Masks

Masks - Chp 4

“Sweetie?” Mum’s soft, cautious voice wafted in from behind my bedroom door “Oh…you’re up.” Mum said – shock coating her words – creaking the door open preparing to get me out of bed as she lit up my dim bedroom. Instead I sat staring at the computer screen, a blank and unreadable expression of my face, numb.

Scattered all over Facebook was status updates and ‘R.I.P Georgie Walker’ groups, them becoming more threatening and depressing than the next. Facebook was scattered and full of nothing apart from Georgie Walker related posts, some a simple thinking of you like post others getting more so angrier and twisted as they voiced how sickened they were of a local murdering a local teenager in the sanitation bin our local school. Other were talked up, people that I knew to be jealous or even hated Georgie – after all she was a spoilt and most popular girl in our year and school – even had the nerve to act as if they were best friends. I guess that’s what death did to you, no matter who it is it still shocks you no matter the circumstances.

What unnerved me more though was my Facebook inbox that held over a hundred messages, I didn’t read any of them but just the first few words I could see I was already petrified. I knew what the majority of those messages would be about; they’d be nice and sympathetic but underneath it all it’d be utterly fake because those messages – from people I’d never even spoken to – were after one thing; the inside scoop. Some of them though were utterly blunt and to the point, there was no sympathy or asking me if I was okay, it was just solely what happened?

I was adamant to even turn on my mobile.

“Mum.” I said strained my voice choked.

“Yes?” she asked softly, her soft cautious footsteps walking towards me as she rested her hands on my shoulders, giving me a reassuring squeeze. “What is it my munchkin?” she murmured softly kissing the top of my head.

I pointed to the screen and the room fell dead silent as if the oxygen was all sucked out of the room.“So they know?” I asked finally my voice rising as I thought of the possible scenarios of what I will face at school today.

She sighed sadly “No, Mr. Vincent was going to address the school this morning.” She murmured softly “Yet someone has obviously let it escape and word has gotten around.” She said, her hands massaging my shoulders soothingly.

My hands shook with nerves as I clicked on the pile of notifications; I clicked on it with feat at over the fifty notifications. All of them took me to my Facebook wall; there covered all over my wall were messages from a bunch and variety of people. They didn’t even have the decency to at least make it a private message, how disgusting can people get?

The snarky voice in my head was happy to point out that luckily and obviously my school wasn’t full of morons. At least they could put two and two together and solve a jig saw piece puzzle.

“C’mon sweetie.” Mum urged soothingly placing her warm hand on my shoulder squeezing it encouragingly as the other reached around me and clicked out of Facebook for me, saving me. “You have school my little munchkin.”

I groaned letting my head fall onto the keyboard “This can’t be happening.”

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To say I didn’t get down on my knees and begged to say home for the rest of eternity would be an utter and complete lie. I had begged the two of my parents to let me stay home for the day, hell even the week. Yet the next second I was begging my parents to not let me cave, to not let me be this weak girl that hid in my bedroom for weeks.

A part of me strongly didn’t want to be a weaker person yet the main reason behind not wanting to stay was because I knew as soon as I was in the house alone with only my thoughts, everything would catch up on me and I’d finally break down and fall apart.