Implode [edited version]

o1 implosion

[ o1 implosion ]

Summer had ended, and yet another year of torture had begun.

In the sense that it was spoken by most students, the school year was supposedly harder to adjust to in senior year after the final break of being a junior. Exodus could say that this was true, as she trudged through the conversations around her. It was true for her, mostly because of what the other students would do to her. She was the one exception to all the parties, the taboo that should never be spoken of unless negatively. To be seen with her was like social suicide, but to shower her with bullying would have you praised in every way possible.

Students lined the halls, stuck in clusters of giggling girls and boastful boys. The talks that she was able to pick up on all concerned the summer plans that had been made, and parties to come. There were scandals and tragedies, mostly all sexual or revolving around something fashionable. It was the kind of talk that she would be forever excluded from, at least for this year. She had yet to hear her name, or any of the pseudonyms given to her, to be mentioned. For this, she was glad.

It only meant that they had forgotten, and to forget her was like to bestow her with a gift of peace. The other students were too wrapped up in gossip to notice the slender brunette slinking away to her locker, carefully sliding around a couple that was locked together as if they'd been apart for years. She struggled to open the locker door against their weight for a moment, but they finally broke apart long enough for her to do so.

A sigh escaped her lips, but relief was nowhere to be found in it. She was greeted by the usual white envelope, sitting primly on the books she had left in her locker over the summer. There was never a name, never a return, always a note. They used to be only disturbing, but she had felt an odd sense of euphoria mix in as the notes awaited her every day.

It'd started two years before, towards the end of freshman year. It was the year that her status as a pariah began, for a reason she had yet to figure out. It was the sort of occurrence that she'd only ever heard about, much before her high school experience had begun. The memory threatened tears to spring from her eyes, and she had to slide them shut and hold her breath.

She opened her eyes again and swallowed drily as she gently handled the envelope, a dread sinking into the pit of her stomach. Her specturmed gaze darted around the halls, checking to be sure that all those around her were too busy with themselves to watch her. Her fingers trembled, and she bit down softly on her lip to keep it from doing the same.

The notes were always different.

One day they would be affectionate and gentle, the next they would be horrifying and angry. It was as if the person behind it all had a vendetta against her, but was stuck in a loop of passion of another kind. The note that glared up at her now was simple; no flourish, but a clear implication.

You will know me.

Her neck burned as the thin white parchment fell from her grasp, quakes reverberating through her. She clenched her jaw as she watched the paper drift down to the ground, promptly picking it up and crumpling it before straying eyes could decipher the message from afar. She shoved the bit of paper into the recesses of her backpack, ready for it to disappear from her mind and sight. Closing her locker softly, as if trying to appease whatever force kept putting notes in her locker, she turned and gasped sharply.

She was met then with the blonde and radiant visage of Laurisse. The girl could be counted as her best friend, mostly due to the fact that there were no other people to fully label as friends. She forced a smile onto her face, pushing the turbulence of her mind down enough to appear relatively happy for her companion.