Afflicted.

Luke

"I heard that she was sent to the principals office after lunch for all her absences." Camille whispers while looking over her shoulder to stare at her. "Yeah, I also heard that she get's a beating from her Dad every night with a metal bat." Calum snickers. I sit at my wooden desk staring at all the active faces. "Why do we talk about her when we all know that she's just another freak that seeks for attention." I say hoarsely.

"Listen Luke, it probably isn't true but from the looks of her it's possible." We all turn our heard and look at her. She's sitting in the very back corner writing something on a blank piece of paper. There she is, Abree Nielsen the freak of Middleton High. Her hood is practically glued to her head and her nails are always colored the same shade of midnight purple. It makes me sick just looking at her. I've been in the same class with her since the eighth grade yet we haven't spoken once. She looks like one of those people in scary movies where she's the evil ghost trying to devour your soul. Her hands are always covered in weird markings she probably draws on, she's going to get skin cancer eventually. She doesn't talk to anyone, nor does she have any friends. I feel slightly bad for her.

I'm always curious about what goes through a girl like her's head. I bet she thinks about death and knives. She ditches school to do, who the heck even knows, and comes back looking like she just walked through a storm for fun.

"My Mom works with her Dad and he's a weirdo, he always smells like alcohol she tells me." Becca smirks. I feel like slapping it off his face. "Well, I don't blame him if I had a daughter like that I would be getting wasted everynight." Michael points out.

"Okay class, it's time for you all to sit down class is about to start." Ms. Sullivan says in her weak raspy voice. "We're going to be talking about Shakespeare today so please take out your textbooks and turn to page 86." Ms. Sullivan is alwasy trying to pull some kind of crap to try and talk about how miserable her love life is. I don't blame you, you're a 49 year-old single woman that looks like an eggplant. She starts talking about Shakespeare history as I start to daze off and stare at the ceiling. The only Shakespeare I know is "Romeo and Juliet" and all I know is that they both die because of stupid reasons.

"I will put you into groups of two and you will be reciting one scene from shakespeare and what it means to you. I'm going to call out your names and then you come up to get your scene. It's that simple, Michael it's that simple." he flashes me a proud look as we hear the names.

"Roselle and Calum."

"Michael and Camille."

"Becca and Grace."

"Luke and Abree."

She keeps reading down the list of names, while I'm sitting at my desk in shock of what just happened.

Camille gives me a sympathetic smile and sits down next to Michael. I walk up and grab the scene packet and walk down towards the back of the classroom. I lean against the wall next to her desk. She keeps her head down in her paper as if she didn't even know I was there.

"Calum, I can't do this. Can we switch?" He starts to laugh. "Listen, I love you like my own brother, but there is no way in hell I'm trading parters with you." I walk up to Michael and I can already see him shaking his head. I slowly make my way back down towards her desk. My heart is pounding as I sit in the desk in front of hers. "So, do you want go to the park and work on our scene." I can feel the sweat dripping down my temple as I think please don't devour my soul. She peeks her head up and slowly bobs her head.

I roll the packet in my hand as I go back to talking to Michael and Calum. "You invited her to the park? Dude it sounds like a date." Camille starts to giggle as she eavesdrops on our conversation. "I only chose the park so that she can't murder me because it's in public." Calum high-fives me as I slowly start to freak out. "Luke stop freaking out before I slap you with a fish." Becca walks by and picks up a pencil.

I hear the bell ring as I start to pick up my backpack. "Good luck mate." Calum pats my shoulder. "Do you want to go now?" She gets up and walks towards the door as if I wasn't even there.

I try and walk beside her but she's always one step ahead of me. "I...I, I have to go to my house f...first." That's the first time she's actually acknowledged that I'm here. We stop at small brown house, it reminds me of cow shit. She slowly walks up the steps. "Do you want me to come too?" She shakes her head without looking at me. She open the white door and walks inside. I stare at my untied shoelaces and start to laugh.

"WHAT THE HECK IS A BOY DOING HERE?" I hear a loud male voice, even from here I can hear him slurring his words. I know that eavesdropping is a bad thing to do, but that's how information is gathered.

"NO BOY COULD EVER LIKE A NOTHING LIKE YOU." I can't even hear Abree fighting back. "YOU'RE JUST SOME WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT." I hear a pause.

Abree runs out with her Dad opening the door open for her. He's in a stained white tank top that shows off his gut. His blonde hair doesn't look combed. He has weeks worth of stubble on his face and a hazel colored drink in his hand.

She grabs my hand and starts to run off in the direction of the park. Her hand is so cold even though it's about ninety-four degrees today. I don't know if I should ask, I probably shouldn't I don't want to get punched. I'm now more nervous than ever.