Through the Lies (On Hold)

Chapter 2

When I woke up, I was laying in on a bed in the nurse's office. My eyes darted around the room as I tried to get my bearings.

My eyes finally rested on the nurse writing something in the corner. "What time is it?" I didn't feel like raising my arm to see the time as I was still waking up.

She looked up at me. "It's 10:47."

"I've been out for 17 minutes?" I asked.

She answered, "Yes, but you're fine. Your blood sugar was low, that on top of the bruises and the emotional strain made you pass out. I didn't do anything other than roll up your sleeves to take blood and look at a couple of the bruises, don't worry."

I nodded and calmed myself down. "I need to go to science."

"Go ahead, just eat something soon to get your blood sugar up. I take it you didn't have breakfast today?" She obviously knew the answer.

I nodded. "Yeah, I slept in and didn't want to miss the bus. It's almost lunch, so don't worry."

She smiled and handed me a nurse pass. "Give that to your teacher when you go in so that she'll know why you're late."

I smiled and nodded. "Thank you."

She nodded towards the door. "By the way, your friend is waiting outside. She's the one who brought you here. I gave her a pass as well."

I smiled and left, and was immediately hugged by Cindy.

Questions spewed from her mouth. "You scared me half to death! Are you alright? Do you know why you fainted? You don't have to go to the hospital, right? What about a doctor? Answer me, dammit!"

I pushed myself out of her hug. "I will if you calm the heck down! I'm fine, and the nurse said that I just had low blood sugar and-" I paused, not wanting her to know about Brook and her friends beating me up.

Cindy noticed my hesitation. She had always been an observant person. "Gwen? What happened? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I was just thinking of how to word what I was going to say next. I fell down the stairs earlier and got several bruises, she said the shock of that and my low blood sugar was the reason I passed out," I partially lied.

She put her hands on her hips and tilted her head, giving me a quizzical look. "Yeah. If you had fallen down the stairs, how come I don't see any bruises?"

I quickly thought of a response. "Because I managed to make sure my face wasn't hitting the steps."

She raised an eyebrow. "Let me see your arms then."

I rolled up one sleeve, showing her several large bruises starting to form.

She narrowed her eyes, not buying my story. "Uh-huh. I somehow doubt those were created by falling down the stairs."

I swallowed nervously, breaking eye contact.

"Gwen? What really happened?" she asked, her expression turning to concern.

"Alright, fine! Brook and her little group beat me up, alright?" I finally gave in.

Cindy nodded, her face turning sad and angry.

I changed the subject. "Anyway, we should get to science. It's almost halfway done."

Cindy nodded again, and we started walking.

***

Once we arrived, we handed our passes to our teacher, Mrs. Parkins.

Cindy and I took our seats. We were on opposite sides of the classroom, unfortunately.