Ryleigh-Grace
Breathe...
Breathe...
B... B...
Oh... oh god... breathe...
I can’t... I can’t...
Ican’tbreathecan’tbreathecan’t... can’t... can’t breathe...
“Ryleigh! Ryleigh-Grace!”
My eyes flutter open as I slowly lean back against the wall, my vision blurring as everything spins.
I can’t... can’t breathe...
“Ryleigh! Hey, Ryleigh, listen, it’s Saskia...! Are you okay? I thought I’d leave you alone for a bit, but... where are you?”
Sas...kia...? What...?
Why...?
I can’t...
Can’t... breathe...
“Ryleigh!”
“In...” My chest heaves as I gasp, desperately searching for air. “Here...” I dizzily stick a foot out to lightly tap the cubicle door.
I just about manage to hear a few footsteps through the intense roaring of anxiety, before she lightly taps the outside of the only thing separating us.
“This one?” she asks gently.
Then, as if some kind of cruel addition, the ability to answer is brutally ripped from me as I’m suddenly overwhelmed with the skin-prickling sensation of a rope being fastened even tighter than before around my chest, and yanked on so hard that the already existing stars multiply and a desperate, distressed and disorientated gasp is torn from my throat as I fall into an abyss of panic.
“I’m coming in!”
A self-suppressed scream chokes itself back, before I realise the door has been picked, and Saskia walks in, her figure blurrier than the deepest fog through my hazy eyes.
She kneels down in front of me after re-locking the door, making sure to still give me some space.
“Hey, it’s okay, it’s alright, you’re safe now, yeah? I promise, because if anyone ever touches you again, I’ll kick their ass!” Her eyes narrow protectively.
My normal reaction would be to blush heavily, but instead I stare at her, breathing deeply. Why is she being so nice to me, when she could be hanging out with her friends, enjoying her lunch? She doesn’t even know me, and she’s so popular, I’m just... me.
YOU ARE READING
Opposites Attract
Romance(Warning: contains panic attack scenes that may be triggoring for some readers.) At Ivy College for Girls, outsider Ryleigh-Grace never expects popular and sporty Saskia to ever like her back. Will she be proven wrong or right? Because sometimes, lo...
