"TEEN ROMANCE" ~ Malachi Barton

Chapter - 14

Malachi and I both ate some of the cookies and spent the rest of the night reading the book, laughing, and talking.

FRIDAY SCHOOL LUNCH:

Malachi and I are almost done with the book, we've been hanging out a lot which is refreshing. Both of us have been looking forward to the dance together and we are trying to color coordinate our outfits. We ultimately decided on the color, light blue, because he said it would look really pretty on me and I think he would look very handsome in it as well. I keep thinking of how when we were hanging out on Wednesday, I made him laugh and the water he was drinking came out of his nose, which caused me to choke on my food and fall out of my chair and we both started laughing hysterically. I think people think I'm crazy because I will randomly think about it in class and start laughing.

I feel bad for my friends, with how much I've been talking about Malachi lately. I've also been trying to convince Keira to start talking to Stone, because she's called him hot and joked about two man's.

I walk into lunch with Malachi, he was asking me to hangout with him today after school and finish some more chapters of the book. We get in line and I feel my heart beat quicken at the stress of what I was going to eat and not eat. Malachi seems to pick up on it and he grabs my hand and intertwines out fingers, squeezing a bit. I look up to him and his brown eyes connect with mine. "What are you getting today?" He asks me. I feel like crying. The stress is way too much. A salad is probably the least amount of calories, but I'm not craving a salad, I want pizza, but that's too much, maybe pasta. No, no, no! Too many carbs. If anything, my eating habits haven't changed in the slightest, I still stress about them and haven't gained back any weight, and I don't plan to. I also haven't told my parents about it like I told Malachi.

Malachi squeezes my hand again. And pulls me out of the lunchroom. We walk past Lily and Brooklyn, who unfortunately pretty much dropped Keira and I for Autumn's friend group.

As we walk past them, I hear them both whisper to each-other, they then turn to me and fake cough, "fat!" They bark in between their forced coughs. Malachi frowns at them.

"Ew bitch! Fix your makeup before you make untrue judgements towards others! You should be icing cakes with the amount of frosting on your face!" He yells after them and they both turn and give him a dirty look. Despite him sticking up for me, the tears still start to flow. I put my hands over my face.

"Oh, Giovanna." He says sympathetically. He puts his arm around my shoulder and pulls me into the teacher bathroom, even though we shouldn't be in there, he ignores it. He locks the door and pulls me into a hug. Once I feel his arms around me and I smell his cologne, the tears flow even harder and I wrap my arms around him.

"It's okay. Hey, Giovanna. Listen to me, your not fat, your so insanely gorgeous and those girls are ugly bitches and insecure for feeling like they need to put you down to be happy,"

"No, no. I can't! I can't!" I repeat over and over like a prayer.

My breathing quickens, it all becomes too much to bare. My shirt feels too tight, so do my pants. I feel so hot and so cold at the same time. I  feel myself start to sweat and my ears ring, I pull out of the hug.

MALACHIS POV:

I feel her pull out of the hug, and I watch her fidget with both hands, I hear her breathing quickening and she puts a hand over her heart and taps her chest. She takes deep breaths trying to get in more air, but she seems to be struggling. I don't know what's happening, but can only assume she's having a panic attack.

She backs into the wall behind her and slides down to the floor, she curls up into a ball and puts her head back against the white wall behind her, her eyes are squeezed closed.