Skeletons

Chapter Five

Lila felt like all eyes were on her as she walked through the halls of Westford High as she and Emmett left school. Although her head was bowed and her eyes were planted on the ground, she could see people pointing and laughing at her in her peripherals. People looked at their phone as she passed, giggling and whispering with their friends. Emmett could feel the shame and embarrassment wafting from her. He put his arm on his waist and looked over at Lila. She looked back at him, a small smile appearing at the corners of her lips as she grabbed onto his bicep.

Lila cast her eyes back down to the ground, trying to avoid all the attention from the people staring at her from all sides of the hallway. She felt so small and powerless. How had she let all of this get so out of control?

As she focused on the ground, she didn't realize that someone was heading straight towards her and they bumped into her, nearly pushing her and Emmett straight into a locker. As she went to mumble a quick apology, she turned her head and saw who it was. Her head began to spin when she saw his white hair.

"Watch where you're going slut," he said, a wicked smile on his face.

The next few seconds passed like slow motion to Lila. Emmett pulled his arm away from Lila's grasp and gently pushed her behind him as his eyes filled with fire. His eyes were slits as he glared at Emmett and his hands balled into fists at his sides.

"Get away from her," Emmett roared, the people around them shocked by his outburst.

"Or what?" Austin said coolly.

Emmett lunged at Austin, pulling his fist back and pushing it forward with such force that when it struck Austin in the face, Lila was shocked she didn't hear the crunch of breaking bones. Lila had been frozen until then but seeing Emmett attack Austin snapped her out of the trance she had fallen into. She quickly made her way to Emmett grabbing a fist full of his shirt and pulling him away from Austin. He turned to look at Lila and nearly broke when he saw her face.

Tears had fallen from her face onto her pale cheeks and her eyes glistened red. Her lips turned down in a frown and she almost seemed to be pleading with him silently. Emmett backed away from Austin, wiping his hands on the thighs of his pants and as he went to say something to Lila, a voice echoed in the middle of hall making all three of them turn their head and groan.

"There is no fighting in my school. All three of you to my office now," Principal Chester said, his hands on his hips and a look of disapproval over his face.

***

"What do you think you are doing fighting in my halls?" Principal Chester said, his hands pressed firmly to the top of his desk. Calling Principal Chester big would be the biggest understatement of the century. He had a stomach so round that it blocked him from pushing his chair all the way under the desk. He was at least six feet three with feet that looked like clown's shoes.

"It wasn't a fight. This emo loser decided to attack me in the middle of the hall for absolutely no reason," Austin spat out, pressing the ice pack he had gotten from the school nurse to his nose. A trail of blood trickled from his nostril down his lip and further down his chin slowly, making Lila's skin crawl.

"For no reason, huh?" Emmett questioned, his eyebrows furrowing as he looked at Austin from the side of his eye. "So you didn't call Lila a slut and make an Instagram page solely to make her life a living hell?" Lila looked over at Emmett and put a hand gently on his shoulder, trying to find some way to calm him down. She was angry too, too angry for words but she knew that if Emmett went too far, things could get messy fast.

"Excuse me? What Instagram?" Principal Chester said, leaning over his desk the best he could with his swollen stomach in the way.

Before Lila could explain the situation the best she could to the man in front of her, before she could even explain herself, Austin pulled his phone from his pocket and slid it across the table so that Principal Chester could view it. Lila felt disgust flow through her. Although those weren't real photos of her, she couldn't help but feel disgusted that people were looking at those and imagining her in her most vulnerable state, making jokes, laughing at it. She felt even more disgusted that her principal was looking at these pictures right in front of her.