Royal Pain

Chapter 10: Dancing in the Dark

I remain silent as lunch goes on and it seems everyone notices and to my disadvantage. Apparently, 'I'm tired' isn't a good enough excuse.
"Shut up I just don't feel good!" I exclaim finally as Wyatt begins to feel my forehead. I don't feel good, I just saw one of my distant friends making out with my math teacher. I had only taken a few bites of the meatloaf in front of me. At least I think it's meatloaf, and I already feel sick to my stomach.

Feeling bile rise in my throat, I quickly grab onto Celia's arm whose head snaps to mine in an instant.
"Harper?" she questions as she grabs my shoulder to steady me.
"I think I'm gonna be sick," I hardly mumble before leaping up and booking it for the restroom. The second I stumble in, girls are flocking out of my way and Celia trails in behind me.
"Harp what's going on?" she exclaims and right as she says this I trip over my own feet and let the small lunch I had, into the toilet.

"Shit!" she exclaims before quickly grabbing my hair and holding it back. I throw up my guts one more time before I know that my stomach is completely empty. Mostly because the gagging hasn't stopped but the food has.
"I think I got sick," I mumble.
"Well no shit sherlock!" Celia exclaims tying my hair back tightly with a hairband.
"Did you feel sick before?" she asks and I only shake my head. Not until I saw a scandal in front of my own eyes.
"Not until I had the meatloaf," I groan.
"That's weird I had the meatloaf and it was fine to me, same with Wyatt," she responds and I grip the edge of the toilet as I feel something else coming up.

"Oh my gosh," she finally mutters and I turn to her with a pained expression, wondering what she must've just thought of.
"Mike," she growls out and my eyes quickly widen. That son of a bitch. Whatever Joshua and Wessel did to his car, he must've thought was me. That is if he didn't do the same thing to Joshua's meatloaf.
"Call my cousin," I groan and Celia nods while pulling out her phone.
"Are you ladies ok in here?" Ms. Kaci, our school's secretary questions.
"Lady issues," is all I manage to say before she begins offering me various types of medications to make me feel better.

"Harper!" I hear Joshua's voice echo throughout the girls' bathroom.
"Young man get out!" Ms. Kaci yells with as much authority as she can, which frankly isn't much.
"Sorry, Ms. Kaci but my cousin's dying and I need to rescue her before Satan takes her soul!" Joshua exclaims as he slides down next to me.
"He poisoned you!?" Joshua screams with concern etched into his face making him look more like Daniel than himself.
"Yes... maybe," I sigh still feeling insanely nauseous.

"She never felt sick until she ate the meatloaf and I saw Mike watching her the whole lunch," Celia explains to Joshua. He stares at her for a moment before his eyes snap back to me.
"That jackass is going to pay for messing with my family, I warned him, I warned him!" he shouts the last part as he stands abruptly.
"Joshua," I sigh, as I attempt at standing but quickly sit back down, "It's fine it's just a petty high school prank war," I try to reason and Joshua's quiet for a moment.

"Why do you have that look on your face?" Celia questions him and his eyes snap to her.
"What look?" he defends quickly.
"The look that means there's a lot more than what we know!" she exclaims and Joshua clamps his mouth shut for a moment.
"Joshua he's messing with us too you can't just hide this from us!" Celia exclaims getting angry with him and it seems his eyes widen in fear for a moment.

Sighing, he glances at the bathroom exit before turning back to us, "Last summer at a small get together that the football team and cheer squad had, the cross country team crashed it. We all took it as a funny joke and chilled together, I mean we all got along great! That was until a game of truth or dare took an ugly turn and I ended up making out with Mike's girlfriend, I didn't even know they were dating!" Joshua quickly exclaims.
"Mike walked in on it and flipped out, saying I tricked her into kissing me and that I was the scum bag of the earth. I tried apologizing, I mean the guy was close to tears I felt horrible, that was until he said he'd screw you and your friend," he murmurs the last part.