Tag, you're it.

Chapter 3: Anxiety.

I woke up to the sun high in the sky and pouring through the window. A small smile crept upon my face at the beautiful weather and my eyes were flickering shut when something jolted me up.

I groaned at the pressure on my chest as Veronica jumped on me.

"Wake up! Wake up!" She sang.

"Today is the day!"

She left me so confused.

"Day for what?" I replied, rubbing the sleep out my eyes and letting out a yawn.

"Oh come on, you can't go back on it now, we stayed up 'til four in the morning talking you into messaging him," She whined.

Oh. They'd talked me into messaging Leon. The guy I've been crushing on for the last 4 years. Georgia walked in the door with a toothbrush hanging from her mouth.

"Get your phone, do it now," Georgia demanded, barely audible with her mouth full.

I lazily grabbed my phone off the bedside table and started to type out the message, Veronica and Georgia perched on the side of my bed peering at the screen.

Heyy Leon, so I was wondering if you wanted to go out...

"NO STOP YOU'RE DOING IT ALL WRONG," Georgia complained and grabbed my phone off me.

"You're coming across way too needy. God, you're so bad at this." She chuckled and started typing.

Hey x

Message sent.

"Is that it? Seriously?" I raised my eyebrow at her. She gave a little shimmy in response to say I know what I'm doing as she walked back to the bathroom to finish getting ready.

"Addy, look! He's typing already!" Veronica picked up my phone.

Hey xx

"And he put two kisses! That means he's into you! Now ask him, ask him." I giggled at how excited she was. So, I did. A perfect, short, sweet message asking to go for coffee. And each that passed waiting for a response second - even though it was only a few - got unbearable. The heart rate, the doubts. I hate anxiety.

Reliving these memories were distracting me from the real anxiety that was eating me up. I felt like I had been having panic attacks every half an hour. Or at least what felt like half an hour, I'm not sure, there's no clock in here. I felt another panic attack coming on when the door flung open. My breathing quickened and the room span.

I could barely see the man the walked into the room. However, I could tell he was holding something. He paused and looked down at me, giving a little tut and shake of his head.

He thinks I'm nothing. He really thinks I'm nothing.

And now I couldn't control my breathing, or my tears and I didn't want him to see how vulnerable I was, but I still just couldn't help it. I turned on my thin mattress to face the wall. Staying in the safety of my fetal position. I could feel his presence as he put whatever he was holding on the floor beside me. And he stayed there for what seemed like forever... just staring. I could feel his glare on my back. Eventually, he left. I waited as long as I could, but I was hoping what he left was what I thought it was. My stomach growled as I thought about it, it must have been 48 hours since I last ate. As I turned there I saw it. A glass of water and two slices of bread. Buttered even. Even though it was so cliché prisoner, I was too damn hungry to care. The whole lot was gone in seconds.