Issues / ROMAN GODFREY / #wattys2019

Ten.

Mariana woke up in her bed the next morning paranoid, and when she walked downstairs dressed in her uniform with her backpack, she found her dad filling his thermos with coffee.

"Good morning," she said, standing in the doorway of the kitchen, smiling when Miguel smiled at his daughter.

"How'd you sleep, Maria?" he asked.

She nervously twiddled her fingers in front of her and shrugged, "I slept good, Papi. I have practice after school, do you want to get dinner after?" she asked.

"Of course, wherever you'd like, mija," he said, sticking his cheek out for her to kiss. "You better go on before you're late for school." he stuck a banana in her hand as she grabbed her keys from the counter.

Once she was in her car, she took a deep breath, placing her hands on the steering wheel. Her dreams last night were vivid; images of Lisa's dead body and snakes eating their own tails - she hated snakes, it was like Hell on Earth, and there was a string of guilt weighing on her conscious.

Mariana drove to school, hoping that Peter and Roman had the answers they sought for.

Mariana sat next to Carlie in AP History, writing down their essay questions when a table of boys to their right started talking about Lisa. Mari became rigid in her seat, and Carlie placed her hand on her back in comfort.

"They found her grave all dug up, the casket open and everything! That fat fuck Sworn got a faceful of tits, I heard," Travis Reydell snickered, making his friends snort with laughter.

"She was half eaten, there's probably no tits left to nibble on-"

Mari abruptly got up from her seat and walked to the desk, leaning down to Mr. Drake. "Could I be excused?"

She ran to the nearest bathroom and vomited.

-

Roman sat on a staircase with a cigarette dangling from his lips. He was supposed to be in Chemistry, but he had better things to do, so here he was, ditching and satisfying his nicotine addiction.

He probably would have gone to class today had he not seen Peter getting too close to Letha during lunch, the thought of them flirting made him want to vomit. Even worse, it made him want to kill Peter for hitting on Letha, but he'd save that for later.

He heard a toilet flush from the woman's bathroom, and after he stubbed out his cigarette, he stood up, hoping to catch a glimpse to see who it was. He peeked his head about the corner to see Mariana walk out, her face sweaty and a hand on her stomach.

"What happened?" he called out, walking over to her.

"People know!" she hissed, "They know about Lisa being dug up, they were talking about it, it was sick!" Mariana made a disgusted face, "I threw up, I've been feeling like shit since I woke up this morning,"