Purple Sharpie

Twenty-two: Cammie

(The song is Dance Inside by All American Rejects- If you listen to it, it's like 21000% better

“I’ll be fine- I’ll be fine. This moment seems so long- Don’t waste now, precious time: We’ll dance inside the song. ” 

The music lilted through my headphones as I dressed, shoving my gym clothes into the locker, trying not to move my leg more than I had to. I had hurt it during some loud sport that someone who probably meant well had dragged me into. Glancing at my phone, I sat on the bench. About 10 minutes until the bus came, I noted, and a sharp stab of pain shot up my leg. 

“Hey Cammie.” A voice said, and I looked up. No. “Hey Veronica.” I said, hoping frantically that my voice was steady because my hands certainly weren’t. “Say now you want to shake me too. Move down to me, slip into you.” The music played, almost like a soundtrack for some horror movie. 

Veronica Jackson, her blond hair swishing behind her like a cape of doom, came in through the doors. And her two followers in the most cliche sense of the word. Usually I avoided them, but somehow…

“I’ll be fine- You’ll be fine- This moment seems so lo-” My earbud was ripped out. Veronica was standing in front of me, her storming blue eyes coated in mascara expensive enough to feed all the puppies in Africa, and she was so close I could have smeared her lipgloss. “You’re really close.” I muttered, trying to sound nonchalant through quick breaths and a heart beating out a samba in my chest. Veronica sneered. “And you’re so annoying.’’ 

Then her hand flew, hitting my face with a resounding CRACK. After a second, one of the boys spoke up, the one probably called Andrew. “Hit her again, babe, she can’t get any uglier.” And Veronica did. Over and over, the boys joining in, until my face was red and I could almost see my foundation on her manicured hand. 

At some point, kneeling on the ground, I found myself thinking about which song might be playing. It was in alphabetical order, so it was probably Dance, Dance by Fall Out Boy. No- That was before Dance Inside. Then it was the- ouch- that hurt- Dam Dadi Do by Nightcore? Yeah that was it. “Look- you guys-” I tried to get up, groaning. “I really have to go, I have to meet this kid for this-” The boy that hadn’t spoke up tripped me, and I fell into the bench. Something in my leg twisted, and I screamed as the bone ground against itself.

“SHUT YOUR WHORE MOUTH!” Veronica hissed, one of the boys’ hands clamped onto my mouth. “Save the screaming for later.” His whisper in my ear made me gag, and I squirmed, whimpering. 

The pain was awful, pulsing through my whole body in waves. And I tried to scream again.

Veronica’s nails dug into my skin, the perfectly manicured nails piercing skin. 

“Please stop.”

Veronica’s face swam into my vision. “DON’T YOU GET IT?!” she screamed, her whole weight on my burning leg. “NO ONE LIKES YOU! YOU’RE NOT WORTH ANYTHING! EVEN RYAN’S NOT INTO YOU- AND HE’S INTO EVERYONE!” 

I thought it was over, that I was going to curl into a tiny ball on this locker game floor and die.

Then the door opened, and footsteps ran in my ears.