#7. Into

Passing his handkerchief to me, I wipe away some of the milk that had dripped onto my skirt from my hair.

"You should hurry up. We have 10 minutes until the break ends." He taps his feet on the floor impatiently.

I glare at him, "It's milk, not water."

He sighs, "I'm hungry. Be fast."

My eyes widen in alarm, "No, we're not going back there."

"Oh yes, we are." He challenges, "You start fighting back now."

"Who do you think you are telling me what to do, huh?" I challenge him.

He ignores me, striding over to where I am standing, and sits me down in one of the chairs. Taking the handkerchief away from me, he lowers himself a little bit to my level and begins to wipe away the traces of milk left on my hair and face.

He sniffs my hair and I raise my face to look at him.

"Did you just sniff my hair?" I ask, glaring at him.

Placing his hands on the table beside me, he goes red and avoids my eyes. Stuttering, he says "N-no I didn-"

But his words never leave his mouth. The handkerchief slips away, bringing our bodies closer. His body hovers over mine, time seems to stop and all I can see is how dark his brown eyes have become.

His gaze leaves my eyes and slowly drops to my lips for a few seconds. He pushes himself off me. Flustered, we both turn away and he passes me his hoodie.

"You should tie that around your waist." He says in a low voice, "Your skirt is short."

I look at my skirt and realize he's right. I had gotten taller from the time I took off school. I quickly take his hoodie from his stretched hands, and I tie it around my waist.

"You can hold my hand if you get nervous." He blurts out.

And for the second time that day, I choked on my spit. "What did you say?"

"No, never mind. I just said that because you look anxious and you don't seem to have a girl who's your friend to hold your hand when you're scared." He splutters, flushing.

I laugh at his state, "You're cute when you're flustered."

"Oh. You can laugh too." He asks sounding shocked.

I ignore his statement and walk to the door. Breathing in and out a few times, I open the door and we both leave.

"There you are!" Jade squeals as soon as we leave the empty classroom.

Both of us startled, hold our hands to our chest and exhale simultaneously. "Jesus Christ! You scared me."

"Why? You both look like you were caught in the middle of an unholy act." She replies cluelessly.

Justin scoffs "What kind of people are you friends with?"

"We're not friends," I say almost instantly.

Realizing my mistake, I turn to look at her and for the first time, she looks anything but happy. She looks hurt.

"I'm sor-"

"It's okay. I just came to give you your bag. Those mean girls were searching it." She hands my bag to me and walks off.

"You should apologize to her," Justin says, reminding me he is still here.

"Don't tell me what to do. Anyways, we don't have to go back to the cafeteria now." I say almost excitedly.

"No, you don't. I need to finish eating, remember?" He grabs a hold of my hand and drags me along with him.

***

"He what?!" Olivia screams through the phone.

"Olivia, you'll make me go deaf!" I repeat for the umpteenth time.

"Sorry." She apologizes, "I'm just really excited."

"Apology accepted. Please, don't scream again."

"I wish I could come to Los Angeles right now, then I would teach that witch a lesson. How dare she pour milk on my favourite human." She rants.

I laugh.

"Who spilled milk on who's head?" I hear Marcus' voice in the background.

"You didn't tell me he was there." I groan. If Marcus heard about this, he would make a huge deal out of it.

"No, Marcus, don't." I hear Olivia protest but it's too late because he successfully snatches her phone away.

His face comes into view, and he looks angry. "You guys were having a video call without me and who's the bitch that spilt milk on you?"

Knowing very well, that I couldn't escape his questions, I told him everything that happened.

"Wow." Olivia and Marcus breathe out as soon as I'm done.

"I can let him date you, he seems like a pretty nice guy," Marcus says as if he's deep in thought.

"I totally agree." Olivia squeals excitedly and for a split second, I'm reminded of Jade.

I have to apologize to her.

"No. It's not like that." My face flushes red.

"We all know how it starts girl." Olivia teases and Marcus laughs.

"You know what? Bye, I have homework to do." I feign annoyance.

"You sound like you're in pre-school. Anyway, bye I've got homework to do too. Love you and always remember I got you." Olivia says hastily

"And I definitely approve of you and Justin. He is Trevor's closest friend, so there couldn't be any other perfect guy for you. I'll text you tomorrow. You should sleep early." Marcus adds as I end the call.

Sighing, I turn off my phone and head downstairs for dinner.

"How was school today, honey?" Mum hugs me as soon as soon as I enter the dining room.

I hug her back "Okay, I guess."

She pulls away and brushes my hair back. "Promise me you'll talk to me if you're having any troubles."

I nod my head and take a seat at the table.

"Where's Dad?" I ask looking around and not seeing him anywhere.

"He's at the garage. He'll be back soon."

On cue, the door beeps and Dad enters. I run to hug him.

"How's my sweet girl doing?" He returns my hug.

"I'm hungry. Let's go eat." I hurry him, attempting to avoid his question.

He doesn't seem to notice and soon we're all at the table eating.

***

"You can talk to us. We'll do our best to help you." The cops tried talking to me for the third time that day.

I remain adamant. Refusing to give up any information.

"You can be indicted for illegal possession of hard drugs, are you aware of that?" He tries again.

Looking out the window, his words do not affect me. I'm wondering if it would be nice to jump out this window. At least the fresh air would be nice and I could have a peaceful moment to myself before I died.

The cops gave up and met with my parents. "Your daughter has gotten into severe depression. I'm afraid she's losing her sanity at this point."

I burst out laughing. Why did he sound like a doctor instead of a cop?

He was right though. I am gradually slipping away from my normal state of mind. Slowly getting numb.

Losing all moral sense little by little. I want to die but I still want to live. I am constantly fighting a battle inside my head.

Should give up or not? Should I act like everything is fine, even when I know it's not?