The Broken Girl's Angel

Chapter 4: Escalation

Cassidy
~~~~

"Did you get my note?" the female voice said.

I turned to see the blonde girl who I saw in the girl's room the other day. Her big blue eyes were glistening in the bright sunlight that radiated through the window. If I'd known it was her, I probably would've shown up.

"Oh, uh no, I didn't.." I lied. I didn't feel the need to explain my reasoning for not showing up.

"Oh, well I'm Emily." She said smiling, causing wrinkles to appear by the corners of her eyes.

"Um, I'm Cassidy?" I said, it coming out more like a question rather than a statement. There was an awkward silence between us for a couple of seconds before she spoke again.

"Well, I just uh wanted to thank you for standing up for me..the other day." she said looking down at the ground, making her short blonde strands fall to the sides of her face.

"No problem, I'd want someone to do it for me if I were in your situation." I said. The truth is, I'm always in her situation. No one has ever done that for me. I always hope that someone would just step in, but no one ever does. My mind wanders back to the time he did. But why?

Emily mumbled a "yeah" before walking away, probably to her next class. Jesus, talk about awkward..

Lauren soon joined me, and we began to walk towards the lunchroom.

"Why does she look like that?"

"She deserved it."

"I heard she's such an attention whore."

"I bet she's not even her friend."

All these voices called out to me as Lauren and I walked the hallways. I don't know what I did wrong to cause everyone to hate me. There was occasional pushing and shoving, but for the most part it was just harsh words. Lauren was saying comforting words to me as we continued to walk down the hallway. I thank God for her, because if it wasn't for her, I'd be weaker than I am now. She could've walked away, but she didn't. I felt bad because I didn't want my problems to become hers. I didn't want anyone to go through what I go through on a daily basis.

The long, shameful walk was torturous and felt never-ending. We eventually made it to the cafeteria and sat at our usual table. I usually don't eat the lunch here, but I have been for the past few days, including today. Christina didn't allow me to eat dinner as a part of my punishment. I volunteered to wait in the lunch line for our food, because I didn't want Lauren to suffer anymore.

I go through the lunch line and began to carry both of our trays back to our table. On my way back I accidentally bumped into someone who wasn't looking where they were going. The person turned around and it was Courtney.

There was ketchup all over her shirt. She gasped dramatically like it was the end of the world. I immediately apologized multiple times, but she wasn't accepting them. Everyone at her table, and a few neighboring tables, looked at us both. Last thing she wanted to hear was my bullshit.

"You fucking bitch! You did this on purpose!" she screamed. Everyone in the lunchroom was staring at the commotion. My breathing got heavy and if felt as if the air around me was thickening every passing second. The heat immediately rushed to my face as I tried to calmly assess the problem without making things worse.

"You bumped into me, there's literally no way I would've known this was going to happen." I mumbled in response.

"How dare you. This was clearly your fault, " she said with a scowl on her face. Guess my technique didn't work..