SUNGLASSES

Chapter Two

I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock having a heart attack.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

"Ah, shut up already!" I slammed my hand down on the button and hauled myself out of bed. I limped over to the bathroom and carefully pulled off my clothes. Bruises and cuts clung to my body, and the gash from two days ago didn't seem to have faded at all. My ankle was swollen--I fell on it the wrong way after Joe pushed me. I stepped into the shower and gritted my teeth as the water burned my cuts. I threw on an MCR t-shirt, black jeans, and again my black sunglasses.

I made my walk to school, and met Emma on the steps.

"Hey, Emma."

"Cadence! Guess what?"

"I'm asleep and this is all a nightmare?"

"Nope! Jason Bradbury just asked me to prom!"

I almost gagged. Prom. I totally forgot about that hell coming up. Emma was super popular, so she loved the whole idea of it. I, on the other hand, despised it more than I despised Jason Bradbury--and that's saying something.
"That's great, Em."

"I know, right?! And don't worry," she draped her arm around my shoulders as we entered the school, "I'll still hang out with you there. I know you probably won't be going, but nevertheless!"

I gritted my teeth for the second time that day. Yes, Emma, I'm aware I won't be going.

"Well, I gotta get to class," I said a little too sharply.

"Oh. Okay." She scurried over to her locker and started to fix her makeup. We both knew there was ten minutes before school started, but I'm glad she got the point. I walked down the hall to my locker and threw it open, grabbing up my Science and English textbooks. I stopped to look at the picture of a young, happy looking couple swinging a little girl in their arms.

God, do I miss them.

I closed the locker quickly to avoid getting too deep in thought--I didn't want to break down in tears--when I saw a tall, slim figure walking towards me.

Daniel.

I didn't want to walk towards him, I didn't want to face him, but I had no choice but to walk in his direction because my Math class was down at the other end of the school. I kept my head down, hoping he wouldn't say anything.

I thought my dream had come true when I glided right past him. I sighed in relief, but tensed when I felt a hand grab my arm.

"You're that Cadence girl, right? The one that was staring at me the other day?"

I wrenched my arm out of his grasp and kept walking. I heard him jog up behind me, and he grabbed my waist. I yelped in pain as his hand put pressure on the gash in my side. He instantly pulled his hands away.

"What happened?" He asked, dumbfounded. I slowly turned to face him, seeing that his hands were in the air in surprise and his eyebrows were furrowed down at me.

"Nothing. I fell. And how do you know my name, anyway?"

He put his hands down and shrugged. "I have my ways."

"What ways?"

"A magician never reveals his secrets." He smirked sneakily at me.

"You're not a magician."

"Hey, you don't know that."