I'm Glad I Met You

Chapter 10

I don't tell anyone about my encounter with Mitchell. I really want to, but I don't know how. "Gina? You alive?" Mikey asks and someone throws a piece of bread at me, hitting my forehead. "Thank you for that, Frank" I sarcastically say and he grins. "You okay? You seem really spaced out today" Ray observes, "I didn't get enough sleep last night... I'm fine." And now you're lying to them. My brain remarks.

My hands shake as I feel the entire classes' eyes on me, a few of them snicker when they see my reaction to the attention. "Gina, I need to mark you on public speaking." The teacher sighs, obviously not happy with my reluctance. "She has anxiety. She doesn't want to do it." A girl that I occasionally speak to tells him. "We all get anxious, it's no excuse." My heart starts beating so fast I feel like it's going to rip my chest open. The teacher says something but I can't concentrate on her, without even realising I'm standing up and walking out of the classroom.
"Gina! Are you okay?" Mikey asks, sitting next to me. "I-it's stupid..." I disheartedly chuckle, wiping a couple of tears away. "It doesn't matter if you think it's stupid, it made you upset." Mikey tells me, "I had to speak in front of the class... And people were laughing, and I-I." Another tear rolls down my cheek and Mikey pulls me into a hug. When I pull away Mikey smiles and wipes the tears from the corner of my eyes, "do you want to go back to class?" He asks and I pause before shaking my head. Mikey starts talking about something else, most likely to distract me, but my mind keeps going blank. "Hey? You still with me?" Mikey snaps his fingers, making me concentrate again. "Uh, yeah. Sorry, just a bit tired." I say and he looks at me worriedly, "you've been tired a lot recently... Nothings wrong?" The worried look on his face makes me feel bad about lying to him, "I... I just, uhm..." What do I say? "I'm just a little stressed out." Well that's technically not a lie.

When I get home I talk with my parents for a few minutes before making my way to my room. My phone buzzes, telling me I have a text. I groan before grabbing it off my bedside table, Gerard: a couple of bands r playing at a bar tonight, wanna go?? Me: give me a sec to ask my parents. Are the others going? I decide to wait for a response before asking. Gerard: as far as i can tell yes. As I walk into the lounge room my phone buzzes again, Gerard: im not sure if mikey will be able to though. "I lovvveee you." I say to mum, guessing that she'll be the better person to ask. "What do you want?" She fake sighs, "well... The others are going to watch a couple of bands preform tonight and they were wondering if I could go?" I ask, "who's going?" "Gerard, Frank, Ray and maybe Mikey." She looks like she's about to say no but she stops herself and looks at me carefully. "...Fine. But you have to be home before 11, you have to text me when you're on your way home, no drinking and you have to stay with them." I grin and say thank you before rushing to my room. Me: i can go. I text Gerard, Gerard: cool, we'll pick u up at 7ish.

I look at what I'm wearing in the mirror, black skinny jeans and a Foo Fighters shirt with a pair of combat boots. I'd gone simple with the makeup and only put on foundation, eyeliner and lip balm.
"Act like you're 18." Frank whispers to me as we approach the main entrance. I feel myself panicking slightly as the bouncer stares at us, he looks at me and nods us through. "I told you it was a good idea to have a pretty girl with us" Gerard boasts. "The prettier the girl, the more likely they are to let you in without checking ID." Mikey explains after seeing my confused expression, "oh" I mumble and follow them into the crowd. We find a table near the bar but away from the middle of the room, "I feel like we should've gotten Gina one of those bags with a string on it so we can tell where she is" Ray says and the others mumble things in agreement. "Seriously? I'm not a little kid" I scoff and Ray shrugs. The lights dim and five people walk on the makeshift stage, "uh. Hi. We're Dark Vengeance. (random name I came up with)" The lead singer announces before they start playing.
"We should probably leave soon." Mikey says, looking at his phone. "Yeah, my parents will kill me if I'm home later than 10:30" I sigh, not really wanting to leave. I wince as someone pushes pass me, bumping into the forming bruise on my side. Mikey looks at me confused "you okay?" He asks and I nod, "yeah. I fell over earlier and hurt my side" I say without thinking, great. Now you've lied to them multiple times.

*Next Day*
"Hey." I greet Mikey, leaning up against his locker. "Hi. Oh, I got you something" he tells me, pulling something out of his locker. "You said your parents haven't given you your notebook back, so..." He passes me a dark brown leather bound notebook, "you didn't have to." He smiles at me and shrugs, "also I printed out that photo we took last night. It's on the first page." I open to the first page and smile as I see the photo. In it Mikey has his arm around my shoulders and we're both grinning, the photo was taken on his phone so it isn't the best quality, but it's still nice. "Thank you" I smile.

"How's your side feeling?" Mitchell patronizingly asks when him and his followers walk past us, "the weeks almost up" he reminds me before walking away. "What did he mean by that?" Ray asks, "probably nothing. Lets go." I say quickly and turn around to walk away but someone grabs my shoulder, stopping me. "How did he know you hurt your side?"

So I wanted a sort of cliffhanger thing, nothing too dramatic though. I've decided that I'm going to put a chapter up on Christmas Eve (today), Christmas and Boxing Day.
Thanks for reading!
-Mae