Forget 1/2 (On Hold)

Chapter 4

I pulled on a humongous plaid shirt in the nurse's office that totally and completely matched with the rest of my outfit. Yeah, right.

Annabel had eventually found me in the girl's bathroom.

"As..trid... are you... okay? Your forehead... bleeding." She had flung the door open and was walking ever so slowly towards my collapsed figure. She grabbed a paper towel from the dispenser and put it under the faucet. Anna collapsed too, and gave me the paper towel for my head.

"At first I thought to look for you on the roof. You know, all secluded and stuff. So I ran... all the way up those seventeen flights of stairs..."

Yes, our high school has seventeen levels. We had sports departments and levels for extra curriculars. It was pretty cool.

"But you weren't there. Then I thought about how stupid I was because why would you run all the way up there? You hate running. So I came back down and ran here and yeah. I'm here. Are you okay?"

Annabel's story made me smile for some reason. "I'm okay. I was enjoying my pity party though, want to join?"

She helped me up and walked me to the nurse's office. The nurse just put bandaids on my forehead; Great solution right?

Nurse lady who never told me her name left when I was changing of course. I realized that I had to change more than my shirt. (Duh)

So there I was.

In the Nurse's office with a bleeding forehead, a men's oversized flannel, and a pair of baggy sweatpants.

"Comet! Hurry up!"

"Ryder what are you doing here?" I shouted through the door. This was not good. Ryder and Anna did not get along whatsoever.

Annabel this time. "I got him out of class for you. He calms you down. Don't look at me that way! I don't like you, okay?"

Classic Ryder, flirting with every girl, every second of every day.

I opened the door and found my two best friends arguing about who knows what. As soon as I stepped out, though, they stopped talking.

"Babe... love the outfit."

I walked towards Ryder, "It was my best option. Either this or a tuxedo."

Ryder laughed and kissed my forehead while pulling me into a hug. "You would look cute in a tuxedo."

Annabel was right. This loser did make me feel better.

I ended the hug and asked Ryder to walk with me to my locker.

"Anna thank you so much for helping me today. I really love you a lot, you're my best friend." I enveloped her into a hug as well. "But you don't have to stay, Ryder is gonna walk me to my locker." She smiled and said her goodbyes.

I turned to Ryder and told him all the events of that morning. "I'm surprised you weren't there when it happened... What made you get off the bus so fast this morning?"

Immediately his cheeks turned beet red. "I um..I meant to ask you something." Ryder looked me in the eyes when he was biting his lip. Wow.

"Ryder, you're blushing, biting your lip, and you stuttered. That's three things that show that you're nervous." I poked him in the chest as I finished my sentence.

He threw his hands up in defense. "What are you a psychologist?"

"No! But you're nervous. You don't ever get nervous! What's this about?"

"Stop talking about how nervous I am, I get it." He looked embarrassed, but I couldn't quit teasing this boy.

"HA! You admitted it! Or what?"

I was immediately swept off my feet. Literally. Ryder picked me up and threw me over his back then began running out of the office. I started laughing and punching his back. "Let me down!"

"You made fun of me! Where's your locker?"

I pointed in the direction of my locker (at least where I thought it was) upside down, even though he knew where it was. Me being upside down made Ryder laugh. He kept running through the halls though.

We arrived at my locker soon after with the blood in my body almost all the way up to my head. Ryder punched in the combination to my lock that was written on the bottom of my converse shoes.

I heard the door pop open, "Uh, Astrid?" He seemed worried.

"What's wrong? Please let me down."

I dropped my feet to the ground and spun around to face my locker.

There was a paint can.

The paint was red. Dark red.

There was a note clipped in the door, "Welcome back to school bitch."

I hated the person with that handwriting.

"Oh my God. Tallara did this. She put the paint under me to make it look like something else happened."

"Comet..."

"I hate her." I spat. The blood kept rising to my head.

"I can fix this for you Astrid, I promise."

"What are you going to do? She's probably already planning her next prank on me and we're just standing here trying to figure out how to go back in time and keep something from happening."

Ryder grabbed my arms to keep me steady. I was pacing back and forth. "Hey. Hey. Just take a breath. I'm going to help you get through this."

I was scared. Tallara made my summer a living hell. Now there's a whole student body to watch my embarrassment.

How could a single person make you feel so helpless?