Fragile Bones

Chapter Twenty-Two

I closed my eyes, trying to push off my annoyance. When Spencer would insult me, it used to just make me feel bad and even scared, but now I was just getting aggravated. "Why don't you pay some more attention to your girlfriend instead of focusing your time on me? Wouldn't that make a lot more sense?"

"I-" he paused, and faltered just a little bit. He knew I was right. "I just wanted to let you know that my family is seriously considering pressing charges."

"Why don't you tell him that instead of me? You guys used to be friends so you should have his phone number."

"Because I can do whatever the hell I want Madeline!" he exclaimed, raising his voice slightly. I looked past him at the kids actually using the little amount go equipment we had, and they had all turned their heads to look at us.

"Yeah? Well you're being pretty stupid about it," came my snarky reply. I wanted to slap a hand over my mouth right after I said it. Spencer's eyes narrowed and he took a glance at the people in the gymnasium, not wanting to cause too much of a scene and make people suspicious.

"You better be a lot more careful with what you say to me. Asher won't be here to protect you this time. In fact, things might just go back to the way they were before he was here, and you won't be able to do a thing to stop it. You're acting tough right now, but that's because I've let you. You should realize your place before someone gets hurt," he finished. He jogged down the stairs, leaving the bleachers thundering after each step.

Scratch what I said earlier about not feeling fear at his words anymore. I had to go a week without Asher being there to help Spencer stay off my back. I know I shouldn't depend on him, but it's kind of hard when Spencer is giant and I'm barely over five feet. Asher brought me a feeling of comfort, and safety, which is crazy for having known him only a couple weeks. My best bet at this point was to avoid Spencer at all costs. If I was going to try and help Lindsay though, that might be a little hard.

I shut off my phone and decided to leave right then and there. Maybe Asher was rubbing off on me, but I did not feel like being in that school a moment longer. Since my teacher wasn't here it really wouldn't matter, and it would give me more time to work on the homework I had missed. I slowly got up from the bleachers and slung my bag over my shoulder. As I made my way down the bleachers and out the door I noticed that the only person watching me was Lindsay.

•••

It was now several hours after school and I was laying in my bed trying to sort through math homework. Math wasn't exactly my strongest suit, but I was good enough at it. The rumbling coming from my stomach kept distracting me. To make it stop I had to push out my stomach a little, which hurt, and wasn't the most flattering thing to see. I knew it was because I ate that apple earlier, which in hindsight I shouldn't have done. The scale sitting in the bathroom seemed to be calling my name, but I knew I would just hate what I saw. The apple would give me some weight, but hopefully it wouldn't be a lot and it would disappear tomorrow. At least I only had to worry about one more school day before the weekend.

I heard my mom calling me from downstairs, so I reluctantly put my papers away in my backpack. I was almost done and I just wanted to get it over with. I opened the door to my room and walked out into the hallway and bumped into my dad who was exiting the guest room. Seeing him walk out of a room that was not his gave me a weird feeling. Together, we walked down the stairs without saying anything to each other.

Soon enough, we were all sitting at the kitchen table with dinner laid out. After mentally counting the calories of chicken and rice, I started nibbling on some of it. I kept looking up at my parents to see them looking at anything but each other. This must be pretty awkward for them. The only plus of this so far was the fact that they weren't yelling at each other at every instance like I had gotten accustomed to. Instead, the house was bathed in a constant silence. They both didn't generally come home from their jobs until a couple hours after I was already out of school, and they've been staying out extra long recently. I really wasn't sure whether I should be happy about that or not, but it's not like when they are here they talk to me.

My mind went back to the whole situation with Mr. Henderson. I considered for a moment telling my parents about it, but they seemed like they had enough to deal with. I also considered texting Asher to tell him, but he probably wouldn't be too interested in doing Lindsay any favors. It was just going to be me alone in this.

"So Madeline, I want to set some time aside this weekend to talk more about the situation. I don't think me and Michael handled it very well last night. Are there any days that you have plans and won't be able to talk?" My mom asked, spreading some butter onto her rice. She couldn't even be bothered to look at me when she spoke.

I just wanted to scream: "Really? You think I have plans? Why don't you actually express some interest in my life and realize that I have absolutely no friends and no one who would want to hang out with me. Maybe then you would realize how much your daughter is suffering right now, and how none of this is making it better!"

Instead, I remained silent and shook my head. I was torn between whether my feelings were selfish or justified.

Satisfied with that answer, my mom fell silent again. My parents were slowly eating their meals, occasionally looking at different things in the dining room but no movement besides that. Even though we were all only a foot away from each other, it seemed like there was a wall in the middle of the table between me and my parents. They were concerned with only their lives right now, and nothing in the world could have prepared me for that feeling.

•••
A/N

So, this chapter isn't exactly a filler, which makes me satisfied. Things are actually happening instead of a bunch of fluff, which had become too frequent (I think).

Lemme tell you how difficult it is writing on a laptop when you own four cats. They were crawling all over my lap and keyboard the entire time. If there are any grammar or spelling mistakes, I'm blaming them.

I got to see my boyfriend today and he brought me Otter Pops and Twizzlers. Romance at its finest folks.

What do you think Madeline is going to do about the teacher situation? Or at least, what do you think she should do?

Does Lindsay even deserve help?

I noticed people were responding to previous questions I left in the authors note section and I like seeing that, so reply to these too if you have answers!

Again, hope everyone is staying safe during this. I'm on shelter in place until at least May 10th so three more weeks :'). I'm suffocating in here.

I know I already posted a message about this, but truly, thank you guys for 100k reads! I was so excited when we hit it, I told my whole family lol (It's worth mentioning literally none of them care about my achievements but I'm proud of myself)! 100,000 is such a big number, and I remember only about six months ago having 400 reads. I never knew that it would grow this much! I've been writing it for 2.5 years so it makes sense, but even so. There are so many wonderful and talented writers on this app, I never thought that I would be able to compare in any way! Maybe one day we'll even hit one million. Thanks!

Shoutouts to:
@writing98
@Youdontneedtoknow137
@brileexalexa

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Emma x