"What the fuck happened, Lexie?"
I flinch as I leave the principal's office, and try to move past Matt, but he firmly holds me still. "Matt, please, I don't want to talk."
"Alex, c'mon. Tell me."
"No."
"Alex... I know why you're so upset."
"What?"
"Who said those things about you?"
"Nobody."
"Alex, I will find out who's done this to us."
"Us?"
"Alex, you're not the only one being affected by this, you realise that, right? Everybody thinks that I'm fucking abusing you and some stupid shit like that, so don't you dare just think that this is about you, okay? Now, who did you beat up just then?"
I stare up at Matt's angry gaze, and my resolve to say nothing weakens. "Emma. She told her friends."
Matt is silent for a moment. "Was what she said true?"
"Depends. What did she say?"
"That you tried to kill yourself." Matt's voice cracks slightly at the end.
I purse my lips and push down the imminent tears. I didn't even mean for it to happen! And how could she have even known? "It isn't true," I manage to say, surprised that the lie sounds feasible. "She's just spreading bullshit."
"That little bitch," Matt mutters, resting his chin on the top of my head as he embraces me tightly. "I hope you gave her what she deserves."
"I... I have to go. I have to see her at the hospital with a teacher, to smooth things over."
"What?" he asks disbelievingly. "You have to apologise to her?"
I nod, and the regret begins to trickle through my bloodstream. What have I done? "I'll see you when I get back."
Matt's stare and an all-consuming guilt follows me as I make my way to the front of the school, but the guilt and regret stays and only builds as we get closer to the hospital.
YOU ARE READING
How to Save a Life
Short Story"Life is like a rollercoaster that you just can't wait to get off." Alex is suicidal. Alex is depressed. This much is true. When Emma finds her crying in the girls' toilets, she tries to help, but she makes a fatal mistake in telling her friends. Wo...
