Storm Boi 🌩️ (ON HOLD)

Part 9

"Aww!" A stranger might've mistaken the outcry for genuine remorse, but Danny turned away from Mr. Burgess' desk, sniggering as Caleb managed to step on Molly's manga volume before retrieving it from the floor and handing it back to her. "Sorry about that."

Molly accepted the book without a word. It wasn't like she could actually do anything, but seeing her just roll over like that made my pulse throb in my temples, like my body was trying to physically contain the rage burning in my chest.

"What a fatty." Danny's voice was quiet enough that Mr. Burgess wouldn't notice him above the racket, but I could hear the disdain dripping from every syllable. "Try losing twenty pounds, then maybe you'll be pretty."

"Not even," Maya replied, glancing pointedly at Molly like the other girl was a brown splat on the sidewalk.

Danny fist-bumped Caleb as they settled themselves in, lording over the classroom like the deed to it was crushed in Danny's sweaty palm. My grip on Pride and Prejudice should've turned the carbon in the pages into diamonds by now, but I couldn't bring myself to do anything but glare.

Faithful dog. That's what the name "Caleb" meant - I knew because Morgan looked it up one time, and the ensuing hilarity brought us to literal tears. It's like his parents knew one day the broad-shouldered boy would grow up to play sidekick to a sniveling little waste of space like Danny...but today there was nothing funny about that synchronicity. Not that there ever really was to begin with.

The classroom's second door was just a few feet away from where I was slouching, so it was easy to scoot out of my seat and vanish into the hallway as the harpy-like scream of the bell reverberated through the school again, marking the actual beginning of classes. The door closing behind me was a bittersweet relief; Mr. Burgess's ire was a small price to pay for a few minute of peace and quiet.

Besides, there was something I had to do.

I didn't really need to go to the bathroom, but for the last few years my trips to the can were more based around timing than physical impulse. No one gave me any trouble - not since what happened between me and Danny - but the confined chambers still always made me edgy, like if I went between classes like everyone else I was risking some kind of critical mass of hatred.

Not that I cared, of course - but Mom did. She'd fought every step of the way with me; to be reckless like that would be like throwing it all back in her face.

No, it was safer to go now, when the halls were empty. Hasty footsteps echoed from a nearby corridor, the hallmark of a late student, but even those vanished in the thud of a distant classroom closing as I approached the switchbacking, doorless maw to my worst nightmare.

I doubted anyone else in this school thought about going to the bathroom as much as I did.

My pulse fluttered in my throat and I held my breath when I walked into the tiled chamber, but just as it was practically every morning, the room was empty. Stale air slid out of me in a silent sigh of relief.

I took my time; no sense rushing back, not when there was only Danny and Caleb and Mr. Burgess waiting for me. The Bad Bathroom was up a storey from here, but the rooms were identical except for the patterned tile, and I glanced at the middle sink as I washed my hands and the rightmost one, remembering.

One minute he'd been standing in front of me, his pale cheeks mottled with anger, his lip curled in a snarl - and then-

It's horrifying how far blood spreads in a bathroom, even when it's your worst enemy that's bleeding.

I shook my head, trying to shake off the morbid thought, but it clung to me like Pan's shadow as I scrubbed my hands dry and hurried back to class.

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