Two Truths & A Lie

Chapter 8

"You're going to school today, Emalia." 

Twenty minutes before I was supposed to leave and I was still in bed, groaning and fighting with my mother.  "Please, for the love of all that's good, just let me take a sick day," I pleaded from beneath the sheets.

"Not happening, missy.  Up and at 'em."  She tugged on the covers until I lost my grip on them and ripped them off of the bed completely.  It reminded me of the games of tug-o-war that I used to play with Lou in the mornings.  I whimpered and curled up into a ball.  Since my outing with Harry on Saturday, I had completely broken down.  My mother spent all Saturday night listening to my sob story and attempting to console me, but nothing worked.  She wiped my tears as I cried to her about Louis.  I complained to her about Raven, like usual.  I told her about Harry's innate ability to be an absolute ass, leaving out his comment about her, of course.   I was planning on putting all of this behind me and just getting on with my own life, but it was much harder than I planned. 

"Maybe the curly-headed one has a crush on you," my mom suggested on that Saturday night.

 A groan of protest came so loudly from my mouth that I was sure the neighbors heard it.  "Can we stop with this whole idea that when a boy is mean to you, he likes you?  That's not the way life works.  You, of all people, should know that by now."  After the words came out of my mouth, I realized what I said.  "I just meant-"

"It's okay, Em," My mom had laughed, standing up off of the bed and hugging her robe more tightly around her body.  "I should know that by now."  And with that, she had left the room.

Back to Monday morning and my current situation - The zombie that stared back at me in the mirror was not prepared for school.  If I was going to school at all, I was going to take my time getting ready and show up late, but looking fabulous.  My mom agreed to that much.  The long, hot shower helped the color return to my skin.  To help my puffy eyes, I stole my mother's under-eye cream, which actually helped with the swelling that resulted from an unnecessary over-usage of my tear ducts this weekend.  God, I hated being emotional. 

I even went so far this morning as to pencil-in my eyebrows, put on some dark red lipstick, and curl my hair.  When I say "curl," I mean I spent an hour actually curling it, but by the time I got to school, it was a wavy mess.  To my surprise, it didn't look half-bad.  If I curl it (more like wave it) every morning without the process taking an hour, I would.  Hoping that if I looked something close to fierce, I would act fierce, I snagged a pair of my mother's black heels and slipped them on with my leather-striped leggings and a loose-fitting black sweater.  Second class had just begun and the hallways were empty when I arrived.  The office gave me a tardy slip and excused me for "being sick" this morning - a lie I wouldn't have believed when I looked as done-up as I did, but I was never late, so they bought it.   Despite no one being in the hall, I strutted my stuff to my locker and switched out my books.  When I closed my locker, someone was standing by me.  

"Emalia, can we talk?" 

Clarice peered up at me with giant, puppy-dog eyes.  I smiled shortly at her.  "Maybe tomorrow.  I'm late for class." 

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry," she blurted suddenly.

I turned and cracked half of a smile at her again.  "I really gotta go."

She didn't protest, especially as I power-walked away in my heels.  Images of her on the sink as Louis pulled open the bathroom door burned in my mind and I could sense the emotion about to leak from my eyes, but I inhaled hard to stop the tears.  "Not today," I told myself. 

At lunch, I walked to the lunchroom out of habit.  Niall and Miranda were snuggled up at our usual table and Zayn was absorbed in his phone.  Just as I was about to approach the table, Louis appeared in my line of sight and took the seat beside where I usually was.  Niall, Zayn, and Clarice all exchanged uneasy glances but no one said anything to him.  The only person who saw me as I hurried out of the lunchroom was Liam who was sitting with a black-eyed Raven.   He didn't smile at me, but nodded subtly, his way of telling me it was nice to see me without Raven seeing or hearing anything.  I don't know why it mattered when she would make out with guys right in front of him, but after two years of it, I was used to it.  Raven glared at me as I passed.  My ears stayed perked, just waiting for her to jump on me verbally for my choice of attire and makeup today, but she kept her mouth shut.  Probably didn't want another black eye.