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I can barely sit still in my next class, feeling overwhelmed by the looming meeting with my father after school. It is a small relief to know Emmett will be with me, but it doesn’t stop my leg from bouncing rapidly under my desk no matter how hard I try to stop. I fidget and chew on the eraser on my pencil, unable to hear anything the teacher is saying.
My nerves build to a rising sickness in my stomach until I finally decide to go throw some cold water on my face in the bathroom, hoping it relieves my anxiety. I shoot my hand up and request a hall pass and march towards the bathroom, trying to outrun the twisting sensation in my gut.
The burst of water from the faucet sends droplets of water splattering across the plastic countertops. In moments like these, WJ Prep feels cursed. I have to wonder how many times I have leaned over this bathroom sink, desperate for some kind of escape from outside. But the threat of my father feels even greater than anything in this school.
As I close my eyes and splash another wave of water across my face, I hear the bathroom door swing open followed by a string of familiar cackles. I know those laughs all too well, except one of them didn’t have much to laugh about not long ago. When she was on the other side of Vivian’s wrath.
Vivian and Lily. Nothing good ever comes out of running into either of them in this bathroom. And the click of the lock on the main door tells me this time won’t be any different.
I quickly realize they’re standing on either side of me before I have a chance to wipe my face and look. I can feel them looming over my shoulders. My gut tells me this is going to be bad. This is the first time they’ve managed to corner me alone since Vivian returned to school and the two paired up.
“Things still going rough with Emmett?” Vivian whines in a mocking voice against my ear, crouching dangerously close.
“No, actually,” I answer coldly, trying my best not to let her get to me. Maybe if I just give short answers and ignore them the best I can, they’ll go away. I know that never works, but it’s all I know to try. They’ve cornered me, after all. “Things are going just fine,” I add.
“Just fine,” Lily calls back to me. “Sounds…passionate.” She smirks.
“Don’t worry about us,” I murmur with a shake of my head, reaching out for a paper towel to dry off with. “It’s none of your business anyway.”
But as my arm reaches out across the counter, Lily’s hand tightens around it, holding it firmly in place. Vivian slides behind me, pinning my other arm down as she goes. I let out a scream and struggle to get free, but I’m stopped by a sharp stinging sensation digging into the veins in the middle of my arm, opposite my elbow. My teeth grind against the pain as my eyes strain and tighten, filling with tears.
“What the fuck!?” I shriek, still unable to get loose from their hands. The pain is quickly followed by several more stabs, then it switches to the other arm.
“Don’t bother fighting it,” Vivian hums.
I ignore her and continue flailing my arms, trying to get free. I want to punch them both when they finally let go, but I am overcome by a sudden rushing surge. My stomach flips as I lean against the counter and lose myself in a swelling daze. I have to assume they’ve left the bathroom because everything around me grows quiet and still again.
My breath slows and my ears pound with a popping feeling. I sway and look up into the mirror, noting my shrunken pupils. They’ve obviously drugged me with something, but I have no idea what.
“Emmett,” I mouth to my reflection in a whisper. I want to go find him, but my motivation to move or go anywhere shrinks away.
I know I should be panicking over whatever they’ve done to me, but I can’t seem to feel anything bad. I am suspended in a strange euphoria, even though I know in my brain that I should be terrified. I look at myself in the mirror once more and know I can’t face anyone like this. I’m too out of it.
I slink into the nearest stall and lock the door behind me. I want to move fast, but everything goes by in slow motion. My skin is heated and flushed as I smack my dry lips across my tongue. My arms and legs are so heavy I don’t even know if I am sitting up straight. As afraid as I am, I can’t deny how elated I feel. Even as Vivian and Lily’s cackling voices linger in my brain, I feel nothing bad towards them. I feel nothing bad at all.
“What a strange punishment,” I laugh softly to myself under my breath.
After a while, I’m unsure of how long I’ve been locked away on my own. Clusters of shoes beneath the stall door come and go in crowds, accompanied by the sounds of distant voices I have no interest in making out. I sit huddled up on the toilet, relishing the feeling against my will, until finally it feels like it has passed enough for me to face the world again.
But the moment I peel myself up, sickness rises with my body. I turn quickly and buckle over the toilet. Again, I have no idea how long I am stuck like that. Once my stomach has calmed enough for movement, I try to make my way out into the halls.
Everything is quiet and still, and I don’t even want to know how much of the school day I’ve missed thanks to whatever Lily and Vivian have done to me. I slip into my last classroom, ignoring the daggers from the teacher’s glare. The period I left during has passed and there’s a new set of faces looking at me like I’m crazy as I slip in to grab my bag.
I return to the halls, slamming the classroom door shut behind me, barely looking where I’m going as I pull my phone out and try to text Emmett. I still feel out of it and am struggling to type the right words when suddenly a pair of large sneakers appear in the path before me. Following them up a long pair of legs, I see Coach Granger towering over me.
“Coach Granger,” I mutter, swaying slightly as I speak. “I’m glad, I…I need to…”
“You okay, Lopez?” he asks sternly, looking extremely displeased.
I shake my head, unsure if I agreed or disagreed. Before I can say anything else, he wraps his hand around my arm and begins marching me down the hall.
“Come with me,” he orders. “We need to meet with the principal.”
“I can’t do that right now,” I reply lethargically, wishing I had the power to pull away or ask what this is about. “I can’t go in there with you and the principal. I don’t…I’m not…not well.”
He ignores me and continues shuffling me along as the swelling panic inside grows. I want to turn and run in the other direction, but my body feels too weak and lifeless to fight against his pull. Before I know it, I am dragged inside the principal’s office and plopped into a stiff, leather chair.
“You don’t look so well, Ophelia.” Principal Brown peers over his glasses at me, his big, gray bushy eyebrows furrowed together.
