Awaiting Recognition

Chapter 1, Part 3

I knew I'd have to tell her something but I couldn't figure out what. It would have to be enough to get her off my back but not too much. Or I could make something up?

No. Stop that right now. Pushing that thought back out of my head, I tried to think of everything that was going on but before I could even begin to pick something out, my body started to shake. Oh god.

That's when it happened, I completely broke down. Tears were streaming down my face and my body had flung back in the chair. My legs were pulled up as a safety barrier.

Kate couldn't do anything. She just had to sit there. "Why do you want to know so much?!" I spluttered. "Why can't you just leave everything be? I was fine." Holding my legs up closer to my face I could feel my grip intensify, my nails digging deeper. "Why can't you just leave me alone?"

Unable to take this anymore, I got up to run away. Making it to the door allowed for hope to flood my body. Until Kate's hand flew out and slammed it shut, trapping me there.

Feeling my head hit the door, I cried hysterically as I fell to the floor. I didn't know what to do. Kate then knelt down in front of me. Quickly embracing my body in a hug as I cried on her shoulder.

As we were both huddled on the floor, I could feel my body began to settle and I began to calm down. "I'm sorry Kate".

"No, no, don't worry darling, it's okay". We stayed there for a while and I felt safe enough to open up to her.

I told her about everything. My family issues, my girlfriend issues, work issues, study issues, my issues. We were sat on the floor, just talking, for ages. Before we knew it, it was already 6:30pm.

When Kate realised the time, she panicked and grabbed all of her stuff. Grabbing my hand, she said, "c'mon, we've got to go, they'll be closing the gates soon".

Upon leaving the college, we looked at the gate ahead. The padlock was already on. We quickly hurried around hoping to catch the caretaker before he left.

Joe, the caretaker, was locking the last gate on the staff car park when he saw us running towards him.

"Oh sorry guys, I didn't know you were still here. I thought I'd checked all the rooms, must've missed one." He then proceeded to open the gate again on the car park. Kate then looked at me. "Where do you live?"

"Um.." What? "I live in the South Park area?"

"Me too, I'll drop you off, c'mon" she said, gesturing to her car.