Seasons

Chapter 15

I shivered under a plastic sheet, I felt like I was getting rained on, the water was cold I open my eyes and pushed myself off the bottom of the tub, I must have fallen asleep in the shower last night. I reached for the handle and turned off the faucet, my fingers were like pale raisins, I’m sure I was in here long enough. I stand up and reach for a towel before wrapping it around my body. I quickly dried myself off before making my way to my room. When I got there I noticed the sun was out, great, I’m probably late for school, I don’t care. I threw on some comfy clothes and made my way back to the bathroom for a brush.

I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror which made me do a double take. My face was swollen, there was a large gash on the side of my head. My lip was purple and swollen along with both of my eyes. My nose was bruised but I don’t think it was broken and my body felt like hell. I was so achy I felt like an old woman, my back was stiff and my joints hurt when I walked which caused a small limp. Looks like I’m not going to school today so I’m just going to get some rest.

Without a second thought, I curled up under my blankets and passed out. It took no time to drift off into a deep warm sleep. I didn’t dream, I just tried to recover from the beating I encountered last night. I tried not to think about Jinyoung, he would always slip into my mind but I pushed him out of my head. I kept thinking about Jennie but I pushed her out as well, I pushed everyone out until my mind was empty.

When I finally woke up my body still hurt but I was refreshed, I felt a little less dead. I sit up and stretch before yawning and looking at my clock, it was about noon and I figured I should get up now. I grabbed my phone off the table and seen I had 14 missed calls from Jinyoung, 32 messages from Jinyoung, and 8 voicemails from Jinyoung. I was confused, why is trying to get ahold of me so bad? Is he in trouble, does he need my help?

I quickly unlocked my phone and went to his texts, I began to skim them,

‘Hey April’, ‘Are you at school today? I don’t see you?’, ‘Did you get sick and stay home?’, ‘Why aren’t you responding? Did I do something wrong?’, ‘April, where are you? You never miss school.’, ‘Please talk to me, I’m starting to worry.’, ‘I saw Jennie smiling at her phone and she doesn’t seem like herself, are you okay? Did she do something to you?’, ‘April.’, ‘Why are you ignoring me, I need to know if you’re okay.’, ‘Please, I’m begging you, I’m scared something happened to you, pick up your phone.’, ‘I have called you 9 times, why aren’t you answering?’, ‘I’m coming to your house to check on you immediately after school.’

Then the next message scared me a little bit. ‘I’m cutting class to see you, I can’t focus if you’re in trouble. I just need to know you’re alive, I’ll be over as soon as this class ends, I love you.’ I read it and had a mix of emotions flood over me.

“No!” I yelled out loud I began to type quickly. ‘I’m okay, really, there is no need to come over, stay in school and don’t come over after, I’m okay just a little sick.’ He can’t come over, he can’t see me like this, he will surely kill Jennie if he finds out she did something like this to me. Wait, did he say he loved me? I dropped the phone in my lap, along with my jaw. I chuckled nervously he couldn’t have meant it that way, it’s a friendship thing, yeah, that’s all it is.

My phone buzzed and it was Jinyoung he replied. ‘Do you promise you’re okay, Is there anything I can do? If there is let me know, will you be back tomorrow?’

To avoid further conversation I responded. ‘Yes, I’ll be there, I have to go now, bye.’

‘Get better soon April, I miss you already’ I immediately exited the chat and shook away any thought with him out of my head. I can’t be thinking about that right now, I have to cut him out of my life if I want to protect him. My phone buzzed again and it was a messaged from a strange number.

I checked it and someone had sent a picture, of me, naked. My eyes widened when I looked at the picture closer. This was from last night when I got beat up by Jennie and her little gang. I can’t believe this, they went as far as taking pictures of me, beating me up wasn’t enough huh? How am I supposed to go back to school now, everyone has probably seen them by now, I’m ruined, I’m gone, someone kill me already.

My phone buzzed again and I got a notification from Twitter, it was the picture again, of me. I checked the retweets and see it's got almost two-thousand retweets, that means over two-thousand people has seen me naked. Oh no, I hope Jinyoung doesn’t see them, please, I pray to god that they get taken down and Jinyoung doesn’t see these. I kept scrolling along my shattered screen, trying not to cut my fingers on the glass and the pictures kept coming. So many people have shared it, seen it, commented on it, everything! I turned off my phone and covered my head up under my blankets, this isn’t happening to me, someone can stop this. Please just make the torture stop.