I get to the cafeteria and I'm standing in line to get my lunch, a bottle of water, when I feel someone grab my arm. I am spun around and I come face to face with the girl who asked me for directions in the hallway. She tells me that her name is Penelope and from there she just continues to tell me about her life. When she sees me skipping over all the food, she makes me take something, so I carefully pick up a cup of soup. She picked out a sandwich and she directs me to a table. We are sitting there, her eating, me pretending to eat, when that boy joins us.
"I see you've made another friends, not just me," he says, smiling. I nod and shrug, sipping my water.
"I'm Anthony, by the way," he says. He bites into his sandwich, waiting for me to respond. Instead, Penelope starts talking. Looking at him, she says,
"My name is Penelope, and I guess I'm her other friend. Yeah though, I didn't catch your name," she says, turning back to me. I raise my eyebrows, swallowing the water in my mouth,
"I'm Ally." I say quietly. They both nod and continue eating. I stir my soup before talking again,
"You guys don't have to sit with me. You both could get actual friends. You might still have a chance if you leave me now." They both look at me, confused. I see Ruby coming and I duck my head down, hoping not to catch her attention. But it's not me she's focusing on, she's looking at Anthony. She tucks between the table and his chest and she plops herself in his lap. I could never do that. My torso would be so wide that it would get stuck and I would have to wiggle around, and we would be cramped and it would just be horrible. Wait, why am I imagining sitting on his lap. No guy would want me on his lap. Ruby starts talking, and her voice brings me back to Earth.
"I'm gonna give you one more chance to leave this girl to be with me. She's not worth your time. As a matter of fact, she's not worth anyone's time. She should just go kill herself," she says. Anthony pushes her off of his lap, causing her to land rather clumsily on the floor, and continues eating. He swallows his bite with just about everyone staring at him before muttering loudly, "Whore," A lot of people begin laughing. A guy comes up behind Ruby and lifts her to her feet. It's her boyfriend, Logan. Anthony glances up, looking unamused, and Logan looks ready to hit him. Logan is the captain of the football team and he's pretty muscular. He just gives Anthony some kind of intimidating look before saying,
"Did you push my her?! She's my girlfriend! Don't ever lay a hand on her!" but Anthony stands up. I go through a quiet fit of laughter when Anthony stands because he is almost a head taller that Logan. He unzips his hoodie, revealing the outline of abs underneath a tight light green shirt. He clenches his fists, making his shirt looks ready to pop. I have to cover my mouth to stop the faint sounds of laughter that are escaping because Logan looks ready to pee himself. Logan just stares at Anthony before turning to me.
"What are you laughing at, whore?!" He shouts. Anthony chuckles and say, "Yeah, your girlfriend who has flirted with me twice isn't a whore," he says sarcastically.
"You think you're so strong, letting your boyfriend do all the talking," he says, and he grabs my shoulder and shoves me to the ground. My face manages to graze the table, causing my lip to bust open, blood slowly dripping down my chin. I shakily get to a kneeling position to grab a napkin, but he shoves me down again and I hit my head hard on the floor. Anthony had started shouting the first time Logan shoved me and now he punches him in the face, resulting in Logan falling backward, his legs falling on mine. I look over at him and he's clutching his nose and groaning. My head is spinning and black dots are appearing at the corners of my vision. I manage a kneeling/sitting position on the floor, dabbing my lip with the napkin that I grabbed from the table. I'm shaking slightly and I'm blinking vigorously to attempt to clear my vision. I'm sitting on my heels when I feel ice cold water pour down my face. A short shriek escapes my lips and when I look up, Ruby is smirking at me, my empty water bottle in her hand. I stand up and run from the large cafeteria. I get into the hallway and run into the bathroom, crying now, from dealing with everyone hating me, from getting drenched in cold water, and because now I have caused two people to become just hated as I am. I'm sobbing as I crawl under the sinks to a point where I'm in shadow and pressed against the wall. I'm shaking much more visibly in the cold bathroom. My breaths come in in short bursts and my body feels frozen. I hear the door open and someone comes in. The person comes toward me and they bend down to where I am. I immediately recognize the voice, it's Anthony, as he tries to calm me with soothing words. He picks me up and places me on his lap. He rubs my back with his large hand, and I press my head into the crook of his neck. He cradles me in his lap and pulls his hoodie around me. I'm slowly calming down but my breaths are still coming in shakily. I breathe in his smell, soap and sweet boy smell. Eventually my breathing becomes smooth and tears continue to slowly trickle down my cheeks.
"Ally, please look at me," he says, and when I don't respond he takes my chin in his hand and turns my face so that I'm looking directly in to his eyes. He just shakes him head and lets go of my chin, allowing me to continue crying in to his shoulder. We spend the last class periods just sitting in the bathroom, me crying, and him comforting me. By the end of my fit of tears, I'm just sitting in his lap, sniffling, wondering about him. My voice breaks the silence,
"I'm sorry,"
"What could you be sorry about? You were pushed to the ground, you had water dumped on you..."
"I'm sorry that you and Penelope have now joined me as freaks, I'm sorry that you've had to spend all this time sitting in a girls bathroom, on the floor, with me crying in to your shoulder, crushing you," I say, and I feel tears build up in my eyes again. I continue,
"They're all right..." but Anthony cuts me off,
"You are none of that. You are skinny, genuine, and beautiful. The people who call you those things are those things themselves and to make themselves feel better, they all focus on a target and beat on that person for being flawless," he says. I can't stand what he's saying. He's lying directly to my face. How could he do that? I go to stand up, but he wraps his hand around mine, keeping me in place.
"Pl-please let me go," I say, and my voice stutters and cracks. He releases me and I walk through the door. I go through the hallways, not really sure where I'm going until I end up in the hallway where my locker is. I start walking toward it when the black spots come back in to my vision. The final bell rings and people come pouring out of the classrooms as I collapse to the ground. I pull myself up on a locker and I make my way to my own. I grab the books I need and I pull on my coat. I sling my heavily weighted backpack over my shoulder, causing my knees to buckle. I make my way out of a fire escape on the side of the building and I'm walking alone in the snow when my foot slips off the edge of the sidewalk. I fall in to the road where a car is passing at a rather high speed, at least I started falling when my hand was grabbed by someone clouded in a blur of snow. They pull me back up from my low dip and my feet spin on the slippery side walk. I keep spinning, unable to find traction, and I slam into the body of the person who saved me. We both fall in to a snow bank. I finally get to see the face of my savior and it's none other than Anthony. He's smiling broadly and he gets the corners of my mouth to lift in a bit of a smile. He shouts and laughs, pointing to my fraction of a smile, shouting that that is the first bit of a smile that he has ever seen on me. He tickles my sides and I begin to screech with laughter. I dig myself out of the bank and when I turn around I watch Anthony attempt to stand up within the bank. His legs immediately sink through the thin layer of ice on top of the snow and I laugh hysterically. He manages to climb through the rest of the snow back on to the sidewalk. He puts his arm over my shoulder as we walk. We get to my house and I invite him inside. He insists that he should go home and he makes sure that I get inside before he continues walking. I go upstairs and lie in my bed, looking around. I let Nagini out of her cage and she wraps herself around my waist. I'm so tired and I know that I won't be able to sleep, so, after I had changed in to dry clothes, I take a swig of a medication that assists in sleeping. I manage to sleep for a few hours before I wake up to a grumbling stomach. The medication has worn off and I remind myself that it isn't rumbling, it's applause, my body rewarding me for having not eaten. I lie back in bed and Nagini transfers from my stomach to my arms, her entire body wrapping loosely around both of them. I don't know how, but I fall back to sleep.
YOU ARE READING
Sinking Through the Cracks
RomantizmAlly has never had friends. Ally has never had parents who really cared for her. Ally has never had a peaceful day at school. She is anorexic, though she has never had it treated. She has horrible times of depression though she always just puts...
