There's Only You ✔

Chapter 21

⚠️ TRIGGER WARNING ⚠️

THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS MENTIONS OF GUN VIOLENCE. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Chapter 21

Oh shit!

Guilt began to eat up my heart like it was dessert. A lump sat in my throat while I watched her stand there with the shameful expression remaining on her facial features.

She always asked to play with him at recess, but when he rejected and she ran away crying, I simply shrugged it off. I wasn't the only one who recognized him for how big his heart was.

I was going to say something else, but a loud noise broke the silence. It took a second for my brain to register what it was, but it was a gunshot.

I cursed under my breath. Terror clung to my rapidly-beating heart and tight knots were forming in every inch of my stomach. It felt like I was living inside a nightmare. The hallway fell into a pin-drop silence, save for my heavy breathing and Angela gulping.

The first thing I did was check my surroundings; lockers lining the walls and the bathrooms that were at the other end of the hall. There was another gunshot that sounded like they were moving closer toward where we were.

Another one.

Another one.

My heart was on the fritz. A myriad of worst-scenarios were swirling around at a rapid pace in my head.

There was an active shooter in the school.

Are the boys in their classes?

Did one of them go to the bathroom?

Would they make it back to their class in time?

It didn't seem real to me, but when I slowly rotated my head to gauge Angela's reaction, she was frozen in her spot. Her eyes flitted everywhere from the lockers to the exits before they settled on the direction where the gunshot was heard.

I calculated our next move. The doors were across from us, ten feet away, but the shooter was headed straight toward us. If we hauled ass toward them, he or she would see us and we would become their first victims.

The exits in the opposite direction were off the table because they were guaranteed to hear us running away. There was a door nearer to us, so I instinctively grabbed Angela's wrist to drag her there. She wouldn't budge.

"Get your boyfriend-stealing hands—"

I clamped my hand over her mouth and tugged on her arm harder to get into the room before she got us both killed. It was pitch black in the room, but I didn't bother turning on the lights at the risk of the shooter spotting the light at the bottom of the door. Smelling cleaning supplies and with the help of my phone's flashlight, I realized we were in the janitor's closet.

"Are you trying to get us killed?" I whisper yelled at Angela.

"We're gonna die, we're gonna die, we're gonna die." Angela whispered to herself as she slid down the wall and hugged her knees to her chest. I rolled my eyes as she rocked back and forth and ran her fingers through her hair.

Silencing my phone and pulling the blinds over the window were the number one priorities as well as locking the door to keep us away from harm. My phone was lighting up with tons of messages sent from the group chat.

Zach:

Is everyone okay?

Kayden: