Dear December

Chapter 7

I don't speak to any of them until Monday. They're all probably out cold from Enya's party anyway. I'm just replaying the moment in my head, over and over and over.

The door creaks open when I push the handle. Enya and December are in bed. Together? Except Enya's on top of the sheets and absolutely nowhere near him. She tilts her head forward on the pillow to create a glorious second chin and look me in the eye. She stares at me with urgency, pressing a finger to her purple-coloured lips. So many questions. So many questions. She glances over at December, observing the steady rise and fall of his chest. Quietly, she stands from the bed, creeping over the floorboards and closing the door behind us.

"What-"

She cuts me off. "I'm not talking about it, April." She looks stressed, rubbing her forehead with her thumb and finger.

"And the texts?"

She lets her hand flop to her side. "It never happened. I don't know what I was thinking, okay? It's not my place to-" she pauses. "Please can you just leave."

I hesitate. Is she okay? She looks halfway to tears. "Enya-"

"Please just go," she says, hiding her face beneath waves of dark hair.

A sharp elbow buries itself into my side. "April," Salim hisses beside me. I jerk away, looking up at him and glowering. I ask him what he wants and he frowns.

"You're not writing anything. What are you thinking?"

What am I thinking? I'm thinking that while my mum presses her lips to Joel's in the dark corners of his house, my father believes whole heartedly that she's in love with him. I'm thinking that Enya is so conflicted about something which she won't open up about. I'm thinking that I can do nothing but watch as December Fahey becomes an endless pit of enigma.

"I'm not thinking anything. Science shuts my brain down like that," I lie, keeping my voice low so Mr Rhodes doesn't call me out on 'interrupting his lesson'.

Salim chuckles. I shift away in my seat. I don't want to talk to him right now.

Arms snake around her waist, pulling her against his food-stained shirt. Beard brushing her chin as he deepens the kiss. The fingers that coil into his hair-

My hand shoots up. Mr Rhodes pauses and his whiteboard pen stops squealing its way across the board. "Miss Adams?"

I swallow. "Please can I use the toilet?"

He frowns, shaking his blazer sleeve from his wrist and checking his watch. He looks back up at me. "Can you wait? It's five minutes until lunch."

He turns back around and begins writing Biology nonsense again.

'They'll be wondering where we are.'

I clear my throat. "Actually, sir, I really need to go." I look at him with pressing eyes like yes, old man, I'm menstruating. Let me leave.

He sighs before waving me off and I jump from my stool, tugging my bag onto my shoulder and speeding to the exit. As I shut the door, I see Salim looking at me through the dirty glass. He's confused. I don't care.

I storm down the hall. I don't know where I'm going; I just need to be alone. The colours of the lockers fly past me as I make my way to the end of the corridor, where a sharp corner leads to the Art area.