You were called into the teacher's office. I heard your name in the intercom. Worry started to bubble inside me, but I set it aside, going back to reading the material I'd be studying that day.
Later, when you sat next to me at the cafeteria during a break, you said, "I wasn't expelled."
"Hm?" On the table was a book I'd been reading for days. Usually when we were together we'd be sitting on the school yard outside the cafeteria, on the same spot under the same tree, but last night's storm had made everything wet. And besides, I hadn't been sitting there in days, not after you left, so I sat on one of the tables. You didn't even ask anything. You just followed along.
"My absences are too many so I have to like, take extra classes, but I think I'm going to pass. I'll also continue the physical therapy."
"Oh. That's good." I uncapped my bottle of juice and gulped it once.
The silence was suffocating because you were staring at me the whole time. Finally, after long minutes, you exhaled the breath you'd been holding, whispering, "Right. Okay."
A rowdy bunch of guys passed our table. Seeing you sitting right in front of me one of them sneered, "Hey, if it isn't the cocksucker. Back into the business now, I see." The rest of them laughed, but slowly stopped when they realized neither of us reacted to the taunt. I saw your hand turned into fist on the table, but that was all. The group finally left not a second later, murmuring about what your problem was.
You weren't fighting anymore and I told myself, that's good, that's good, that's good. I gulped down the rest of my juice then stood from my seat. You followed me along. I thought, that's good you're not fighting anymore that's good. I threw the empty bottle away in the bin near the exit door of the cafeteria. I noticed then my hands were shaking and my breath unsteady. I recognized the signs but I couldn't understand why I would get them at all.
When I walked to the direction of the restroom to throw up, I knew you'd follow so I told you, "Don't, Sam." I looked up to you, seeing the hurt, taking it along with mine. "I'll meet you after class, okay?" I waited until you nodded, then ran into one of the restroom stalls, vomiting everything inside my stomach until the bell rang.
YOU ARE READING
Wearing My Smile | ✔
Teen Fiction"I wondered if you'd ever thought that the name your parents had given you felt like sharp knife twisting through your heart in its prayer. I'd never asked you that before, now I'd never get to." Having been together since forever, Roo struggles in...
