Toxic - Luke Hemmings

Chapter 42

I got caught in a whirl wind of thought, and it only got deeper the longer I lingered on the topic. When I got up to use the bathroom I think everyone thought I couldn't hear them from the headphones, but I still only had one in. I was about to close the bathroom door when I heard them start to whisper.

"Is it just me or has she lost a fuck ton of weight?" Sophie asked everyone nervously. I shut the door completely but took my headphone out, still clearly able to hear them.

"She's always been small, she's just going through a hard time right now." I think it was Mike that said that.

"Yeah but she's even smaller now. I'm scared guys, she doesn't look okay." Sophie was scared? I turned my head to look in the mirror next to me, and I tried seeing what she saw.

"Now you're noticing?" I heard Luke ask all amused. I froze.

"What are you talking about? How is this funny?" Mike said.

"Not my place to say." Luke just brushed them off. At least he had a boundary there? He didn't have any with anything else, though.

"You did this." I heard Sophie, and I already knew who she was talking to even if I couldn't see them.

"You're in over your head on this one Sophie, shut the fuck up." Luke was pissed now, and I couldn't let them continue down that road.

"No. You're the only one that can fix it." I walked out of the bathroom right as she said it, and everyone looked at me like deer in headlights. I just looked around the room blankly, and they could all tell I had heard all of it.

I didn't really have anything to say to them, and I knew they were just trying to help but it only made me feel worse. I'm not sure how they thought I wouldn't hear them when the walls in this place were thin as shit, but I left it alone and slipped out the door. I heard Sophie yelling at Luke again, telling him to go fix this, but it was past the point of fixable.

I didn't bother waiting for the elevator, which was a huge mistake. It was a three-story climb to my floor and halfway up my legs started shaking and my eyesight started to get grainy around the edges. I heard someone enter the stairwell below me, so I pushed myself off the wall I was resting against for support and kept going.

"Izzy?" It was Luke, which only made me go faster. By faster, I mean one step a minute instead of not moving at all. I couldn't really breath and my legs started giving out, and then I hit the next landing with a loud thud. I tried to get back up but I couldn't get the strength back in my legs, so I just sat there leaning on my arms until I could properly function.

"Are you okay?!" Luke came racing up the last few stairs and kneeled next to me.

"Please, leave me alone." I begged. I couldn't do this right now.

"No, you need help." He tried helping me get to my feet, but I pushed him off and sat back against the wall.

"I need you to go." I got it out between breaths. Now that I had been on the ground for a minute, my eyesight came back in full and my legs weren't as weak. I just needed Luke to go away so I could continue upstairs.

"What's wrong with you?" He asked, motioning to how breathless I was.

"Go away!" I shouted, bringing my hands to cover my face as I cowered against the wall.

He stood up and took a step back, and I used that as my opportunity to get up. I grabbed onto the railing and slowly pulled myself up, knowing damn well that if I went too fast I'd be blacked out on the floor. I only had one flight of stairs left, so I brushed past him and finished the climb before I got light headed again. Luke followed me to the landing where the door to our floor was, and he stopped me before I could go in.