Down The Hall

Chapter Eleven

I take long, deep breaths as I walk down the school hallway, appreciating the simplicity of breathing in and out of a clear nose. Getting deathly sick is when you start to acknowledge how important the basic human process is. By tomorrow I'm going to overlook it again like I've always done.

Navigating through the hall, Tyler had just caught up with Sarah and me. He has his gym shorts and muscle shirt on from PE this morning and smelled profusely of Axe body spray. Which was very... manly.

Jada is on the other side of the school, probably in the bathroom touching up her makeup before her next class. She and Sarah have the next period together, while I have mine with Tyler. Sarah comes with me and Tyler to drop us off. She says it's because she's an amazing friend, but I think it's because she doesn't want to miss out on anything. Not that I don't believe she's an amazing friend.

The hallway is packed with students crashing into each other, invading the little personal spaces everyone is supposed to have. It's kind of fun, like a game. When you see an opening you slip into it. If you get stuck you latch onto your friend's backpack from in front of you creating a train. You scoot by people feeling so small and yet so powerful that you get through.

Victoria felt the last one. She walks through the hall looking entirely different from everyone else around her. She doesn't need to scoot by, instead, people move out of her way. Latched onto Henry's side.

The brightest sunflower swarmed in bees after its pollen. Its presence not only floods the hall with light but as well as shifting the mood with one single smile. He doesn't know it and I hope he never does. If there was a small chance he did I feel I would never see it again. It's not that Victoria is different or special from all the rest of us. It's that she's with someone who is.

Henry walks past me, avoiding all possible eye contact. Victoria doesn't let me down though. She backs up to me, letting Henry get ahead of her and lets it spill.

One second, the iced coffee in her perfectly manicured hands now coated my jeans and my once-not-see-through tee. I gasped, throwing my body away from her and into Sarah's arms.

"What the- are you fucking stupid!" I spit.

I push my hands down my shirt, trying to get some of the coffee out, but all that did was make the shirt stick to my breasts and stomach. My jaw was on the floor, and my chest was burning along with my throat.

Victoria pumped her chest out, "It's just so crowded in here. It could have happened to anyone."

Everyone was still moving at a steady pace. Some quickly tried to get to class and others did not care what was happening. But you had those who stayed to record.

"You literally walked backwards bitch," Sarah contested.

Sarah was using her jacket to dab up the coffee from off my already sticky arms. Along with her, Tyler defensively stood by my side with his arms crossed, waiting for something else to happen. I know he wouldn't fight a girl but having him by my side made me straighten my back.

A sudden gust of air made me shiver under my drenched shirt. I surveyed the teens who stood around and quickly shot an arm across my chest. I wasn't just exposed to those in the hallway but to those who would later see the video from their friends.

Victoria scrunched her nose and bullied, "God, that smell is awful."

Her sentence made me livid. What topped it all was when she leaned into my space and sniffed. She pinched her nose and jerked back.

An evil smirk formed on her face as she giggled, "You smell like shit."

Before I knew it, I had pushed Sarah away from me and grabbed Tyler's sports spray bottle from out of the side of his bag. I pointed the top towards Victoria and squeezed.