A Golden Locket

Alice- The Aftermath of An Overwhelming Disappointment

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. It’s all I can do to keep from exploding, to keep from making everyone scrape my remains off the walls. I spend months thinking about him, and all we do is awkwardly sit there barely talking, not even looking at each other? He probably hates me. I would hate me, too, if I didn’t know the real story. But why couldn’t he just try to repair our friendship after what happened? Why couldn’t he just give us a shot again? I would give anything just to be able to tell him the truth, to tell him my side of the story. But that will never happen. Because I don’t have the bravery. Because Dorian needs me to keep his secret. Because it’s too late to back out now. Unless some miracle happens, I’m in for life. It’s these thoughts that fill my mind as I walk down the hall, the familiar clicking of my heels returning a bit of my sanity. Something normal and sane in all of this.

Seeing Chris in the hallway is a welcome relief from my mind’s constant remarks about last period’s shocking news. ”Hey, bitch. How was your smart person science class? You know; I don’t understand why you take those classes. It’s not like you want to be a scientist or anything.” Even though Chris was pretty dense about some stuff, she did understand me in ways no one other than Dorian did. Or Peter.

“Because it’ll impress colleges. Plus, who’s to say that I won’t represent some major controversial science company one day?” I can’t help but smirk when I say this.

“You lawyers and your witty retorts.”

After walking in silence for less than a few seconds, my smile disappears and I’m back to my worrying. Apparently, I’m not very good at hiding it because Chris quickly asks me what’s wrong. “Okay, what’s up?” I brush her off by giving a quick shake of my head. “Stop lying to me; spill it.”

I was too upset to lie to her. “Nothing, it’s just that I got paired with Peter West as my lab partner in science class.”

“That nerdy guy? Can’t blame you. He seems really stuck up, sort of ‘holier-than-thou’, you know?” I couldn’t help but internally wince at her words. “Come on, let’s go sweat off your anger.” She practically began to drag me down the hall on the way to gym. Maybe some exercise would help me get my mind off of everything that just happened.