Hidden Feelings and Hesitations

[16] Haylie

I wanted to wait for Frankie on the bench outside the office, but I didn't want to get in trouble for being somewhere I wasn't supposed to be. Plus half of my lunch period had already passed and I knew I would feel sick later if I didn't eat, so I went to the cafeteria and joined my friends at our usual table.

I'd barely had the chance to sit down before Jules was leaning across the table. She did not sound happy when she asked, "Where's my sister?"

"Um..." My voice caught in my throat when I saw the look on her face. She carried a perfect mix of fury and anxiety. The two of them were identical, but I'd never seen her appear more like Frankie. It made me not want to tell her the truth. "She's in the principal's office."

My friend angrily rolled her eyes. "What the hell happened? A bunch of kids came in here talking about a fight. What'd she do? Dad's going to kill her."

"Isaiah said some pretty awful things. She just sort of lost it."

"Did she hit him?"

"Yeah, it was bad."

"Damn it," Jules muttered. "Is she hurt?"

"She got her eyebrow and her mouth cut open, but she seems fine."

"What did he say to her?" Annie asked, slowly poking at her yoghurt with her spoon.

"He, uh, he called her a faggot," I quietly replied, fixing my eyes on the table. "Because of her suit. And he said something about Claire. I don't know, it was just, it was a lot."

Carolina reached her hand across to mine and covered it. "Are you okay?"

"I don't know," I repeated and shrugged. "It was hard to hear it. To know that he wouldn't be afraid to say things like that to me is..."

"Hard?" she finished. "Try not to think too much about it, all right?"

"That's what Frankie told me. Everything will be fine, but I just wish she didn't have to go through this. It's not fair."

"I know it's difficult, but she can handle it, I promise. She's tough," Jules reminded me.

There was only five minutes of lunch left when Frankie's friends came over to the end of our table to talk to us. Harrison had his phone in his hand and held it out to me as he took an empty seat next to Annie.

"Here, she wanted me to tell you that she won't be here the rest of the day, but she doesn't have your number," he explained, matching the text that was on his screen. "She said you can put hers in your phone."

"Thanks." I gave him a small smile and copied it over, but it did little to dissipate the worry I was feeling. I'd never seen her so angry. To be perfectly, honest, it scared me a little. I didn't like knowing that there was someone in this world who could make her feel that way, who could destroy all of her rational thoughts. All I wanted to know was whether or not she was okay. And not just on-the-surface, barely-holding-it-together okay. I wanted to know what was really going through her mind.

Logan was the first of them to pick up on my fragile state. He gave me a quick hug from the chair beside me and told me everything would be okay. Maybe I wasn't capable of being more than friends with him, but he'd come to know me surprisingly well in the time that we'd dated. Brady seemed to realize for once that things were pretty serious and didn't try to crack a joke, which was enough in and of itself.

...

Even with the reassurance of my friends and the boys, Frankie hadn't left my mind the rest of the day. She'd kept me so preoccupied that I almost thought I was imagining it when I saw her walk up to me as I was getting ready to leave with Maya.