Flower Petals

*t w o*

I walk swiftly down the street of the cafe, hugging my jacket closer to me as the wind blows my hair into my face. After walking down a couple of blocks, we get to the most dangerous part of my walk home. By now, It's about 12:25 a.m. as I hear fights going on, the scent of smoke fills my nose. Good thing I'm used to it.

I walk past the alleys, without looking, my gaze stuck to the passing sidewalk cracks. Right as I pass all of the alleys, I look up. Usually, nobody is in front of me for the fact that it's a bad neighborhood. I see that the guy in front of me, one who I've never seen before, is obviously drunk. I look back down and try to walk past him but he seized my arm and my stomach drops. "What is a pretty lady like you doing here," he asks me, his fingernails now digging considerably deeper every second.

"Just, walking home," I say through clenched teeth as my fists ball up.

"That can be put off, can't it," he asks as he pulls me back to him and down an alleyway. He pushes me up against a wall as he tries to kiss me. Immediately, I bring my knee up and he bends over, groaning dramatically. He recovers and starts to speak, "You bitc-."

I cut him off by punching him in the face. Yeah, I know self-defense, but I can't bring myself to hurt my dad. Either way, it's just worse for me anyways. I punch him in the stomach one last time and then start to walk away, ignoring the passed out piece of trash behind me.

I continue my walk home, acting as if nothing has happened. I get to my house and see that my dad's car is gone. He is either hooking up with some skank or passed out in a bar. No matter what, I'm glad. I can easily clean up my injuries.

They weren't much, but they were there and could get easily infected. I pulled my lanyard and unlocked the house. I stepped inside and upstairs. Before going to the bathroom, I dropped my school stuff in my room. I turn the light on and inspect my cuts.

I have bruises on my wrist, you can see small cuts on my arm form when the guy grabbed me, and my knuckles busted open from hitting his face. I but some antibiotics on everything before just leaving the fingernail cuts and bruises bare. I wear long sleeves anyway. I then gently wrapped my knuckles up before going back into my room and changing into sweatpants and a sweatshirt; I turned in for the night.

~

I woke up and got ready for the day around 9 because my Political science class starts at 10:30. I wore an olive green hoodie that was a size bigger than the other ones, which already swallow me. I needed to cover my wrists and as much of my freshly-wrapped hand as I could. I also changed into a pair of black ripped jeans before slipping on my beat-up converse.

Grabbing my bag, I head straight downstairs and out of the door, my father sleeping on the couch. I make the same old walk to school; keeping my head down. I get on campus at about 9:45 and I immediately go to the library. Walking into my second home, I wave to the librarian and walk to the classics section and set my bag down on the floor. I unzip the pocket and take out Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. After Xander "gave" me the book yesterday, I finished it before my class. I put it back on the shelf, a lower one this time, before stepping back and reviewing my options. I went for Wuthering heights, another book that I have almost fully annotated.

I reach for the book, this one actually easy to reach, and slide it off of the shelf. I flip through the pages, a blank expression on my face, before closing the book again and grabbing my backpack. I start to walk away and towards the roof, like usual. That was until, "Flora, wait up!" I turn around slightly to see Xander himself coming up to me.

He starts to walk beside me as I don't slow down my pace. "Xander, what do you want," I ask, already over this conversation.

"Just wanted to make sure that you got home safe," he said with a shrug before gently grabbing me by the shoulder to stop my pace. We hold eye contact for a couple of seconds before his eyes skim over my body like they're analyzing every detail. His eyes make it to my hand, still wrapped because it hasn't scabbed over yet. His gaze snaps to mine as a scowl comes across his face. "What happened?" He grabs my hand and pulls it closer to him.

I yanked my hand away and back to me. "That is none of your business. Now have a good day, I've got to go." I start to walk to the roof, my pace now faster than what it was before. I make it past the librarian's desk before Xander can stop me. He tries to follow me but the librarian won't let him through. I ignore his calls and make my way up the stairs and onto the roof.

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