Burnouts

Hell Hath No Fury...

Scene 1: Addington Courtyard

Alison Sinclair

"What is this?" A well-manicured hand, with Heather's trademark pink nail polish, places a Polaroid on the table in front of me.

I gasp in shock and snatch it away, "how did you get this?" I look up at her, clearly mortified.

"My boyfriend," she says accusingly as if she believes it was him I was posing for.

"You don't honestly think I would hook up with Jace, do you?" I narrowed my eyes at her. We haven't been the best of friends recently. We haven't been as close as we used to throughout the years, but how could she accuse me of this?

"I don't know what I think, Alison..." Heather crosses her arms and looks away from me. I hope she feels gross for this.

I stand up from the bench so that we are face to face. "Get over yourself, Heather," I hissed and pushed past her.

Jace must have stolen it...
He's always seemed sleazy to me.
Ethan must have misplaced it...
He wouldn't just give the pictures away.

He wouldn't do that to me...

My chest tightened, and I could practically feel my lungs shrinking when I tried to breathe. I felt dizzy, but I kept walking until I was too lightheaded to see straight. I leaned against the lockers I was passing and let my back slide down them as I crouched onto the floor.

"Ali?" The familiar voice sounded fuzzy under the sound of my heavy breathing.
I haven't had a panic attack in five years. "Sweetie, come here..." Audrey lifted me up, throwing my arm over her shoulder as she guided me through the hall. My vision was too blurry to make out the faces staring, but their eyes on me only made me feel smaller and weaker. "Out!" Audrey shouts at the other girls when she brings me into the ladies restroom.

I pull away from her quickly, rushing into a stall, pushing my hair back and proceeding to lose my lunch. I heaved as I cried, coughing up whatever was left in my stomach before flushing.

"Audrey?" I breathed out through the tears.

"I'm right here, honey." She walked over to where I was kneeling and placed a damp towelette on my head to cool me down. "Do you want to talk about it?"

I sobbed at her question, shaking my head in response. "I'm just-" I choked out, "so dumb." I continued to cry. "so stupid."

"You're not, sweetie. Don't say that." Audrey cradled my head to her chest.

"You were right about Ethan the whole time," I confess. "I should've listened to you."

"Well, it wasn't up to me. I had to let you make your own mistakes. Heaven knows I did," she sighs.

"I let him take pictures of me," I say shamefully, "he showed his friends, of course. I almost expected that...but I didn't think he'd start handing them out."

"Alison...you're joking?" Audrey says in shock.

I shake my head again before reaching into my pocket to hand her the photo I took from Heather. "He gave this one to Jace, and Heather thinks I did it," I speak resentfully.

"They're both worthless," Audrey scowls.

"I'm so sorry, Audrey." Tears run down my cheeks faster than I can wipe them away.

She gives me an endearing kiss on my forehead, "they'll get what's coming to them, Ali." I look up as she smirks, "Karma's a bitch, but she's nice to me."

Scene 2: Danny's Van

Leo Rylin

"Are we ever going to actually go into the school?" I raise an eyebrow at Danny as he takes another drag from his cigarette before passing it to me.