In Your Arms

Bad At Being Bad

Atalia stood up against a white-painted brick wall near the entrance of the school to wait for Erica and Renee. When the girls showed up, Atalia greeted them with a tight hug.

"Someone's happy!"

Atalia shook her head and grinned.

"I'm just happy to see you two. Today has been the longest day ever already."

Erica nodded and furrowed her eyebrows. Renee looked over at the cafeteria line and said,

"Ugh. We're having pizza again. I hate the school's pizza."

Erica started laughing and Renee agreed, as always.

"Yeah, I'm going to the vending machines. Atalia, do you have any money for yourself?"

Atalia stamped her foot on the ground and immediately regretted that decision.

"Crap! I forgot that my mom packed my lunch today! I'll go to my locker, you guys meet me at our table, okay?"

Atalia stood up against the wall in absolute pain. She had made an unnecessary attempt to show her frustration, and she hurt her leg.

Erica and Renee walked around the corner and disappeared.

Atalia limped down the hallway humming "Born This Way" quietly.

She was scared of running in to people in the hallway, but her biggest fear was relapsing, even though it didn't really make sense for the time being. That's all that was going through her mind as she continued to tread the long hallway. She finally stopped and walked over to her locker as soon as she saw it. She slowly kneeled down and twisted her combination lock open.

"Hey, lil' bit. What's up babe?"

Atalia clenched her right fist and said,

"Go..."

She turned her head around and saw Ethan leaned up against the wall. He laughed and threw his hands up. In a mocking manner, he bent down next to Atalia and moved her hair away from her face.

"Alright, fine. I'll leave. See ya' later Tali."

He kissed her cheek, pushed her forward, and stood up. Atalia hit her head on her locker for the second time that day, and it was caused by the same guy both times, too. His group of friends joined him and began to walk off. She held her forehead and grabbed her lunch whilst on the verge of tears. She slammed her locker, put her lock back on, and began to walk toward the bathroom. As soon as she re-applied her smudged makeup, she took a deep breath and walked to the cafeteria.

She sat down with Erica and Renee at her table and sighed heavily. Erica's head shot up and she said with a mouth full of M&Ms,

"Are you okay? You took a while..."

Atalia began to speak, but an annoying female voice interrupted,

"She was too busy putting on her face in the bathroom."

Atalia turned around and saw her least favorite girl on Earth- Sophia. Atalia tried to ignore her for a moment by taking a drink of one of Gaga's strawberry banana smoothies, but failed to shut her out.

"Am I not right? I saw what you were doing. You were being fake."

Erica pushed Sophia away and said,

"Like you don't wear makeup too, idiot. Listen. She's got better things to do than to look at your ugly face."

Sophia nodded and gave a slight grimace.

"I don't wear makeup, no. It's gross. Speaking of ugly faces, let's take Atalia for example-"

Renee threw an apple at Sophia and said,