C-WING
1389 Words
The bathroom off the C-wing stairwell was the one I always used between second and third period.
I picked it because Brynn never did. She stuck to the one near the main office... better lighting or whatever. Someone had mentioned it once and I’d taken it as solid info for the last two years. That C-wing one felt like mine. It was safe, predictable. Just a quick forty-five-second stop to wash my hands, make sure I looked halfway human, and mentally gear up for the next couple classes. It was such a tiny routine you barely even noticed it anymore. Just part of how the day held itself together.
Except that Thursday.
I’d been using it since September. Same time, same path, same everything. I pushed the door open without thinking twice.
Brynn was leaning against the sink like she owned the place.
My body clocked it before my brain did... that animal instinct kicking in hard, screaming wrong, wrong, get out. I froze right in the doorway.
Madison was posted by the far wall. Chloe by the paper towel dispenser. Jade H. over by the window that never opened... I’d tried it once.
Four of them, one door. Me standing in it.
No phones out. That hit me first. Usually Chloe and Madison had theirs ready, recording every little thing for the feed. But not today, their phones were tucked away. And that somehow made it worse. This wasn’t for show, this was private, just for me.
“Hey,” Brynn said, all casual, like we’d bumped into each other at the mall or something.
I didn’t answer.
“Come in,” she said. “You’re letting all the cold air in.”
I stepped inside. What the hell else was I supposed to do? Stand there with my back to the hallway and them in front of me, or come in and let the door shut? Neither felt good, but at least inside I could think. The door swung closed behind me with a heavy click.
The bathroom suddenly felt tiny, three stalls, two sinks, one useless window. Five people made it feel like a closet. I stayed near the door and kept my face blank... the neutral mask I’d been practicing, the one where nothing gets through.
“We were just talking about you,” Brynn said. Arms crossed, totally relaxed, like this was no big deal for her. Because it wasn’t. “Checking in, seeing how things are going.”
“I’m fine,” I said.
“You keep saying that.” She tilted her head, studying me. “It’s interesting how fine you are, considering.” She let that word hang there heavy. Considering everything... the shirt, the video, getting tossed out, all of it. She didn’t need to spell it out.
Madison shifted against the wall. Jade H. picked at her nails. Chloe stayed extra still, the way people do when they’re locked in but pretending not to care.
“What do you want, Brynn?” I asked. Flatly and tiredly. It was Thursday and I just wanted to get through the damn day.
Brynn smiled, not her fake hallway smile. This one was smaller, quieter, meaner.
“I just want you to understand something,” she said. “So we’re clear.”
She pushed off the sink and took a couple steps closer. Not aggressively... she was too smart for that. Just closer, and enough to make the air feel thicker.
“I know you don’t have anywhere to go,” she said, voice even and conversational, like we were chatting about the weather. “I know you don’t have family, I know you don’t have real friends.” She paused, that small smile creeping back. “I know you’re alone.” She watched my face close, hunting for the c***k. “And I know nobody in this school... not one single person... would notice if you just… disappeared.”
The bathroom went dead quiet.
I could hear the fluorescent light buzzing over the middle sink, that constant, annoying hum. I focused on it hard.
“I don’t mean anything dramatic,” she added, almost gentle, like she was trying to be nice. “I just mean you could stop showing up. One day you’re just gone, and the only thing anyone would say is… nothing. Because nobody’s saying s**t about you now.”
Madison stared at a spot on the wall, Jade H. went completely still, even Chloe wasn’t laughing.
Brynn took one more step. We were close enough I could smell her fancy floral perfume.
“Sleep tight,” she whispered. “Wherever you’re sleeping these days.”
She held my eyes for another beat.
Then she turned, gave her girls some silent signal, and they all moved together toward the door. Chloe first, then Jade H., Madison, Brynn last ... slow and easy, like they had all the time in the world.
The door opened.
The door closed and I was alone.
The light kept humming.
I walked to the sink, turned the cold water on full blast, and stuck both hands under it. Stared at my face in the cracked mirror... that sticker in the corner half peeled off. My reflection looked fine, normal. Just some girl washing her hands, nothing special. Nothing broken on the outside.
I gripped the edge of the sink tight.
I’m going to be okay.
The water was freezing and my hands started aching, but I kept them there anyway.
I’m going to be okay.
Nobody would notice, that’s what she’d said. And the part that really dug in... deeper than the spilled food, the video, the rest of it...was that I wasn’t sure she was wrong. I really wasn’t.
I thought about Crew asking if I was good, Rosa at the kitchen table. Willa saying “Asta” with that banana piece like it was the most important thing in the world.
Three people, in the whole school, the whole world, maybe just three who might notice.
One of them was a baby.
I’m going to be okay.
I turned the water off, dried my hands with three paper towels, taking my time. Looked at my face one more time.
I’m going to be okay.
I believed it, mostly. Enough to keep moving.
I grabbed my bag, straightened my hoodie, pushed the door open, and walked out into the hallway like nothing had happened, straight to third period.
I didn’t see Crew.
He was there though. I found out later, piecing it together from the timing and something he said the next morning that finally clicked. He’d been sitting on the bottom step of the C-wing stairwell with his camera bag, waiting for a friend who had a locker nearby.
That old bathroom door had a gap at the bottom. Sound carried right through it when the hallway was quiet between classes... most kids already in rooms, just stragglers left.
He’d heard every word.
He told me later he’d stood up the second he heard Brynn’s voice. Stood right at the bathroom door with his hand almost ready to knock, trying to figure out the right move... whether busting in would help or make it ten times worse, whether I’d even want that. He’d stood there running the math in his head.
He decided not to knock, but he stayed.
He heard everything, including that heavy silence at the end. Then he stepped aside before the door opened so they wouldn’t see him. Watched them walk out all casual. Then he just waited in the hallway outside the closed bathroom door.
He was still standing there when I came out.
I walked right past him and didn't even see him. Eyes forward, focused on the next thing, and the thing after that, and the thing after that.
He watched me go and he didn't say a word.
He just stood there in the C-wing hallway with his camera bag and those careful eyes, filing it all away ... Brynn’s words, my silence, the four of them strolling out like it was nothing.
And he filed Dax away with it too.
Because Dax should’ve been there.
That was the thing about Crew, I’d learn later. He didn’t just see what happened, he noticed what should have happened and didn’t.
And he kept track.
- Writer
