Aren't you scared of becoming a slave to freedom?
As a 17 year old girl whose mother abused her, Naomi has never known what freedom is, only dreamt of it. But now it's her only constant thought. For her, freedom slowly becomes a drug, something she...
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I wonder what my next class is going to be like. Linguistics was actually pretty ni- fudge! The space is blank. I don't know my next period and I'm left with 6 minutes until it starts. Rainbow poop.
I quickly switch on my watch and type a message to the help center. I'm about to press send when a pale skinny hand slaps my hand away. I look up, a mixture of annoyance and frustration ploughing through me.
"What was that for?" I snap. I look at the girl in front of me and it clicks who she is. She's the girl Raphael was with when I got to linguistics. I sigh tiredly and pull my hand up so I can send the message. A quick glance at the time tells me that there's 4 minutes left. Fudge.
"You bitch, I'm talking to you." The girl says with a snarl. I look up at her confused. She didn't say anything, I'm sure of it. Agh, I don't have time for this. Maybe if I play nice she'll say what she has to say and leave.
I take a deep breath and look at her. "I'm sorry. I didn't hear what you were saying because I was focused on-"
"On getting into Raphael's pants?" She asks, her voice full of venom.
I blink back, not fully processing what she had just said. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me. I saw the way you were looking at us when you came in. Couldn't handle the fact that your sex crush has his eyes elsewhere, could you?" She says while pouting her lips. I'm sure she was trying to look cute but the action made her look ...anything but cute.
"Okay. First of all Raphael is just someone I share a number with and consider a friend," I state while stressing the friend part. "Secondly, if you want to be sex crushes or whatever with Raphael then go ahead. This whole thing is between you and him, it doesn't involve me. This conversation," I point between us. "doesn't involve me so I'm excluding myself. Bye."
I turn on my heels and start heading in the opposite direction. Suddenly, the back of my hoodie is pulled back roughly and I turn around to be met by a fuming gorilla.
"You think you can just walk away from me! You!? A slut from the leftovers of old men!" She screams at me hysterically, grabbing for anything that's part of my body.
I dodge her crazed movements and she grabs ahold of the front part of my hoodie and tears through it with her long nails. What the heck is wrong with this girl!? Is she getting her nails done by the arctic wolves?! Without thinking I push her roughly and she lets go of my hoodie, and bumps into a security guard.
My eyes widen and the guard looks between us before calmly stating that we are in violation of the rules and thus will be punished. He grabs us both by our forearms and starts dragging us towards the head security's office.
By now I'm sure the colour in my face has drained and even though I'm slightly light skinned, I know that paleness is very noticeable. My skin is against me like that.
We reach the office and the guard tells us to sit in the two seats that are in front of a large oak desk. What the heck is happening? This isn't even my fault, partially. All I did was not stand there while someone was about to beat me up.
A bruly middle aged man, with long dark wavy hair that's tied into a simple bun and coconut skin sits in the seat behind the desk. He glances at us and looks at the guard.
"Sir. They're suspected of violating rule 19 in the corner section of the language classes." The guard says. The man nods at the guard and the guard walks out of the room closing the door behind him.
The man switches on his built-in device and after a few taps a video starts playing on the holographic screen. It's a video of what happened between me and the girl. Once the video is done, he shuts off his device and looks at us both.
"Well ladies, this was clearly a misunderstanding. Had it escalated, action would've been taken against you. So since this is all cleared out, you may both go to your classes. An excuse card for being late will be handed to you." He says before focusing on his smart watch.
What? A misunderstanding? She basically attacked me. Her polar bear nails tore up my hoodie. "Sir, I'm sorry to be a nuisance but she clearly attacked me, shouldn't she be punished?" I ask.
The girl next to me throws me a heated glare. "Young lady, are you in charge of dealing with cases of attacks and violence?" He asks without looking up from the watch.
"Well, no-" I start to say. "Then how do you know what is classified as an attack or not? Now I suggest you both leave and stop questioning authority." He says calmly, a hint of annoyance in his voice.
The girl smiles and walks out of the office. I stare at the man for a few beats before walking out. My temper flaring lightly.
Once I'm out of the office I round a corner and stop once I'm hidden there. I take a breath and try to calm myself down. Getting angry won't help the situation. Suddenly a high pitched laughter sounds from behind me. I look and see the girl standing there.
"I'm surprised they didn't punish you. I thought whores like you wouldn't be tolerated here. Or maybe that old man also wanted his chance with you." She laughs and walks away.
My ears burn at the mention of me being a whore and my temper flares dangerously. Can't I get a break? First my mother and now her? When people look at me is all they see really a whore?
The memory of Dáinn stepping away from me flashes through my mind. The memory of Wesley disliking me just by the first impression also crosses my mind. Slowly my breathing becomes erratic and my mother's voice starts crawling to my brain, chanting. 'Whore. Whore. Whore.'
I shake my head and try to make it stop. It's not true. Raphael and Railey liked me even upon their first impressions of me. My mother's voice gets louder, banging at the walls of my head. 'Your lucky you have my body otherwise nobody would love you.' A soft whimper escapes my lips. That's not true.
'I don't even know why you try so hard to do well at school. Let me give you some free advice. All you are and all you'll ever be is a whore, just like your mommy. So accept it already.'
I lean against the wall and clutch my head, resisting the urge to pull at my hair. I breathe in deeply and try to get my mothers voice out of my head. Try to make it stop repeating that word over and over again. 'Whore. Whore. Whore'.
The word dances around in my head, leaving trails of bloody footsteps in its wake. I breathe until I'm able to calm down. Once I'm calm I tap my watch and send a message to the help center asking them what I should do if my schedule has an empty space.
They explain that it's empty because it's an optional subject. I have to head to the indoor field and pick the subject I want. My temper and my mother's voice keep occasionally flaring but I try my best to shove them down.
I follow the directions from my watch and arrive at the indoor field, only being about 30 or so minutes late. Thankfully I'm not the only one and more students pile into the field after me.
I spot Railey standing off to the side and approach her. She sees me and a wide smile pops onto her face. Seeing her smile causes all the voices and thoughts in my head to be silent. Seeing her smile makes me feel like everything is going to be okay and maybe, maybe it is.
