I lean heavily on the bathroom stall door, the cool metal chilling my back. Haphazardly, I keep fastening and unfastening the tiny buttons to my plaid jacket. When I'm stressed, I find it easier to keep myself busy. My fingers fly up and down my jacket a dozen times before they are trembling so hard that they can no longer function properly. I let my legs slip out from underneath me and I collapse to the tiled floor with a dull thud. I should probably be in class by now, but I'm so exhausted. In all my years of school, I've only skipped once, but I guess today the number would shift to twice.
I'm not entirely sure why I'm sitting here on this germ infested floor, with nothing to hold but my anxiety filled body. Maybe it's because my life seems to be falling apart or maybe it's because I'm the one letting it. Everyday I watch as things get progressively worse. I'm usually pretty decent at hiding it, but eventually the heartache takes its toll. It always does. I'm tired of people fighting, I'm tired of hiding, and I'm tired of being tired.
Feeling numb, I peel of my jacket and crumble it up beneath my head. I grip tightly to its fabric and nestle my face within the soft folds, curling up in a ball. My eyelids close off my view of the world and I drift off to sleep, escaping reality for as long as I can.
Some time later I wake with a start to the sound of footsteps. I stumble to my feet, leaving the jacket below me. "Oh, it's you." I say quietly as I recognize my second cousin, Bella, walk through the entrance.
She laughs haughtily. "Who did you expect?" Her laugh covers my skin in a layer of goose bumps. And for a good reason, I might add. One thing about Bella is that everywhere she goes, she carries a trail of trouble.
"I don't know," I murmur not looking at her.
"Will you guys be over for Thanksgiving?" She asks casually as if she didn't notice the mass amount of tension that consumed the air the minute she walked in.
I exhale a shaky breath. "I'd think so."
"Hey, what happened to your wrist?" She points at my right arm that's encased in a blue cast.
"I fell...yesterday," I mumble sheepishly.
"What a shame," she comments without a single drop of emotion in her high pitched voice. I eye her plain black shirt that nearly matches mine.
I let out a nervous giggle. "Tell me about it."
She makes her way closer to me and I find myself holding my breath. She gazes into a mirror on the wall. "Don't you think it's funny how much we look alike?" I mean same hair color, same facial structures, same body type." She hesitates and I know I don't have to look at my reflection to know what she's saying is true. After re-applying some name brand mascara she continues. "The only difference is our eye color, really."
"Yup," I agree and wonder what she's getting at.
"We could even pass as twins..." She adds with a steely edge in her voice before capping up her makeup and shoving it inside her purse. I twitch uncomfortably. Seconds later, she drops the subject and smiles at me with a pleasant smile, a smile that she's no doubt covering up her unpleasant intentions with. "Can you hold this for me? I'll be in and out real fast, I promise." She shoves an expensive red purse into my hands and slides into a stall without waiting for an answer. She locks the door abruptly and I'm left to wonder why in the world she'd allow me to hold her clearly valuable accessory.
Not even a minute later, a freshman girl storms in the bathroom with a finger pointed in my face. "That's the girl who stole my purse!" She shrieks. The principal follows closely behind, his arms crossed tightly across his chest.
I take a step back and blurt, "No, I didn't."
"Yes, you did. This is mine!" The girl yells. Confused, I let her snatch the purse from my hands. I watch as she empties the contents of it onto the floor in a frenzy. Wasting no time, she opens a wallet and flashes a student identification card in my face. "See? This belongs to me!" She glares, her brown eyes boring angrily into mine.
"It's all a misunderstanding, I swear," I blubber in a weak attempt to defend myself.
"I hope you won't misunderstand me when I say you're coming with me," the principal says gruffly.
I didn't even do anything!" I plead.
The principal looks at me in pure disbelief. "I saw you with my own eyes."
"That was my..." I start.
"I don't want to hear any excuses." He cuts me off. "Stealing is a very serious offense, young lady. I'd advise you to be sure not to plan anything for a whole month. You'll be serving detention everyday starting today for your actions." He pauses for dramatic effect and all of the sudden I feel really light headed. Dazed I grab onto a nearby sink for support as he begins to reprimand me in a lecture manner. "You should be ashamed of yourself. Do you really expect to get through life with such obscene behavior? I can't believe you have gotten this far. I'm just glad I caught you before you could do more damage..." The rest of his speech I tune out because I've already heard enough.
