Hanahaki

Hibiscus

My stomach and throat burned. I cleaned up my tear stained face and the blood staining my lips and chin. I looked at my reflection in the mirror and took a deep breath.

"It's okay Aphmau. You are alright..this is all a dream." I repeated over and over to myself as more sobs escaped my throat. These weren't cries of pain, no, it was cries of being deathly afraid of what just happened.

I sniffled when there was suddenly a knock on the locked bathroom door making me jump. My body turned and I faced the door.

"Huh? Why is it locked?" A female voice came from behind the locked door.

I quickly wiped my tears away and was about to unlock the door when through the side of my vision I saw the small droplets of blood and petals on the clean white tiled floor. I stopped in my tracks and looked around for something to clean it with. Paper towels.

I pushed down the lever dispensing paper towles. I shoved more in my hands and fell to my knees, cleaning the mess. I gathered up the long red petals and hid them away in my uniforms pocket. The knock on the door grew louder and angrier as I rubbed away the dark red spots from the floor.

"Who is in there! Open up the door!" The girl yelled.

I took a deep breath and threw the paper towels away. I checked my appearance quickly and straightened out my hair and uniform top. I turned to the door and reached out for the handle. I unlocked the door and opened it, coming face to face with the girl on the other side.

She glared at me and started saying something but I blocked out the annoying sound of her voice nagging at me. I couldn't focus at all. My vision became blurry and the inside of my body burned in pain. It felt like thousands of tiny needles were cutting into me. I took deep ragged breaths as I lost my balance and fell to the cold hard floor.

There was a muffled, panicked shout as I blacked out.

*******

A medicinal smell invaded my nose. I slowly opened my eyes to see I was in the school infirmary. I sat up and looked around, noticing I was on one of the beds. I slowly lifted myself up out of the bed and pulled back the white curtain.

"I see you are awake. How are you feeling?" A familiar voice came from the doorway. It was Laurence.

"Laurence, I feel good." I said.

Laurence frowned, "Quit lying. You passed out for crying out loud. The nurse said it was from exhaustion."

I looked down and replyed after a short silence, "I....yes I lied...I just didn't want to worry anyone."

"Aphmau....of course it's going to worry me when you faint." Laurence said as he walked over to me. He wrapped his arms around me and gave me a gentle hug.

"Sorry." I whispered.

"It's okay, but when you don't feel good tell me. I'm your friend." Laurence smiled and pulled away.

I smiled up at him and said, "Thank you. And, will do."

"Good. Now, the nurse said for you to go get a checkup at the doctors tomorrow and get plenty of rest."

"I will." I laughed. Laurence was always like a caretaker. He would always worry over the smallest things. I guess that's what makes him great.

After a bit, Laurence and I left the infirmary and I was able to go home early. The next day I went to the doctors and got a checkup to make sure I was all right and didn't hit my head or anything. After that, I was able to make my afternoon classes. Luckily, that means I wouldn't see Aaron.

My chest tightened at the thought of him. I hated how painful this was...I wish I could be rid of these feelings and live a normal highschool life.

"au- Aphmau? Are you listening?" Laurence said in a worried tone as he peered into my face.

"Fine! Thank you for walking me to class." I said, smiling up at him.

Laurence smiled back, "No problem. It's been awhile since just you and I had a chance to just walk and talk together."

Afterwards, I managed to survive the rest of my classes and was getting ready to head home when I was approached by Katelyn.

"Hey Katelyn." I said as I grabbed my backpack.

"Hey. I heard you had to go home early cuz of getting sick." Katelyn said.

"Yeah. Just wasn't feeling good." I gave her a reassuring smile.

"Well that's good. Oh, do you want to go to the arcade with a few other friends and I?" Katelyn asked.

"Sure!" I yelled excitedly.