february 1, 2020
it was a week after everything went down, and finally darlos and medco were back at school. brielle saw them down the hall. she was relieved to see them, but at the same time she wasn't. she didn't wanna talk to them. especially not darlos. she wasn't sure if their friendship would ever be the same again. unfortunately, they had to speak to each other since they were lab partners.
the silence in biology was so loud. she kept trying to think of what to say as she was sitting next to darlos, but the words wouldn't come out.
"what did you put for the hypothesis?" darlos asked.
"sorry what?" bri was caught off guard.
"the hypothesis. what is it?" darlos acted like nothing was wrong.
"here," bri slid her paper over so he could copy it down. "listen, i'm so sorry. but you have to understand that-"
"woah, bri chill outtt. it's not that serious." darlos cut her off. "you just gotta.. let loose."
darlos grinned. he put one of his hands on the inside of bri's thigh as he was writing with the other. bri felt a shiver go through her body. she tried to clear her throat as a signal for him to get his hands off her but he didn't get it. she felt so uncomfortable but she just sat there. she didn't know what to say so his hand just stayed there until the end of the period. she felt somewhat guilty, and didn't know what she should do. she headed to her friend, monica, to ask for help.
"monica, i need to ask you something."
"okay what."
"okay, so i was in bio, and it was my first time seeing darlos cause he's been like, suspended for a week or whatever. and it sucks cause he's my lab partner, so i can't even avoid him. and so we're sitting there, not talking at all and then he puts his hand on my thigh, and like, started rubbing it. i was so uncomfortable but i didn't know what to do. do you think i should tell dj or will that start drama?"
"umm, i don't know. i guess just tell him if you want to? darlo's didn't really do anything wrong."
"what? did you even listen to what i said??
"yeah, sorry i just don't really care." monica walked away.
bri wanted to cry. she felt so invalidated.
