Trapped (egobang trans)

Chapter 75 - Invisible Scars

Before Danny knew it, it was the morning of his first exam. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't nervous; his issues at school had always sat above revision on his priorities list, until this year. Even with Brian's help at maths and science, Arin's effective methods, and the afterschool study sessions, Danny didn't feel as though he'd done enough. His grades had never been great, it seemed like wishful thinking to assume that a few weeks of study could fix that. He was beginning to think he would end up at the same college as Meouch after all.

Arin was, of course, nervous too. She wasn't as good at hiding it as Danny was though, and so in the few days before their first exam Danny had easily noticed her smiling less, her conversation at lunch time often replaced with the soft muttering of equations she repeated like a mantra to memorise. Therefore, it was a no-brainer that he was going to walk with her to school that day. It was an early morning exam - Danny knew Arin would be leaving early anyway to cram at school, so he practically had to sprint to her house to catch her. He almost collapsed by her front door, panting with a worn out grin as Arin stood in the doorway and shook her head.

"You shouldn't tire yourself out before an exam," she pointed out, "Your brain needs energy to think. Besides, this is maths, not one of your strongest subjects. It's not really one of mine either. I was up all night going over my textbooks... I-I probably shouldn't have done that..."

Danny could hear her brain going into overdrive, and decided to stop her rambling before she panicked too much.

"Hey, hey, you'll be fine. If anything I should be the one worrying. I suck at math!"

He came forward and grabbed her wrist with a roll of his eyes, "Come on, let's get goi--"

Arin flinched as he grabbed her, and Danny's smile dropped as he saw the sudden fear in her eyes. "Arin? What's wrong?"

Arin didn't answer. Her wide eyes were locked on Danny's hand, and as Danny noticed that he let go quickly. On cue Arin seemed to relax, letting out a slow, shuddering breath.

"S-Sorry..." she muttered, beginning to blush.

"Hey, it's okay. What happened?" 

"Nothing, let's go before we're late," deflected Arin before hurrying past Danny, grabbing onto her backpack straps tightly.

Danny frowned; what had suddenly got into Arin? He hurried to catch up with her, coming up beside her to try and look at her. She turned her head away from him, hiding behind her hair, and Danny felt a pang of hurt; she hadn't done this is a while.

"Arin, talk to me. What just happened back there?" he urged gently.

"I told you it was nothing. Just me being stupid, again," Arin retorted, everything in her tone telling him to drop it.

But Danny knew Arin too well. Whatever it was, if left to fester, would slowly eat Arin up from the inside. He wouldn't let her push him away. He tried to put his hand on her shoulder comfortingly, but to his surprise she flinched again, hastily shoving him off and coming to a halt.

"Stop touching me, please..." she pleaded, the scared look returning as she rubbed her shoulder where he'd touched her.

"Okay, okay." Danny held up his hands in surrender, "Just tell me what's going on. I don't like seeing you like this, Arin..."

Arin stared blankly at her feet, and Danny had an off thought that they were going to miss their exam at this rate. He didn't mention that, though. He'd already made the situation bad enough, it seemed.

Arin sighed, "It's Jon..."

Jon.

Danny's jaw grew firm in anger. He better not have done something else to her, if he did, he swore he was going to-