#THE HASHTAG

10 | Hold On

It's too many tears

To drown them out

So hold on 

✝ Chapter Ten | Hold On. ✝

The walk to school on Monday morning was a lonely one.

You can bet that Adam caught a ride with his new friends, and you can also bet that I didn’t want to ask Jack for a ride.

After what I saw last night, it was out of the question.

When he drove me home, we didn’t speak. The only words he said to me were “see you tomorrow”. Even then, I didn’t respond.

Transporting drugs was one thing, but selling them?

I knew he was too good to be true. I shouldn’t have given him the time of day from the start, because I really hate that empty feeling developing in the pit of my stomach.

But when I walked through the main doors of East River, the sinking feeling plunged deeper into my stomach as I stared helplessly at my fellow peers. Anybody who followed the-hashtag-dot-net knew about the picture. And they couldn’t be any more blatant about it.

“Look! It’s Loose Lexi!”

“I almost didn’t recognize her with clothes on!”

I shifted my gaze away from the crowd and stared down at the floor. I couldn’t let them get to me. I had to be strong.

That soon went out of the door when I felt two hands wrap tightly around my butt cheeks.

Yeah, this was not going to go down well.

I whipped around abruptly and fisted my hands into the shirt of the naïve boy who violated me. His eyes went wide as I tugged him down to my level. “If you touch me one more time, I’ll kick your balls so hard that you won’t be able to have kids,” I said with wry amusement. “And if I were you, I wouldn’t take that lightly.”

He swallowed harshly, fear glistening in his eyes.

“Do you understand?” I lifted a brow, inquiring.

He bowed his head, rapidly nodding.

I gave him a sweet smile laced with enough venom to let him know I wasn’t playing around. Satisfied, I released my hold on his shirt. He stumbled back to his group of friends, scared out of his mind.

The warning bell echoed above us and reluctantly, people began to walk to their classes.

I wasn’t even inclined to go to the cafeteria for breakfast. I didn’t even want to be here. All of this was so unfair. I didn’t deserve any of it.

The bell rang once more but this time, a voice followed. “Lexus Lennon to the main office. Lexus Lennon to the main office. Thank you.”

I let out a small whimper and dragged myself to the main office. Great, now I was in trouble. I didn’t need to give my mother more reasons to ground me.

As soon as I got there, a lady redirected me to the principal’s office. Surprisingly, there were no clocks in the room, so I didn’t know what time it was or for how long I sat. To pass the time, I ended up counting the family photographs of Principal Bradmoore and his two daughters, Stacy and Stephanie.

I counted thirty-two, thirty-three if you count the painting on the back wall.

The door opened suddenly and a petite girl walked in. One glance at her tight brown curls and I could tell it was Stephanie. She was wearing a flared black skirt with matching knee high socks and heels, an outfit that didn’t really fit the occasion.