Eren awoke the next morning at the sound of his alarm clock. He rolled out of bed, still in his clothes from yesterday. His body still ached. Some blood was smeared on his face from his nose. He left his room and went into the bathroom. The gauze that he had on his face the night before was now hanging halfway off his face. He tore the rest of it off completely and threw it in the garbage next to the sink. He washed his face off in the sink with some warm water. He pulled some more gauze from the cupboard and used more medical tape to hold the gauze over his still bruise covered face. He then looked in the mirror.
Am I really ready for another day? Eren thought. He rubbed his forehead as his head began to hurt. He left the bathroom and went back in his room where he grabbed his back pack from his desk and slipped his shoes on. He didn't care if he was wearing the same clothes. It's not like anyone else would notice either.
Eren was about to exit his room again when he turned around and grabbed his notebook off his desk. Then did he leave his room behind, shutting the door behind him.
Eren went downstairs into the kitchen where his family was eating breakfast, not noticing his presence.
Eh, I'm not hungry anyway. Eren thought to himself as he went over and opened the medicine cupboard. He pulled out a bottle of ibuprofen. He unscrewed the lid, tilted the bottle, and poured some of the dark red, smooth, oval pills in the center of his palm. He swallowed two and stuffed the remaining four into his pocket.
"Why do you have that stuff on your arms?" asked Bianca.
Eren that she was talking to him, so he ignored her and left the kitchen.
"Bye, mom. Bye, dad. See you after school." called out as he shut the house door behind him. He took his phone out from his pocket and put his earbuds in his ears. He turned on some music and turned his volume almost all the way up so he could easily ignore the outside world. He listened "We Don't Belong" by his favorite band and heroes, Black Veil Brides.
Step by step, Eren walked down the sidewalk, looking down at the ground with an occasional glimpse up as to view his surroundings. He was two blocks away from the school.
Whack! Eren was sent sprawling to the ground. His earbuds fell out and he could hear his brother, Luke, and his buddies laughing behind him. Eren growled as he picked his earbuds, hanging to the ground, up into his hand. He tried hard to hide his pain and anger. He got back up, brushing the dirt off his jeans. He looked to his left and saw what had hit him in the back of his head. A football. Eren walked over, picked it up, reeled his arm back, and chucked the ball as hard as he could in the path in front of him. It hurt his arm, but he didn't care. He had managed to get the ball stuck in a pine tree, where no one, not even Luke, could get it without the possible use of a latter or a strong gust of wind.
Eren looked back behind him. Luke's friends all had shocked and surprised looks on their faces. The expression on Luke's face, however, was far from shock and surprise. He was beyond pissed.
Shit. Eren thought as he prepared for an intense run.
"Why you...." he heard his brother start.
The chase began as soon as Eren took his first running step. He knew his brother was gonna pound him. Eren ran full speed. So did Luke and his gang, approaching right on his heels. He forced himself to go faster, ignoring the burning wildfire in his chest. He could hear heavy breathing behind him. He glimpsed over his shoulder. His pursuers were falling behind. Eren still kept running like his life truly depended on it, which it kind of did!
He ran until he reached the school doors. Then, did he finally stop to catch his breath. He took heavy breaths, gasped, choked, and then vomited into a bush. Other students close by backed even further away from him than usual as to avoid getting even the tiniest drop on them.
Eren tilted his head up and looked at the cloudy, grey sky. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He managed to keep an iron grip on his earbuds while he was running, making sure that nothing happened to them. He opened the building doors and went inside.
Eren headed to his locker. Walking down the hall, people purposely rammed into his shoulders, trying to knock him down. Some people even stabbed him a couple times with the tips of their pencils as they passed him, tiny pieces of lead sometimes sticking into his sides and arms. He finally approached his locker with only two minutes remaining to get his things and get to class. Why is my locker so far away from my classes? he wondered.
As Eren was about to close his locker, someone shoved him into it and slammed the door shut. He was locked in!
"That's what'chya get for throwing my football!" he heard Luke's voice outside the door.
"I didn't know that would happen! Now let me out! Now!" Eren yelled, pleading to be let out.
"Sorry, can't hear you!" Luke responded before walking away.
Eren tried pushing the door open, but then stopped, realizing that he didn't want to get in trouble by his parents for damaging school property. He was claustrophobic, so he did NOT appreciate the cramped space. He stood there in the small locker, scrunched up a bit from the little room there was.
Eren hit the locker door with his fist and shouted, "Help!"
No one seemed to hear him, or at least no one bothered to get him out. He knew it was going to be a long time before he got out of that cramped locker. A long time.
At lunch, Eren hit his locker door and yelled for help again, over and over, knowing that there would be a lot of students wandering the hallways and hear him.
After at least what seemed to be a million times of calling for 'help',did somebody finally come to his locker.
"H-hello?" he heard a girls voice from the outside, "I-is someone in th-there?"
"Huh? Yeah! Yeah, there is! Can you let me out of here?" Eren begged.
"Y-yeah, sure. What's your combination?" the voice replied.
"28-2-18." he told her. There was a click and the door opened. Eren flung himself out onto the ground, gasping for air. He hated small spaces. He was claustrophobic.
"Are you okay?" the girl asked.
Eren looked up at her and said, "Yeah. Thanks for getting me outta there. I can't stand small spaces."
He got up off the ground and then looked at the girl again. He didn't recognize her.
"You new here?" he asked.
"M-hm." the girl nodded in response, looking at the ground.
"Cool. I'm Eren." he stuck his hand out.
"Sarah." she replied, shaking Erens hand.
Eren examined Sarah for a minute. She had dark, "flippy" hair much like his. She had a piercing on the right side of her nose and on the left side of her bottom lip, both being just plain, silver rings. She wore a Black Veil Brides t-shirt and ripped black jeans. A black hoodie was tied by the sleeves around her waist. She wore a thick layer of black eyeliner on her eyelids. But there was something that had really caught his eye.
Sarah had bandages wrapped on her arms. Just like him.
Eren snapped his attention back to reality as his stomach growled. He hadn't eaten anything all day. He caught Sarah smile a little out of the corner of his eye.
"Wanna get some food before lunch is over?" he asked. She nodded again. "Come on. I'll show you where the cafeteria is." he told Sarah.
They walked to the cafeteria together. They didn't say anything to each other until the both had a tray of food and sat down at a table. The table was full of preps, but they immediately moved away as soon as they saw Eren headed towards the table.
That was the advantage of being hated. You weren't ever wanted around. People would do anything to avoid being around you.
"So," Eren took a bite of his salad, "where ya from?" he asked.
"Detroit." Sarah answered quietly, popping a tater-tot in her mouth.
Eren replied, "What made you move to Greenville?"
Sarah took a drink of orange juice, then said, "My house was robbed."
"Oh. Sorry." he apologized.
She shrugged, "It's okay. I didn't have much, but my parents sure did. They had all sorts of valuable antiques and they had money stashed in different areas all over the house for," she did the quote thing with her fingers, "'emergencies'. The only 'emergencies' they actually used the money for was shopping for themselves. I hardly had anything. Nothing of mine was taken, so my parents say it's my fault we were robbed."
Eren looked at his food. "Parents, am I right?"
Suddenly, a giant hand pressed against the back of Eren's head and shoved his face into his food.
"Ha!" snorted Blake before walking away.
Eren raised his head up. It was covered in chocolate pudding. He wiped his eyes so that he could see and licked his lips.
At least it was something good. Eren thought.
"Oh geez." Sarah got up out of her seat. After a few minutes, she came back with a handful of napkins.
"Thanks, but I think I got it. This isn't the first time this has ever happened." He wiped more pudding off of his face and licked his hands.
Sarah laughed, which made Eren laugh.
Again, his face was shoved into his pudding. Eren came up again and continued to laugh.
"How are you not upset?!" Blake shouted.
Eren just shrugged, giggling.
Blake growled and stomped away, raged by his unsuccessful mission to make Eren upset.
Sarah and Eren continued to laugh as Eren continued to eat the pudding off of his face.
Eren had made his first friend in a long time.
Sarah.
YOU ARE READING
Lost Inside
Teen FictionA story of two "emos" who fight to survive their lives and not give in.
