•
Imogen Halstead (age 16)
Word count: 1756
Tw: contains violence
Imogen's POV
"She keeps staring at you..." my best friend, gabby, nudges my arm under the table. I look up to see a blonde haired girl staring at me with a judgemental grin, "she commented on my instagram post last night, said something about my dad" I shrug, trying to shake off my anger. Gabby furrows her brows, "I didn't see anything" she tilts her head. I shake my head, "because I deleted it" I sigh. Gabby nods, "did you at least screenshot it?" She raises an eyebrow. I scoff at the question, "of course I did, who do you take me for?" I smirk.
With only a minute left of the lesson, I put my school blazer back on and pack my things away, following Gabby to the door and straight past that girl. Gabby rolls her eyes as we leave the classroom, ignoring their sarcastic comments about us both. As we tread down the hallway, "hey! Halstead!" The girl's squeaky voice yells down my ear.
I turn around to see her staring at me with her cronies stood behind her like parrots, "nice family picture" she taunts. I pull a face, trying my best to ignore her, "although, wasn't your dad a raging alcoholic?" She spits at me. I take a step back, "shut up" I retaliate. She frowns, "or what? You gonna' tell your mom? Oh wait... you can't, she's..." before she can even finish that sentence my fist has already connected with her nose.
I'm not a violent person, but bringing that up was uncalled for, and I won't stand for it. Before I know it, I'm on top of her on the ground throwing punches at her face and I can't stop, I feel the hot stream of tears rolling down my cheeks and the warm stain of blood on my knuckles. I seem to blackout from rage for a few seconds, because the next thing I see is my maths teacher ripping me off of this girl. He rushes me into his classroom before returning to the girl outside.
Gabby is still stood in the hallway staring at what I just did, before she eventually follows me inside. Her face is white and she's staring at my face. That girl, Lucy, must've thrown a few punches at me too. Gabby grabs a nearby tissue and harshly applies pressure. With blood tricking down the side of my forehead and my nose, I don't know what to say. Gabby squeezes my shoulder, "it's okay" she reassures me. The only thing I can see is my shaky hands resting on my bloody school shirt...
Roughly half an hour later, the school nurse lets me go wait in the reception. I know my brother is on his way, and I know I'm in deep trouble, but all I can think about is my pounding headache. My head won't stop bleeding but apparently the other girl had it worse, someone said she was taken to hospital... uh oh.
"Get your ass up, now!" My brothers all too familiar voice fills my ears. I look up, still holding the bandage before following him into the principals office, "I'm so sorry to be meeting with you on such dire terms today, mr Halstead" the woman sighs. Jay nods, "please, call me jay" he nods. My principal nods, "well unfortunately jay, as I explained on the phone. Imogen seemed to be the instigator of a fight today and as a school with a no violence policy, I simply cannot let this slide. Imogen is hereby suspended for three weeks... we will follow up with a meeting to discuss our next steps" she sighs heavily.
"I understand, ma'am. Have you got anything to say, Imogen?" Jay looks at me. I shrug, causing him to nudge my chair, "she deserved it" I sigh. Jay scoffs, "once again, I'm so sorry, I'll make sure it gets dealt with appropriately" he yanks me out of the chair. After practically dragging me to the truck, he slams his door shut, "let me see" he forces my head in his direction. Thankfully my nose decided to give me a break, but my head won't stop bleeding. He lifts the bandage up and another gush of blood trickles down the side of my face. His face distorts into that of worry and nods, "we're going to see Will, we'll discuss the matter later" he warns.
I look down to check my phone and he scoffs a laugh, "oh absolutely not, give me that" he takes my phone off me and throws it into the backseat. I sigh, accepting my fate, before we begin our awkwardly silent drive to med.
~
"What're you doing here? And what on earth happened?" Will strides over to us as he ushers us into the break room. Jay sighs, "Imogen decided that it was a great idea to start a fight" he shoots me a disappointed glare. I ignore him for the time being as I peel the bandage away from my sticky face, "what?" Will turns to face me with a confused look on his face, however he soon steps into doctor mode. He kneels down in front of me to examine the gash, "it's deep, probably gonna' need a few stitches, but you'll live" he sighs. Jay visibly relaxes, "I've had grown men in the ED with fights that were less intense than this, what happened?" Will enquires.
"Nothing" I manage to spit out, already feeling the tightness growing in my throat. Will sighs, "well I find that hard to believe" he opens the first aid kit. I look away as Jay moves to watch us. Will sighs, "this'll hurt, I can't lie" he holds up a disinfectant wipe to my injury. I nod, gritting my teeth as he wipes the never ending blood away. Will sighs, "how long has it been bleeding like this for?" He tilts my head back. I close my eyes, "since it happened" I utter again. Jay sits down on the couch to grab my hand since I'm practically ripping the couch in half, I guess his brotherly instincts do still work, "which was how long ago?" Will sighs impatiently. I shrug, "half an hour ago? I don't know, can't remember" I brush it off.
"I want this fully checked out" Will stands up. He practically drags me into a treatment room and calls Maggie over for some assistance. The friendly face appears in front of me and I smile weakly. She frowns at the sight, "oh no, what happened pretty girl?" Maggie folds her arms. Will looks at her with a raised eyebrow, "a fight happened, that's what" he shudders. I look down, ignoring the comment, as Will grabs his medical torch and stitches. Maggie takes a look at my wound, "stitches huh?" She backs away, trying to lighten the very awkward mood.
"Yeah..." I smile weakly. Will scoots over on his chair and I turn to look at him, "you're gonna' need to lie down" he pouts. I sigh, shuffling back and laying down. Maggie walks around to hold my hand, as jay leaves the room to answer his phone call. After a painfully long five minutes I now have twelve stitches on my forehead and a purple bruise on my cheek. Maggie wipes away my tears as I sit up, "all done" she smiles sympathetically.
I wait for the scolding or whatever is coming next, but as Maggie leaves the treatment room Will walks in front of me. I look up at him, "did you lose consciousness at all?" He frowns. I shake my head, "I don't think so" I sigh. He nods, pulling me into a hug, "do you feel okay?" He enquires. I nod, "I'm fine" I mumble against his scrubs. Jay walks back into the room and nods, "is everything okay? Are you fixed up now?" He sighs. I nod, "yeah" I jump off of the bed. Will sighs, "I'll call you when I'm home, but you can go" he talks to jay.
~
"Sit down, we need to talk about this" Jay points to the couch. I nod, sitting down and crossing my legs as he sits down next to me, "c'mon, start talking..." he sits. I run a hand over my face, "last night I posted the family picture we took before mom died, the one by the pier" I look up at him. He nods, visibly shifting in his seat, "and uh, a girl called Lucy commented something about dad but I deleted it" I sigh. He frowns, "did you take a picture off it" he leans forward. I nod, "yeah, but you have my phone so..." I shrug. He nods, "I'll look later" he brushes it off.
"This morning in class, she wouldn't stop staring at me, and I started getting angry" I sigh awkwardly, "then after class she said something about dad being an alcoholic and made a joke about mom uh, mom being dead..." I look away. Jay reaches over and places his hand on my shoulder, but it's too late, I'm already in tears...
"And I couldn't stop myself, I just hit her and I didn't stop..." I turn to face him. He pulls me in for a hug and takes my hand into his own, running his fingers across my bruised knuckles. I sniffle, "I didn't want to hurt her but I got s-so angry, I couldn't stop..." I let out a small hiccup. He rubs my back, "shhhh, it's okay. What she said was horrible and wrong. And I know it was a mistake, and you know you shouldn't have gotten physical her, but it's okay..." I rests his cheek on my head. I sigh heavily, "it was so scary, it was as if I couldn't control my body, I only saw red" my voice is croaky by now.
"Has that ever happened before?" Jay pulls away. I shake my head and wipe my tears, "no, never" I sniffle. He sighs, "here's what I'm gonna' say... no phone for a few days, you have to come to the district with me until you go back to school, and I want you to send an email to the principal explaining everything that happened. Okay?" He decides. I nod, "okay" I smile weakly. He sighs and ruffles up my hair, "now let's get some ice on that hand" he walks into the kitchen. This is gonna' be a long three weeks...