It Ends With Us

Chapter 14: Count to Five

Trigger warning: EXTREME GORE

Aliyah

August 14, 2016

Me and Aaron were seated in the school bus, on our way to school. Today was our first day of high school, and I was insanely nervous. My hands wouldn't stop shaking, I hated carrying this feeling around whenever it happened. I wish I could just get rid of it with only the snap of my fingers. I hear people talk around me, the sound of a girl laughing. Distracting me from my small anxiety attack, I take a look behind my seat to see. I could see a girl who had ravishing black hair, she wasn't sitting that far behind me. She seemed to be laughing with this girl who had short brown hair. She was sitting beside her, I recognized her to be Melissa. I didn't know Melissa well but she went to the same middle school as me.

I turned my head back, I no longer felt as nervous as I did before. The distraction of people talking and the dark-haired girl laughing seemed to have snapped me back to reality. Sitting beside me is Aaron, I couldn't tell how he was feeling about today but he seemed calm and collected, wish I could be like him. I played around with my long braided pigtails, I could now see the school building getting closer to us. Aaron noticed me jittering around.

"We'll be alright Ali", Aaron puts a hand on my shoulder as he gave me a reassuring smile. He was never afraid of anything, other than needles. I wonder if I'll ever have the courage to stand my ground like him. I breathed in and counted to five, then breathed out. Just like Aaron always told me to do whenever I felt like I was going to get an anxiety attack, or was in the middle of one. It helped, I continued to count to five until I felt better.

"We're here", I hear Aaron say.

The bus stops. Everyone inside stand up and head for the exit, causing a loud commotion to go on. The bus driver shouts at everyone to quiet down, everyone inside not caring and continuing to talk amongst themselves as they ran out the bus. Right as I got up to walk, I bump shoulders with someone. I turn to see who it is, it's the dark-haired girl. She had really beautiful eyes, they were a bright hazel. My heart jumps inside my throat, the girl then looks at me dead in the eye with a sharp glare.

"I'm sorry" I say quickly.

The girl rolls her eyes, "Watch who your bumping into next time yeah? Now move out the way". She walks past me, almost knocking me down. The girl that was behind her, Melissa, looks at me apologetically.

"Sorry about her", Melissa gave a weak smile as she followed the dark-haired girl out.

I sighed.

"Don't worry about assholes like her Ali, she's obviously the one who needs to watch where she's going", Aaron said as we both stepped off the bus. We were now in front of the school, I thought I was prepared for this. But I wasn't, I'm not. Ever since Dad passed, I was never the same, even Mom was different, she was never as happy as she used to be. I began to feel my heart beat ridiculously fast again, my breathing becoming rapid, I began to feel my eyes water so I closed them shut. I felt two arms grab my shoulders, I re-opened my eyes to blurringly see Aaron trying to calm me down. I couldn't hear what he was trying to say from how loud my heart was pounding inside my chest.

All I could manage to hear is, Count to Five Aliyah. Breathe in, count to five, then breathe out. I did what he told me, blocking out all the loud noise around me and only focusing on him. I began to slowly have my heartbeat slow down, my breathing no longer being rapid as well. My eyes were still watering though.

"Why can't I be strong like you? I don't want you to have to take care of me all the time, does it not tire you?", I say, my voice sounding a little wobbly. Aaron wraps his arms around me.