Seasons

Chapter 13 - Old Scars

Rikki and Emily found me several minutes later, fully human again and curled up on the cool tiles of the bathroom, the tears now dried on my cheeks.

"Alex!" Rikki cried as they came stumbling through the door, looking around frantically for me.

I looked up at them slowly, shifting my gaze from the off-white floor up to their expressions torn apart with worry.

I looked away again.

I felt a soft whoosh of air and I felt the soft brushing of Emily's plaid skirt against my shoulder. I closed my eyes, not wanting to look at their expressions when her fingers began to gently push away the flyaway strands of hair away from my face and tucking them behind my ear.

I slowly opened my eyes again and croaked, "Em-" but she cut me of with a soft hushing noise as Rikki carefully knelt beside her in front of me, fiddling with a loose thread at the edge of her untucked shirt awkwardly. Obviously Emily was the better one at dealing with these situations.

Eventually, she managed to coax me into sitting up against the wall with my legs pulled up against my chest, staring blankly at a chip in one of the tiles, the tears now dried in salty streaks on my cheeks.

"Alex?" Emily said softly after a while, looking up at me through her lashes. I tore my gaze away and looked at her.

She smiled softly and took my hands between hers and shifted slightly so she sat right in front of me.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asked, still holding my gaze.

I suddenly felt the sharp prickle of tears at the back of my throat and quickly dropped my gaze back to the tile as they swam across my bottom lashes.

"Oh no Alex!" She cried when she saw my bottom lip tremble and rose into her knees quickly, swooping in and wrapping her arms around me in a tight hug.

I pressed my face into her shoulder and felt a sob rise up inside of me. This was so stupid, I'd completely let Sidney get under my skin. But how did she even know about Sam?

Just the thought of his name caused me to choke out a strangled cry and I grabbed the back of her shirt, the fabric held tightly in my fists.

"I-I just don't know what t-to say," I mumbled through awkward hiccups and sobs.

"Shhhh," she murmured in reply, stroking my hair softly, "you don't have to."

"But I need to," I said, pulling away and quickly wiping my eyes, "you guys are my friends."

"You can tell us later," she cooed, smiling encouragingly as Rikki nodded beside her in agreement.

"Okay," I half-whispered, suddenly self conscious of how gross and snotty I must have looked.

I glanced around the small bathroom for a paper towel dispenser when a honey bronzed and freckled hand thrusted a handful of tissues in front of my nose.

I took them gratefully from Rikki and began to blot away the streaky mascara and stray tears, silently praying no one would walk in.

As I sat there, trying to normal-ise my face again, my mind flitted back to the cafeteria where Sidney was no doubt gloating over her victory at making me flee like an idiot from the room full of people.