The Wallflower

The Warning

Another harsh blow to my life and here I was, a pathetic mess with snot dripping down my chin.

The door opens at that moment and Karen's short bob of hair comes into view. I nearly cried out in relief at seeing her.

"Sang! There you -- oh my god, what did that bitch do to you?!" She gasped as she rushed over to me, helping me sit up. "God, let's get you cleaned up. You're definitely sleeping over my house now."

My legs felt like jelly as I stood. Karen had to support my weight because it felt like I had no strength in my feet. She grabbed a paper towel and wet it, wiping the snot from my face and drying my tears smeared down my cheeks.

"She can't do this to you, Sang. It's not right." She told me with her jaw clenched tight. One of the bathroom stalls began overflowing and sure enough, my stuff began floating out. "I mean, they dumped your stuff in the toilet and smashed your glasses! That's so messed up!"

I felt defeated and lost, I wasn't sure what to do or if I could do anything. "It's fine. She just said some things and left. I'll deal with it, Karen."

Liar. I swallowed the lies, burying them beneath the pain I felt on a daily basis and locked it in the far reaches of my mind. Karen shook her head at me but said nothing and gathered the pieces of my glasses from the floor.

"I think it's still salvageable. The lens is....well, maybe it's not so salvageable." She winced as she picked up the cracked lens from the floor.

As if my life wasn't difficult enough as it is, I had to spend it partially blind and face telling my father. "Dad's not going to be happy."

I grabbed the damp paper towel that she handed me and blew my nose before throwing it away and heading outside with my backpack reeking of toilet water.

"It's still not right," she muttered behind me. "That bitch needs a reality check."

Between the two of us, I had my stuff shoved into my backpack and barely paid attention to the line of water I was trailing behind me. People stared but I didn't care. I felt numb.

"It's not right but what am I supposed to do? Nobody in this school cares." I said bitterly, as we made our way down the slowly emptying hallways. "And telling my dad is out of the question. He'll just move us again and I don't want that."

Every time I came up with a solution to any of my problems, they always seemed to hit dead ends and at this point, I was beginning to feel like everything was pointless.

Karen sighed beside me, throwing an arm around my shoulders. "You should tell your dad anyway though, don't you think he'd want to know his daughter is being bullied by some bitcheroni and her cronies?"

My lips thinned and I looked away at her question. Just hearing it made me uncomfortable and filled me with despair. My immediate answer to it is a resounding 'no'. But then I didn't want to burden Karen with more of my problems.

"I guess." I forced a smile, shrugging. I don't think Karen bought it but like always, she didn't press on it and just held me tighter. At times like these, I was really grateful for a friend like her.

Sometime later, Karen's mom picked us up and took us to her house. Mrs. Newman questioned why my backpack smelled like a wet swamp and the lie spilled out of me easily.

"I spilled water all over it," I told her with my head down. She rose an eyebrow at me but just smiled and said nothing as we pulled up to their two-story house.

The Newman's lived near an apartment complex in a smaller suburb than Summerville. It was nice, I liked it better than the house I lived in. It had red shutters and a blue door, with a tree swing in the backyard.