10/17

Episode 8, Chapter 32

Laney rolled over, with an uneasy feeling. Cracking open her eyes, she was hit with a wave of unfamiliar. The light was wrong. The smell was off. The wall was the wrong color. Heck, even her pillow was wrong. Her sleepy, hungry brain took in this jumbled collection of offness and came to an undeniable conclusion. This was not her room. This drowsy revelation made her jolt upright to stare without recognition at her surroundings for a few panicked seconds before the events of last night resurfaced and she was able to relax again. The brief panic was enough to bring her fully awake, but she still wanted a moment of quiet to sort through her feelings.

All of her stuff: memories, clothes, pictures, all of it, was gone. Laney waited for the sorrow of that fact to hit her, but it never came. It wasn't that she didn't care. She knew there were things she would be reaching for in the next several days, not find it and realize, all over again that it was gone. More than that, she knew her home was gone. She and her family were now, technically homeless. Oh, their house may not have burned down completely, but it might as well have. Laney was fairly certain she would never see the place again. Even if the building could be salvaged, she would never feel comfortable there again. The peaceful sanctuary of those walls was shattered forever by complete strangers who hated her for what she was, different.

Laney felt a cold hatred bubble up from deep within her heart. What had she done to deserve this? It's not like she could help it. She had not chosen to be different. She had not asked for genetic diversity to be sprung on her. Although, frankly, now that she had it, she wouldn't change. She was proud of who she was. She was proud of what she could do. How dare those assholes try to take that from her without even knowing her. The resentment coated all her thoughts like sludge. Laney pounded the pillow beside her, needing something to abuse to express the pain she was feeling. She had no tears, only the seething anger. Her Nan wanted to go to Aunt Gloria's, but what was the point. Stupid people were everywhere. They would still find her. They would still threaten her family. They would still hate her from afar. The world hated her, and right now, she hated it too.

Her text indication cut through the venom her thoughts were spewing into her brain. Rolling over, she snatched her phone from the floor beside the bed and glared at it. The time sent a little zing of surprise through her. It was nearly ten in the morning. She never slept in this late, even on the weekends. It had not been that late by the time she had fallen into her nearly dreamless sleep last night. The shock of the previous evening must have really done a number on her system.

Aside from the time, Laney saw that she had dozens of missed calls and texts. Chloe and Ryan must have seen the news and were blowing up her phone. She also had several missed calls and texts from a number she did not recognize. Opening the text chain, she scrolled to the first and nearly dropped the phone. They were from Clint. They exchanged numbers the day he came over but she had forgotten to enter his in her phone. He too had seen the news, recognized her house and was just as frantic as Chloe and Ryan to make sure she was okay.

But, it wasn't just those three friends, trying to check on her. Laney had not been on social media since her birthday, but her pages were still up, just turned private. Despite this one of her texts from Chloe told her to check her feeds. Sure enough, on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all of them, her message boxes were overflowing with notes from her friends and teachers trying to check on her after the previous night. Her theater director, Mr. Wayne, had left her notes in every possible way, begging her to find a way to let them know if she was alright and if she needed help. Her choir director, Mrs. Clark, had done the same thing, telling Laney her church was praying for her safety. There were so many more.

The wackiest part, at least to Laney's state of mind, were the amount of people coming to her defense against the Internet trolls who had inevitably found her profile. She scrolled through post after post where some unknown would spew verbal sewage on Laney's profile, and immediately be taken to task by more people Laney hardly knew or had never met. She had no idea when the tears began. As she sat there,scrolling through the various messages of hope and love, she let them come, purging the bitterness that had threatened to overwhelm her.