Paroxysm ⇢ [Delirium, Book One]

IV

Hazel

14th August, 2018, 11:02AM

"You absolutely promise that you're not going to take off again?" Spencer asks for the fourth time in sevenminutesandfortythreeseconds, not that I've been counting or anything. "In fact, pinky promise me, now."

His demand is met with a fist to the arm and a loud squawk.

"Spence, chill the hell out," Matty says with a roll of her eyes as she lets down her long hair. It falls around her like she's just stepped out of the salon and I make a silent plea with whatever controls the universe to let my hair do the same thing when I release it from a bun because mine tends to resemble that of someone who hasn't seen a shower in ninety six days if it's been tied up all morning like Matty's has. "I've implanted her with a tracking device anyway, so we're good if she tries to disappear without either of us," Matty whispers a little too loudly and her joke doesn't sit too well, mostly because I genuinely wouldn't put it past my friends to put a tracker in my arm.

"She's joking," Spence says, noticing the scowl on my face.

"She better be," I consider holding up a rude gesture to the pair of them, but decide against it seeing as they've both skipped two periods on the first day of senior year to make sure I'm okay. "Where are you guys now?"

They both pull out their phones to check their schedules, "History," Matty groans.

"Biology," Spencer says simultaneously. I look down at my own phone and find myself faced with a different answer to both of my best friends, Math.

"Well, see you losers at lunch I guess," I say. Matty blows me a kiss as she throws her backpack over her shoulder and heads in the right direction for History class but Spencer hesitates, practically hovering in midair.

"She'll be fine, Spencer," Matty calls without even turning around to look at us, "Hurry up." He scowls, but turns and leaves even though his footsteps seem heavier than usual, like they're taking much more effort. For the first time ever, I think I actually enjoy someone's concern and find myself smiling.

I brace myself against the thought of bumping into Maisie again on my walk to Math class. It's going to be hell seeing her face everywhere, and I don't bother to lie to myself about it being bearable. I don't even think I want answers because I can't think of a single reason why I'd ever have left her behind like that, without explanation. She was the other half of me, and she so cruelly ripped me apart.

The nerve of it all, to turn up on the first day of senior year like she didn't nearly ruin me.

Wind surrounds me, whipping my hair against my face. I frown, it wasn't windy this morning. I stop and look around, the few students I can see look equally confused at the sudden change in weather. I look down at my hands, finding them balled into fists. Could I be causing this?

I release my grip and the wind drops almost instantly. If that's an excuse not to think about Maisie ever again, I'll be happy to use it.

I shake my hands out and try to focus on my surroundings rather than the thoughts in my mind. I focus on putting one foot in front of the other and which turns I need to take to get to Mr Gillespie's classroom. I pass Laurel's locker and then Alycia's. Alycia's still faintly has the word 'bitch' painted across it in what used to be red spray paint, but is now a very faint pink - barely visible, except to those who know it's there. Alycia is impossibly beautiful, with sleek black hair and a figure to die for and it's pretty safe to assume whoever wrote that on her locker is someone who smiles at her in the hallway like they haven't got an issue with her at all. High school, huh?