Hidden Behind Barriers

Chapter 7

It was another week before Erica worked up the words and courage to tell her dad. She had initially thought he would tell her it was a phase, like he did with everything else that happened to her, just because she was a teenager. But, for once, that didn’t happen.

    Instead, he hugged her and promised they’d get through it together. It had been awkward to tell them, but Erica felt ten times better than before, because she gotten it out if the way.

    Meeting up with Alice the next morning at school, she’d told her friend what had happened. They hugged each other as well.

    “That’s great. Now you can get yourself back on track.”

    Erica sighed. “I would if I could. But I don’t know how to do it.”

    “Don’t know how to do what?” Lily asked, coming up behind them.

    Erica paused for a moment, looked at Alice, who shrugged and nodded, then turned back to Lily. “Can you get Mia and Liv to meet us in the library at lunchtime? There’s something I need to tell you.”

“I’m supposed to be your friend, but I didn’t know any of that!” Lily said shakily, breaking into the silence that had enveloped the table after Erica’s speech.

    “None of us did.” Mia told her. She hugged Erica and dabbed at her eyes, wiping away tears she didn’t realise had formed.

    “Hey! Don’t cry, Mia! This isn’t your fault- or anyone’s fault.” Erica said to her, trying to smile.

    Olivia looked at her. “It is.” She argued, speaking for the first time. “It’s Melanie’s and I’m going to kill her when I next see her. Everything she’s done has led to this, Erica. This is her fault!”

    Erica shifted uncomfortably in her chair. “Well, yeah it has...but I’m not going to say anything to her about this.” Just then, the bell rang, leaving them unable to say anything more until school had finished for the day.

    When it did, there was the usual rush to leave. Lily groaned as she picked up her bag. “I can’t believe our exams start next week.”

    “Yeah, and after that we leave school for good.” Olivia replied, making Lily groan again.

    “Please don’t, Liv. Let’s enjoy school while we still can.” She said, as they turned down another corridor. “I mean, I’m obviously looking forward to college if I get in, but I don’t want to think it too much at the moment.”

    There was a small laugh behind them. Everyone turned to see Melanie and Jared stood leaning against a wall. They both walked towards the girls as if they owned the school.

    “Are you really being serious?” Jared asked, grinning. “None of you will ever get into college, because you’re not clever enough.”

    “Oh, and you are?” Olivia snapped. “Mr I-never-do-any-work Reid? Maybe if you study a little bit for the rest of the week, you might scrape a grade on your exams that doesn’t mean you’ve failed!”

    Melanie started to say something, but someone else got there first. “Melanie, just shut up!” Everyone stared at Erica, and she continued. “Thank you. Now, how about we all leave each other alone for the rest of the year? After our exams, we have two weeks left of school, and then we’ll probably never see each other again.”

    “I hope.” Mia muttered under her breath, but no one heard her.

    After this, there was a pause. Melanie and Jared glared at Erica, until Melanie sighed. “Fine! Like I care, shrimp!” She said, before walking away from the others. Jared followed her and then Erica let out a small laugh.

    “I can’t believe I just did that!” Everyone laughed too.

    Olivia hugged her. “Neither can I, but she might leave us alone now- especially you.” Then she looked and Mia and grinned. “I agree with you though. I hope we never see them after school either.”

    “How did you...never mind.” Mia laughed and glanced down the corridor. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t help myself.”

    Erica linked arms with her. “Come on. Let’s go home.”

For the rest of the week, Erica and Alice met up at Alice’s house after school. They were going through the things Erica found difficult and hated about herself. Alice was a great amount of help to her.

    “If you think you can’t do your exams, you’ll probably fail.” She’d told her friend. “At this precise moment in time, thinking you can do something is more important, because you’ve done so much studying.”

    “You know it’s not that simple, right?” Erica asked her, raising her eyebrows a little.

    Alice nodded. “Of course I do. But that’s why I’m helping you. I’ve had a bad mindset at times in my life. Anyway, I found out something interesting the other day. People used to believe this.” She dug through some papers on her desk and gave one to her friend.

    Erica read it once and then a few more times. “So what went wrong with everyone?” She finally asked. Alice sighed.

    “The media changed everyone’s minds. That’s what happened.”

    Erica swallowed and re-read the words once more.

‘The inside is beautiful-

And that’s all that matters.’

    “When it says ‘the inside’, that means a person’s personality, doesn’t it?”

    “Yeah. The stuff that society doesn’t care about.” Alice replied, sighing. “The fact that people are beautiful inside and out, no matter what. It took me a while to figure that one out myself.”

    “It will probably be the same for me too.” Erica said, looking at her. “Can I keep this please?”

    “Of course. But remember one thing- that note is true.”