SUSPENDING GRAVITY , sweet pea ¹ ✓

027. A Night of Tragedy

     She started making her way towards the school exit and pushed the doors open so she could walk out. She didn't even stop to talk to anyone, she just kept walking. When she got home, the door was locked and it was obvious that her mother was out working again. She unlocked the door and once she was inside, she locked it from the inside and went upstairs to her room. Once she was upstairs and the door was closed, she dropped her bag onto the floor and kicked her shoes off. She took a shower and changed into a pair of blue fuzzy pants and a white spaghetti strap top and pulled her hair back. She fell onto the bed face first and didn't even bother to get underneath the blanket but didn't even get to close her eyes before her phone started to ring. She groaned loudly as she sat up and looked at the screen where Toni's name flashed across the top of it.

     "Yes?" she asked after she pressed the green button and held the phone to her ear.

     "Tori, are you okay?" Toni asked and Tori could hear the genuine concern.

     "Never been better," Tori said while shrugging her shoulders.

     "Tori, you don't have to lie to me."

     "Who said I was lying?"

     Toni was silent for a moment before she spoke up again.

     "Where were you at lunch today?" she asked.

     "Somewhere to be alone," Tori said. "I gotta go."

     Before Toni could protest, Tori had already hung up and put her phone down. She lied back down and as the sky got darker, the only light source in her room was the small lamp on the nightstand. Her phone stayed silent until it beeped to let her know that the battery was low and that it needed to charge. Once it was plugged in, she put her head back on the pillow and sighed heavily. If she could just take a nap for even a few minutes, she wouldn't feel so much like an emotionless machine running on gasoline.

     Three more days. All she had was three more days before she could finally be done with the musical and get the rest she's been deprived of for the last few weeks.

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

     IT WAS THE BIG NIGHT AND SHE WASN'T SURE IF SHE WAS READY FOR THIS. Tori didn't know if she was ready to go in front of all those people and sing and dance when she hadn't participated in anything like this in years. She was pacing around the dressing room, rushing to get into her first costume as Kevin came down the hallway every five minutes to remind everyone of how much time they had left before they had to go onstage.

     "Twenty minutes, everyone!" Kevin said and he was loud enough for Tori to hear him from her dressing room.

     "Dammit!" Tori said as her fist made contact with the dressing table and everything that was sitting on top of it shook and rattled.

     She heard a soft knock on the door and she opened it slightly. Sweet Pea was standing right outside with his hands in his pockets and Tori's shoulders relaxed.

     "Are you okay?" he asked.

     "I'm fine," Tori said as she opened the door even wider. "I doubt Kevin will be okay with this but just sit down over there."

     Sweet Pea walked in and Tori let the door stay closed as she grabbed a small black hair tie and put it around her wrist. She separated her hair into three parts and her fingers twisted them around each other in an attempt to put her hair into a braid.