LOVELORN

32|Jerks & pizza

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ZORA'S ABSENCE at lunch was the first thing I noticed when I sat down at our table. I'd seen her in class earlier that day, so I knew she was present. At first, I brushed it off, thinking she'd show up any minute. However, when ten minutes had gone by and there was still no sign of her, I started getting concerned.

"Does anyone know where Zora is?" I asked. Everyone shook their heads. "She never skips and she's never this late. You think she's all right?"

"Probably. Maybe she's just in the bathroom, or she get held up by some teacher," Mara said.

"Yeah, okay," I mumbled, unconvinced.

Another 5 minutes and nobody had heard from her. I'd already finished my lunch, so I told the others I would go look for her. My stomach was churning, my mind racking up all the worst-case scenarios. She was probably okay. Maybe she'd just gotten caught up in talking with someone.

I was attentive as I walked down the hallways, trying to spot her. When I didn't see her, I checked the restrooms on the first floor, including the ones right by the lunch room. They were empty, so I went into another one.

The sound of sniffling caught my ears. Immediately, I halted in my steps. It could be someone else, but something in my gut told me it was Zora, so I trusted it and tentatively called out her name. The sniffling stopped. I started to doubt myself, what if it wasn't her? And if it was, why was she crying?

At least a minute went by until the stall door opened and Zora came into my view. Her eyes were rimmed red, makeup smudged, but the most concerning part was the way she was cradling her wrist like she was in pain. I zeroed in on her wrist like I could somehow figure out what happened just by looking at it.

"Naya I..."

Her words trailed off, my eyes were still focused on her wrist. She must have noticed because she dropped her hand and hid it from my view. My eyes flickered back to her face.

"What happened?"

I moved closer to her until I was close enough to reach out and carefully touch her wrist. She winced as I put light pressure on it, retracting it promptly. I could hear my heart beating in my ears. My eyebrows drew together and I tried to meet her eyes, but she was avoiding mine.

"Did someone do this to you? Who?"

"Naya, it's okay, you don't have to help me. I can handle it," she assured me, her voice low and so unlike the usual confidence she spoke with.

"The fuck I don't. I don't care what happens between us, if you need me, I'll always be there. So please, Zora. What happened?"

She hesitated, before saying, "It was Gael."

I tensed at his name, the pulsing in my ears getting louder and louder. "What did he do?"

"He's been getting a bit more bold lately. Bumping into me and that kind of stuff and yesterday he...he sent me a text, basically telling me to delete the voice message I got."

She fished out her phone, looked for the text, and handed it to me. I gripped it tightly in my hand when I saw the message.

"Then today he cornered me after I came out of the bathroom and dragged me to a hidden corner, aggressively enough that my wrist is in pain now. He went on another misogynistic rant and threatened me, trying to scare me into deleting it and not reporting him. A teacher passed by before he could make me get rid of it. He left and I went in here and I just...I..."