Framed

Ten - Sticky Notes and the Body

**I'M BACK. Complicated stuff happened and chapters were deleted, so sorry for the sudden spam of added chapters. I'd appreciate it sooo much if you all commented and voted again, even though you probably already read this chapter**

With not even a thousand students and an incredible amount of space, the halls at Grand Mills were always surprisingly crowded between periods of after school. As you could probably guess, anthrophobic (look it up) old me was always eager to get back to the common room. On one particular Friday, after an extremely exhausting series of inconveniently scheduled exams, I felt especially eager to see the scratched up number 5 on the door of my room.

"Please just listen to me!" Alexis' pleads projected across the hallway, and I noticed our room door was cracked open very slightly. "I think it's a terrible idea. Can we please just talk this through for a moment?" I had been living with Alexis for, what, almost three weeks already, and I had not ever heard her talking on the phone or begging anyone about anything. It was somewhat satisfying to hear, but I was too tired to stick around outside when a soft warm mattress was calling my name. I opened the door loudly and carelessly and dropped my backpack on the floor, then stretched.

"Doesn't it matter to you at all that- I mean, okay, love you mom." Alexis' tone changed suddenly when she saw me walk in. She took her iPhone away from her ear and hung up, then dropped it carelessly on her bed where she had been sitting.

"Thank God you're done so I can sleep," I said, looking up at the ceiling. "I cannot even begin to explain how tired I am." I slouched over to the bunk ladder and dragged myself up it, then pounced on my bed, which creaked eerily in response. Laying down always felt amazing directly after P.E. class, which thankfully was my last period. Alexis was completely silent as she put her phone on the night table beside the beloved alarm clock, and I slowly craned my neck down to where she was sitting and looking depressed. Maybe it was just the dim lighting that gave her that appearance, but I hightly doubted it considering the conversation she just ended.

"What's up, Alexis?" I asked. "You alright?"

"Great," she answered unconvincingly. "I mean, nothing's up. You sound like my mom."

"Sorry," I said, putting my hands up in surrender even though she couldn't see me. "So you were talking to your mom?"

"Yes," she said slowly. "I was trying to get her to, uh, let me take astronomy next year instead of chemistry, but she said no... so yeah, I'm destined for failure."

I sat there awkwardly. I wasn't good at comforting people but I wasn't even sure if this was an appropriate moment to do so. The silence rang in my ears, and I mumbled, "I know the feeling."

"Yeah, well," Alexis said.

I cleared my throat and played awkwardly with my hands. "So, um, chemistry's not your thing?"

The door flew open and Smalls collapsed on the floor, panting and laughing. "Oh my God, you guys. You're missing out on all the- eee!" Someone grabbed onto her ankle and started dragging her away. She tried to grab onto the doorpost but apparently she wasn't strong enough and she soon disappeared from our sight, half laughing and half screaming. I sighed and leaned back down on my bed.

"The housemistress is gonna cut them," Alexis said inexpressively.

The night went by a bit awkwardly. I got on the computer and Alexis started listening to music on her iPhone. The only noise either of us made was Alexis snorting gloatingly after two hours had passed, when the housemistress started yelling at everyone in the common room to shut up already.

Six o'clock was pretty early for bed, and I was getting tired of Googling things. Wondering what kind of music it was that was keeping Alexis entertained for so long, I almost leaned over on the bed to ask her, but then I remembered she was having a bad day and probably would hurt me if I made her pause her music just to answer one stupid question. I slowly started to climb down the creaky metal bunk. As I walked out of the dim room, I glanced over at Alexis.