Hidden Secret

Chapter Six

(Naomi)
(TW: SLIGHT MENTION OF SH)

"I swear to god I'm going to murder them someday!" Naomi says angrily, while pacing Jade's room, the rest of the friend group watching her.

"They deserve so much pain! Excruciating pain!" She says, fists clenched, before turning to Jade.

"I need to punch something." Naomi says to her.

Jade nods, "I gotcha." She stands up, disappearing out of the room for a moment, before returning with a punching bag, and setting it down in front of her.

Without warning, Naomi starts aggressively punching and kicking the bag, hitting harder every time.

While she did that, the rest of the friend group looked at each other in concern for their friend.

Jade sits back down next to them, "Don't worry, she'll calm down eventually. I usually do what she's doing right now when I'm angry, and it almost always works."

Isaiah furrows his eyebrows, "Jade, that's not a healthy way to deal with anger. In fact, it just increases it."

She tilts her head, "It does?" She opens her mouth to talk again, before shaking her head, "I'm sure that's just a myth. I do it all the time, and I'm perfectly fine!"

Jade's eyes soften as she sees the looks her friends are giving each other, "Right..?"

Before her friends could give voice to their thoughts, Naomi comes back over to the group, "Hey guys. What're you talking about?"

Jade looks away, crossing her arms across her chest, "Nothing." She says coldly, before standing up, and taking Naomi's place at the punching bag.

Naomi glances at her best friend, before looking back at the group, "What the hell did you say to her?"

Vivian speaks softly, "Technically we didn't say anything."

Naomi raises an eyebrow, "Technically?"

Everest cuts in, "Well, Jade said that she uses the punching bag all the time when she's angry, and said that she's perfectly fine. And then we kinda just stayed silent and looked at each other."

Naomi brings a hand up to her face, sighing, "Why the hell would you do that... don't you guys know about-" She cuts herself off, "Nevermind. Just don't do anything like that to her again."

They nod, looks of concern plastered on their faces.

She sighs, before glancing down at her hands, then hastily shoving them into her pockets, "I'm going to the bathroom. Be right back." Naomi says before walking out of the room.

The group stare after her as she exits, before turning back to Jade.

Naomi walks down the hallway, before stopping and opening a door on her left. She enters the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

Naomi walks over to the sink, and squats down to open the cabinet under it.

She takes one of her hands out of her pocket, opening the cabinet door, and when she removes her hand from the handle, a splotch of blood is left behind.

She reaches inside of the cabinet, grabbing the first-aid kit, and then standing back up, setting the kit on the counter by the sink.

Naomi opens the kit, pulling out a tube of aloe vera gel, a roll of gauze, and medical tape.

She turns on the sink faucet, taking her other hand out of her pocket.

Both of her hands are bleeding, and some areas of her knuckles are cut open– probably from the friction of punching the bag.

She puts both of her hands under the running water, wincing as the water got into her wounds, cleaning them out.

After a moment, Naomi turns the water off, drying her hands until they were only damp, and then she opens the tube of aloe vera gel, squeezing some onto one of her hands, rubbing it in on her knuckles.

She takes some gauze, wrapping it around her knuckles a few times, and then securing it in place with some medical tape.

She repeats the same process on her other hand.

After Naomi's done, she puts the materials back in the first-aid kit, and then slides it into the cabinet before closing it and leaving the bathroom.

She walks down the hallway, heading back to Jade's room. As Naomi's walking, she hears a commotion come from the room she's going to.

Naomi speeds up, reaching Jade's room after a few seconds, and entering the bedroom.

The first thing she notices is that Everest is sitting in the corner, knees pulled up to their chest, their head buried in them, and their arms wrapped around their head, seemingly trying to press their head into their knees.

Vivian is knelt down beside her partner, who Naomi now notices is crying.

"What happened?" Naomi asks softly from the doorway.

Vivian looks at her, tears in her eyes, "We found out that Everest had a relapse."

She starts crying, hugging Everest tightly.

Naomi's eyes widen with alarm, "What..?"