From The Ashes We Rise

Chp 13: Dammit

~A Week Later~

Summer had finally ended and school had just begun again. When I first entered the main hallway, I was astonished to find that nobody was bothering to look at me. They still giggle as I passed by them so that's normal. I met Sammi at her locker and leaned against it. She was wearing a cute black crop top and some denim shorts along with a pair of red converse. Her hair was cut slightly but still kept free.

I whistled and smirked. "Looking good there, beautiful."

She jabbed me in the arm and rolled her eyes.

"Stop trying to flirt with me. It's not gonna work." I chuckled and crossed my arms.

"Aww, why not?" I pouted.

"Because you're not meant for that."

"But whyyyy?" I whined.

"Fuck off, Ebony."

I giggled and brought her in for a hug. In the corner of my eye, I see people in the hallway laughing at us. I narrowed my eyes at some of them and brought her closer to me. Was it just me being a hormonal teen or was I falling in love with her? I could never know; my emotions were too complicated anyway. We released from our embrace and headed to Sammi's class first. While I was heading to mine, I spied some other students giggling at me and mocking me in some way. I didn't really find it that offensive so I brushed it off and quickened my pace. The bell rang upon reaching class.

The schedule had totally changed this year, so sometimes I shared classes with Sammi, sometimes I was all alone. It didn't bother me as much but what would really affect my mood was my constant thoughts about mum. It's really heartbreaking for a child to lose their own parent at a young age; you really need as much support as you can get from them to face life head-on. Dad didn't seem to give a shit anymore since he thought I was a waste of genes.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by Mr Oswald, my new Maths teacher. He wasn't so bad, sometimes he could make cool band references to lighten my mood and he uses memes for his lessons to further explain his point. He was an awesome teacher to be really honest. He also knew about mum's death so he tried all he could to cheer me up or talk to me about my problems. He lost his mum at a young age too so he knew how I felt.

"Hey, Ash, you okay?" He broke my train of thought. I rubbed my eyes and yawned. Why am I so tired?

"Y-yeah just...tired...that's it," I tried to convince him. He shook his head before starting the lesson.

As the days went on, I felt even worse. I didn't know why, but it was really frustrating. I would get caught sleeping in class a few times and I couldn't seem to pay attention in class. I would break down at random times and dread everything. Sammi hadn't noticed this yet so I have to keep it hidden from her as much as possible.

After school one day, before meeting Sammi at the front gate, I went into the boy's room to check myself in the mirror. I looked horrible; my icy blue eyes have darkened slightly, my hair had grown until slightly above my shoulders and my skin was pale, littered with bruises and healed cuts. I cringed in disgust and washed my face. I lowered the sleeves of my favourite grey sweater to cover my wounds and stepped out of the toilet.

I met Sammi outside of the school and accompanied her home. It was a silent journey for us that day; Sammi has tried asking about how I was doing but I never did gave her a proper answer. After what seemed like forever, Sammi finally opened her mouth.