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“Crap, dude, are you having a panic attack?” Confused boy calls from outside, having returned immediately

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“Crap, dude, are you having a panic attack?” Confused boy calls from outside, having returned immediately.

“No--” my voice cracks and another sob escapes. “Definitely not.”

My head is throbbing, the room around me spinning. I do not have time to deal with this mystery kid. Oh, frick. He’s gonna get a teacher. Nonononono.

I hadn’t thought I could get any more panicked, but I’ve surprised myself. I fall off the bench into a messy heap on the floor.

Confused boy takes that as his cue to break in.

“Sh*t. Uh, oh no,” he fumbles as he rushes to where I lay. I’m now only putting in the effort to pull the hoodie over my chin.

“I don’t think that’s smart,” he reasons as he reaches for the hood. I whine and hold it down. “Come on, you’ll suffocate.”

“Leave… me… alone,” I manage to huff.

“I’m already late to my first class here I don’t think I’m just gonna leave a girl in here to die.”

I try to give a snarky response but can’t catch enough air.

“Oh sh*t. Um-- what do I do? Uh, just breathe--”

“I’m trying!” I shoot back angrily.

“Uh--” he’s at a loss for words, just rubbing a surprisingly comforting hand on my back. Normally I get even more tense when someone tries to touch me. At least this guy is doing something right.

“Paper bag!” He exclaims. “That’s what they do on tv, right?”

Yeah, on tv. But I don’t know if it actually works in real life.

I can hear him fumbling around with his backpack, zippers whirring and journals being thrown to the side. A crinkling sound erupts as he announces, “here, try it.”

The wrinkled paper bag that I can only assume had been holding his lunch is handed to me.

Hey, it works in movies. I’ll try anything to stop this.

I release the hood just enough so my mouth is exposed. I pull the bag up to my lips, unsure of how it would do me any good, but somehow it’s rhythmic shrinking and expanding calms me until my breathing shakily slows.

I roll to my back and just lay there for a couple minutes, keeping the bag at my mouth, kind of not wanting to go without it again.

Confused boy is also catching his breath, I must have scared the crap out of him.

My entire body feels like a cotton ball and I’m inclined to just take a nap right here right now. But this isn’t home, I haven’t been home in a while. I’ll be caught if I fall asleep here.

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