Something There

Chapter Twenty-Seven

"Come on. We have class," he tells me, and I follow him without another word.

I find myself smiling at the memory which seems so distant despite it only being two weeks ago.

Time is just flying by so fast that it's hard to keep track. I'm beyond excited to graduate and go to university, but that doesn't mean that the reality of it all doesn't sink in every once in awhile; I'll probably never see most of these people ever again.

This is why you stopped yourself from getting into a relationship, Lexi, I remind myself, then being broke from my daydream by a hand tapping my shoulder.

"Hurry up, Lex. We have an assembly all afternoon apparently," Charlie tells me, grabbing my garbage for me and walking over to toss in in a trash can.

I sigh, getting up from my seat and slinging it over my shoulder before following him and Mateo out the door.

Mateo hasn't really been speaking to me either this past little while. I just assumed that he must he stressed about school like we all have been.

"What assembly is going to take the whole afternoon?" I question my brother as we make a left, heading towards the auditorium.

He shrugs at me as we join the line of students filing into the auditorium.

"What's all this shit about?" Bryce asks me as he joins us, followed by Jordan, Jasmine, Daniel, and Ryan.

"I don't know," I answer as we take our seats. The auditorium is almost already full, so we end up seated together in the back row.

I end up seated in between Bryce and Charlie near the end of the row. Bryce is texting on his phone and when I look over his shoulder to see what he's doing I find him scrolling through his own Instagram page.

He's forced to tuck his phone away when the presentation seems to be beginning.

There's a man and a woman, both looking like they must be in their mid-thirties. They introduce themselves briefly before the principal then takes the microphone from them.

"Now, I understand that what we will be discussing today is a very sensitive topic and we welcome students to leave the room if they feel the need to at any time. I'm now going to request everyone to please shut off their phones so our presenters can start," he tells the audience, and all the chatter from the overly energetic teenagers dies down.

"Hello, everyone," the woman begins to say as as the principal exits the stage, leaving her and the other man alone on stage.

"I understand that what we may be speaking about today could seem irrelevant to all of you, but it does happen more often than you think," she continues, then going on to introducing the organization they work for.

That's when the title of their presentation finally hits me.

Preventing Sex Trafficking in Teens and Youth.

You've got to be kidding me.

I literally feel my whole body tense, and that's when Charlie leans in to my ear.

"You can leave, Lex. It's probably best. You don't have to force yourself to sit through this," he tells me, and I gulp hard, shaking my head at him.

"I'll be fine. I need to get over it anyway," I say aloud, more to myself than to him.

And even though I'm doing a fine job at ignoring all the words that are coming out of their mouthes about how high the rate of teenagers who are kidnapped and sold into trafficking in our province is, I'm helpless as far as preventing the flashbacks goes.