white. I can feel my blood boiling as it rushes my veins, my chest is tight and every time I breathe it feels like it's a work out. But the overwhelming increase in temperature is what's probably most noticeable. I can feel the sweat rolling down the back of my neck under my hood that is making it harder to keep my cool.

I'm seconds from lurching over this table and tackling Spencer off Liz. Unfortunately I can't block out the sound of Emily's ramblings that is only making this worse. Finally I snap, slamming my hands on the table making a loud sound catching everyone's attention as it gets quiet.

"Just stop talking! For just 5 seconds! Nobody cares about the heels daddy got you for christmas, or or, the fact that you think your skin would look bad with darker hair!" I shout at her. "Emily just shut the fuck up!" I get to my feet and turn around aggressively shoving my shoulder into some guy who was in my way.

He looks at me as if to say something but with the glare I gave him, it must have made him change his mind. The only thing he said was a quiet apology before he scurried off. I look around and notice everyone's eyes are on me. I ripe my hood off and hold my arms out looking around at everyone.

"What, you got something to say?!" I yell at them. "Come on!" No one moves a muscle as they just watch me. I clench and work my jaw as I turn to look at everyone. "Pathetic," I spit out at them and just shake my head before making my way towards the doors.

I slam the doors open and storm off into the empty hallway. I catch sight of my coach as she's walking down the hall with another teacher. I groan and turn around heading for the bathrooms. Once inside I kick one of the stall doors letting it slam into the stall wall before swinging back letting me kick it again. I repeat this till I feel two arms wrap around her shoulders pulling me back. I fight them as I try to get free but they keep a firm grip on me and pull us against the wall and slide us down so we are sitting. But I don't let up my fight as I struggle against them.

"Avery," I hear someone next to me say. "Avery stop."

"Let go of me." I fight against them still.

"No, calm down now," Marisa's voice is stern from behind me, but I can clearly hear how out of breath she is.

I stop kicking and just relax my shoulder leaning my head back letting it flop on her shoulder. Taking in her calming earthy clay scent and dry paint, letting it calm me down.

"Avery." I open my eyes and see my coach crouched down next to me. "What caused this level of outburst? I thought we were working on this."

"Just stupid stuff," I deflect, not wanting to admit that Liz has that power over me to make me self destruct so easily.