Off the Map

9

School was decent I guess. I had only four classes and most of them were with Wyatt. We had advanced photography, all ten of us were in the same class, archery and math together. And I had Russian. I guess they had looked at the courses we had taken this year. Though I had never done archery in my life so I don't know why I was entered into that class. By the end of the day I had only received math homework so I was quite fortunate compared to the others.

"Ugh!!!! I can't believe I have four whole pages of homework," one the girls said on the way home. I smiled to myself thinking of how little homework I had.

"What are you thinking about miss smily?" Wyatt asked me.

"Oh nothing," I replied, "and what's wrong with my smile? I thought you liked it?"

"Oh nothing," he mocked.

"I don't sound anything like that!" I said.

"Ummmm... yes you do,"

"No I don't!" I practically yelled. At this point Wyatt was just walking a long laughing at me. I was a bit upset, I don't like it when people laugh at me whether or not what I did was embarrassing. I made me feel even smaller then I was. I guess Wyatt realized something wasn't right and he stopped.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"Hm? Oh nothing," I replied. Realizing he had stopped, I turned around and walked back towards him. "Nothing is wrong now hurry up or we're going to be late for our culture class," I continue talking but suddenly I felt a pair of hands grab my waist. I screamed as I was lifted off the ground.

"Wyatt put me down!" I screamed

"Nope, not until you tell me what's wrong,"

"Nothing's wrong!" I screamed again.

"I don't believe you," he said laughing.

"Put me down!"

"Watch out Flor, people are starting to stare," I suddenly fell silent, even biting my tongue to make sure I didn't yell. I hated being in front of others especially when they were staring. "Awww what's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"

"No," I growled. Without warning I felt my feet touch the ground again. I let out a sigh, I didn't like being lifted up for the same reason that I hated being in front of others. I looked around and saw people starring at us. Some people had stopped walking to see what was going on. I started feeling quite dazed, my breathing hitched. It felt like the world was spinning around me. What was I doing here?

"Flor? Are you okay?" I heard a voice say. Who said that? I nodded my head. I couldn't concentrate. My arms were shaking and wherever I looked I saw people staring at me. I couldn't breath, it felt like my lungs wouldn't expand. I didn't know what was happening, I was so scared I started to cry. I tried taking a step forward to get away from all the people staring at me, but it only made things worse. I started to black out when I felt a strong pair of arms grab me and pull me into a hug.

"Everything is going to be okay," I heard the person whisper into my ear that's when I knew I was safe. I started breathing normally again and after a few minutes my arms stopped shaking. When the strong arms pulled away, I looked up, my eyes still wet from crying to see Wyatt looking down at me with a look of distraught on his face but when our eyes met his face turned more calm. He slowly placed his hand on my cheek and with his thumb he wiped away a teardrop that was still in the corner of my eye. "Why didn't you tell me you suffered from panic attacks?"

"I don't tell anyone, only my family and doctors know," I finally answered. "I'm on medication but I forgot to bring it with me,"

"I wish you would have told me, my little sister suffers from severe anxiety and panic attacks,"

"Is that why you hugged me?" I asked, I'd never had someone witness me during a panic attack. I'd never had someone there to comfort me, and I'm actually kind of glad that Wyatt was there he made it feel less lonely when I came out of it.

"Yes," he answered, "That's what helps my sister so I thought it might work on you," he said smiling. He had sat me down on a bench near a few stores. "I'm glad I could help, now I think you should rest for a little bit, I'm going to call one of the other contestants and tell them that we're going to be late and then I'm going to go get you some food, you can pay me back later," he turned and started to walk away but then he stopped and turned around, "If you start feeling anything or if anything happens to you call me right away and I'll come back," he then turned back around and walked off.

Wyatt came back fifteen minutes later with a few bags from Dairy Queen.

"Hey Flor, sorry it took so long the line at Dairy Queen there was a super long and I didn't know what you'd like so I got a bunch of stuff and we'll share,"

Wyatt wasn't kidding when he said he had gotten a lot of food. He was holding three bags of food which included hot dogs, chicken quesadilla snack melts, fries, onion rings, and cheese burgers. On top of all that he had a drink tray with two chocolate milkshakes and two soft drinks.

"You weren't kidding," I said turning to my bag to get out my wallet as I continued, "so what do I owe you?" I asked.

"Nothing for now," Wyatt said smiling, "as long as you feel better."

"I am feeling better, thank you," I replied as Wyatt sat down next to me.

"So what do you want to eat?"

"I'll have the hot dog and fries," I said shyly as Wyatt passed me the hot dog and returned to the bag to get the fries, "wait... I think I'd rather the onion rings, or well I don't know. What do you want?" I asked.

"I think we should share," Wyatt interrupted still smiling at me.

"Okay," I blushed a little as I took a bite of my hot dog. We continued to eat in silence until we had finished and the silence even continued a little bit afterwards as well.

"We should get going Flor, we're already late. Do you feel better?"

"Yes much, thanks for the food too."

AN: I thought I'd rewrite this chapter since it was bothering me quite a bit. Thank you so much for voting and for the nice comments, it definitely made my day and feedback is always welcome :)