Dancing In The Dream

Definitely Not Friends

It’s been over a week since my first day back at school. The second day I managed to make it through the whole day. He was watching me like he did on the Monday. I spent the day avoiding all the windows and practically holding onto Eli or Kayla. They knew I was acting strangely, but chalked it up to losing Lilly, so thankfully they didn’t ask about my behaviour too much.

The third day I saw him in the morning at the school gates the same as the days before. But after that, the creepy feeling I had every time I knew he was looking at me evaporated. It’s now Tuesday the following week and I haven’t seen him since and hopefully never again.

I certainly don’t miss the chills running down my body, or the shaking of my hands or the feeling of needing to puke. I still have nightmares about Lilly and the cloaked man, but they have slowly been receding. My pillow isn’t soaked in tears most mornings anymore. I guess I’m finally accepting that she’s really gone and I need to just keep living for her.

I look at the time as I begin to roll out of bed. Oh s**t! I’m late. There’s 5 missed calls from Kayla. I hope she isn’t still waiting. I’d hate to make her late to. I jump out of bed, grab my uniform from yesterday. Rushing to get my pants on, I fall, my feet tangled because I was jumping around my room like a damn kangaroo. Wincing at my surely now bruised knees I get up and start running out of my room with my shirt barely pulled past my breast. I run past the bathroom and skid to a halt. “s**t, no f**k my hair, I don’t have time!” I mumble to myself as I flick my shoes on and race out the door.

I check my phone, 5 minutes to get to class, it’s almost a 15 minute walk. My hair is flicking across my face like a whip, hurting more than it should, probably because it’s all tangled. My feet feel heavy. I don’t usually do much running, maybe I should with all the weird stuff that’s been happening. My hair falls in front of my face and for a second I’m blinded. I stumble crashing into something, something hard. I slide across the pavement, the roughness across it, slicing through my pants, scraping painfully across my knee. “f**k!” A help escapes my lips as I flick my hair to the side to inspect my bloodied knee. A hiss escapes my lips as I try and wipe the blood away.

I was so focused on my bloodied knee and the general pain radiating over my body to even check what I barrelled into, until I heard a faint groan. I slowly look up eyes wide as I realise, the thing I barrelled into, was another person, a guy to be exact.

“I am so, so sorry.” I offer him a hand up, but he swats it away, hard. My body automatically responds by jolting backwards.

“What the actual f**k? Do you even watch where you’re going!” He rolls over, using his arms to push himself onto his knees. He glares at me, anger dancing in his dark brown eyes that could almost pass as red. Gulping I step back even further. He pats his hands on his pants wiping away the droplets of blood forming, from grazes I had caused knocking him over. His face still twisted in pain. The guilt of watching him, almost made me forget about the pain I was in.

He raised himself up, gave me one more irritated look, before barging past me, clipping my shoulder with so much force I almost fell over. Again. I stumbled before steadying myself.  I hung my head defeated. I’m such a cluts. I slowly started to walk, making sure I kept my distance from the guy. My knee aching with every step, causing a minor limp. A salty tear rolled onto my lip as I sobbed. Partly from the pain and mostly from the embarrassment. I didn’t even attempt to wipe the tears away, I let them fall freely with no attempt to stop them.

After a lot of sulking and extremely slow walking I finally arrive at school. I sigh looking at my phone. 20 minutes late. I’m going to definitely get detention for this. Mr Edison is a big believer in detention. As I begin to put my phone back in my pocket a message pings through. I didn’t even have to read the name to know who it was.

(Kayla) Hey, where r u? Eli said you’re

Not in English?

(Alex) I’m on my way now, had a minor

Accident.

I put my phone back in my pocket and make my way to class. I stand at the door for a few seconds and take a deep breath in before I slowly open it, in hopes if I’m quiet enough, Mr Edison won’t notice me coming in. I was wrong, thanks to Eli, He was expecting me. Detention slip already in his extended hand. I give Eli an irritated look and mouth ‘nark’. He mouths back what I can make out as sorry. I slide in next to him and slump my head on my desk. I feel a tap on my shoulder and look at Eli, who is pointing towards his notebook that is now tilted towards me. ‘What happened?’  He then points to my still bleeding knee. I write back on my own book ‘I’ll tell you later’ He nods, but a look of concern is plastered on his face.

I keep my head down, writing in my book, copying notes off of the board, only looking up every now and then watching the clock get closer to lunch time. Today has already been such a bad day and its only morning. I don’t think it could get any worse I groan, remembering the incident this morning. My knee still stings but at least the blood has dried now, it’s definitely going to scar.

My thoughts are interrupted by the crack of the classroom door being flung open. The sound echoing through the once silent room. Causing everyone to near fall out of their seats. I look up to see no one other than the guy I charged like a damn bull going for a red flag. I groan as we make eye contact. His eyes dancing with fire, a detention slip crunched in his hand. “Well f**k my life,” I mumble under my breath. He’s still angry, very angry if the scowl that seems to be permanently set on his face is any indication. I put my head down, trying escape his gaze.

For the remainder of class, I could feel his eyes burning into me, I was silently begging for him to stop glaring at me, but every time I looked up it was still the same.

Finally I couldn’t take it anymore as much as I tried to ignore it, I just couldn’t. I raised my hand to get Mr Edisons attention. He nodded, allowing me to speak. “Sir, I need to use the bathroom.”

“Right now? You only have 10 minutes till lunch.” He frowned but waved for me to go. I grabbed my bag and V lined it for the door with no intention of returning. I turned back looking to Eli ‘See you at lunch’. He smiled back and with that I raced as fast and far away from that classroom as I could.

The cafeteria was empty, the tables lined in perfect rows, not a single chair out of place. The room looks so bright with all the natural sun light streaming through the windows lined along the back wall. The light bounded off of the white marble floor, mirroring everything that sat on top of it. I could hear clattering from the kitchen, the volunteers cooking away, preparing for the flood of students who would be rushing in here within a few minutes.

My hand glided over the tops of the chairs as I made my way to mine, Kayla’s and Eli’s usual spot by the back. It was usually less noisy there. Most people liked being closer to the food and doors. We found it better back there seeing as we didn’t have to yell across the table to communicate. We have a small group, a couple of other people occasionally sit with us, but we prefer it to be just us. Although Kayla often sulks, wanting to have another male ‘friend’ for her to sit next to.

I take a seat and let my hair fall over my face, sighing as I rub my knee. Why did he have to be in my class? I pull my phone out checking the time, still 5 minutes until that obnoxious bell rings. I lay my head on the table and close my eyes, feeling anxious.

I am startled awake by the bell ringing. My hair sticking to my mouth as drool ran down my lip onto the table. “Omg that’s disgusting,” I squealed as I frantically wiped it away with my hand, than onto my pants. I could now hear the patter of feet getting louder as everyone made their way here. The door swung open and I watched patiently waiting for my amazing friends to make their entrance.

I finally see Kayla make her way from the crowd weaving and ducking, Eli shortly behind her. They wave when they see me. Eli’s eyes light up as he sits next to me, a smirk plastered on his face. “Explain.”

“So you know the new guy in our class?”

“mhmm.” He says taking a bite out of his sandwich. “The one who had major crazy eye’s” He makes a really bad impression of a dog growling. Kayla giggles, while she sits across from us with her chin resting on her entwined hands. She raising a brow “Ok I’m intrigued. Continue.” The smile still not leaving her lips.

“Ok, so I was running late this morning, and I kind of wasn’t watching where I was going and ran into that guy, like at full running speed.” I take a breath in, “Knocked him straight over, his hands were bleeding and yeah. He was kind of late because of me, earning a lovely one of these.” I wince as I pull my detention slip out.

Both Kayla and Eli lose it laughing. “Really guys? It’s not that damn funny. Mums going to kill me when she finds out I got detention.”

“Oh Alex, you really aren’t great at making friends are you.” I swiped at Eli, hitting his shoulder. They make fun of me at any chance they get, they really get a kick out of it.

“shush guys, that’s him,” I point to him taking a seat at the only available table. RIGHT. NEXT. TO. US. Kayla lets out her signature innocent girl giggle and gives him a little wave. He looks from her to me and begins to frown.

I drop my head to the table a little too hard, causing a loud bang to ripple through the room. Well f**k that hurt. I stayed there, blocking out Kayla’s and Eli’s voices. I knew they were just teasing me anyway, so I had no reason to listen.

The bell rings and the protest from everyone can be heard echoing throughout the room. Chairs scraping across the marble, heavy footstep retreating from the room getting quieter. I watched as my friends followed everyone else out the door like a herd of cattle. I waved them off when they turned to me, realising I hadn’t moved from my seat.

Something was wrong. I could feel it building up, like a bomb ready to explode. A voice inside my head was screaming. A deafening ringing sounded in my ears. All my senses gone. My vison blurred. I could see nothing but blackness. I couldn’t smell the food wafting from the kitchen anymore.  I could no longer feel the cold table beneath my elbows. Every part of my body was heavy and limp.

I beg for it to stop, barely being able to form the thought. It was like I was being consumed by a black hole. I might has well been nothing but blank space.

Finally I found my voice. My lungs erupted and blood curdling scream departed from my gaping lips. “STOP!” I scream as loud as my vocal cords would allow. My voice seemed to bounce of every wall in the room. The tables began to shake and clutter. Panic set in as I finally regained my senses and was able to see the scene unfold in front of me.

In sheer horror I place my hands over my eyes. Begging, pleading for it stop. The screaming in my head quietens to a dull whisper and everything stops moving. I slump back in my chair, gasping for air, trying to fill my lungs. My head still thumping, I lean forward into my hands groaning in pain.

Tiny droplets of blood start to splatter onto my open hands, in a panic I look around trying to find the source, only to realise it was coming from me. I begin to wipe at my nose, trying to get rid of it, but it just wouldn’t stop falling. Dizziness starts to consume me and my body begins to go limp, I take one last breath as my body slumps to the floor. The thud echoing throughout the room. Everything goes dark again. This time, it stays dark.

My eyes opened and threatened to close again, the bright lights above me, causing the fogginess in my head to thicken. My head pounded as my eyes squinted trying to make sense of my surroundings. I could hear hushed talking next to me. I rolled to my side, placing my hands above my face, shielding my eyes from the light. I could barely make out two figures. My eyes slowly adjusted and the picture before me became clearer.

“Thank you for bringing her here. Are you able to let her teacher know she’s here?” a soft whisper as if they were afraid they would wake me.

“Yeah sure, what class is she in?” A male voice. Hmm sounds smooth like caramel.

Caramel. My eyes widened. I’ve heard that voice before. I wracked my head trying to remember, but my thoughts were still so clouded.

“Her schedule says building 2 Room 5. Maths I believe.”

“Sure. I’ll go there now.”

“Thank you,” she paused “Mr?”

“Oh um Quintin,” He let out a brief laugh as he opened the door leading to the hallway. The door closed again signalling his departure.

Quintin.   

I sighed as I rolled onto my back, still squinting from the lights above me. So, I’m in the nurses office than, I looked around the room, a few beds lined across the room. Everything was white. The walls, the ceiling, the sheets. It was all so blinding. They could us a bit of colour in here, maybe some blue. I contemplated laying their quietly pretending to still be asleep, but I really couldn’t handle the brightness of the room any longer. I clear my throat to get the nurses attention, nothing. “Hello?” My voice comes out raspy and dry, my throat stinging as I try to talk loader. What the hell is happening to me?

“Oh you’re awake!”  I hear her friendly voice bounding from the next room, her heals clicking as she made her way around my bed. “You came in with a nice nose bleed. Can you tell me what happened?”

I think back to what actually happened and how crazy the whole thing was. Maybe everything shaking was just a dream and I was already blacked out by that point, but that was before the nose bleed. I should lie. Most definitely lie. My voice still harsh I manage a whisper “I don’t know.” I pause trying to squeeze the words out. “I remember my nose bleeding than waking up here.”

She pondered for a bit with her finger tapping on her bottom lip. “Okay well you can stay in here for a while, and if you decide you feel better you can go back to class, if not we’ll give your mother a call.” I gave her a quick nod.

The nurse gave me a friendly smile before she turned and left the room, leaving me to my own thoughts once again. At least there’s no screaming, so it’s not so bad. 

KAYLA'S P.O.V

It’s been 15 minutes since the bell sounded and Alex still wasn’t in class, I tapped my pencil on my book impatiently watching the clock. Where the hell is she? She’s been acting so weird today. Miss Louis already asked about her, when she didn’t answer the roll call, I tried to cover for her, telling her that Alex was just doing something for another teacher, but that was 10 minutes ago and I can see Miss Louis getting impatient as she taps her heals. I watch her as she keeps glances at the door, with a frustrated look.

Come on Alex, you’re going to get another detention. I groan checking my phone, she still hasn’t answered any of my messages. I swear that girl forgets she even has a phone, or she’s put it down somewhere random again. She’s always losing it.

Slowly the classroom door begins to open, I hold my breath in hopes its Alex walking through the door, but as a tall muscular figure begins to enter the room I sigh, hmm it’s only that guy from lunch. He approaches the teacher, whispering something to her, Miss Louis nods in response and waves him to sit down. I wonder what he was telling her, gosh I’m so nosy I need to know. He makes his way through the class, weaving through the students, taking one of the only available seat, right next to me, this is perfect.

“Psst.” I look sideways at him and realise he didn’t hear me. “Hey, you. New guy?”

He looks over to me with a scow. Well gee he’s a grumpy one.

“What?” He finally responds.

“What was that about?”

“You’re very intrusive aren’t you?” He scoffs. Wow Alex was right, this guy really isn’t nice, bit of an entitled prick if you ask me.

“Your friends in the nurse’s office.” He smirks.

Why the hell is he’s smirking? He seems like he has a real grudge against Alex. She’s been through so much lately, she doesn’t need this s**t. I slam my hands on my desk, losing my cool. “What the hell is your problem with her? You’re such a d**k!” He leans back in his chair, his brown eyes wider than the moon, like he was taken back by my outburst. I look around the class, everyone staring at me, mouths wide. I gulp as I look toward miss Louis who is now standing in front of my desk, arms crossed, her lips straight, a frown glued to her face. Oh s**t. “Kayla, out.”

Gathering my things I look towards the dickhead next to me, making sure my glare burns into his soul. I tuck my hair behind my ears, holding my stuff to my chest and walk out with pride. I couldn’t help smiling to myself as I thought of sticking up for my best friend.

Straight to the office, miss Louis’s voice rung in my head. Yeah, didn’t specify which office though I let out a mischievous giggle as I entered the nurse’s office. The nurse sat at her desk, her elegant legs in tights crossed over as she engrossed herself in a book, I squinted as I tried to make out the title. ‘How I Got A Sugar Daddy’ Eww. I cleared my throat, stealing her attention away from her ‘interesting’ book.

“what can I do for you?”

“I’m here to see Alex, Alex Anette.”

“mhmm,” She lifted herself from her chair and showed the way to where Alex was asleep, curled into a ball.

She really doesn’t look well, her skin usually pale, but almost ghostly now. Her messy brown hair splayed across the pillow, I could see red streaks coming from her nose, trailing down past her lips to her chin, where it looks she had been bleeding. She looks so defeated. Alex looked fine at lunch, what on earth happened to her? Anger rose as I thought of the guy from earlier and his cruel laughter. Did he do something to her?! I started seeing red, I was ready for blood, his blood. I’ll make his life a living hell from now on.

My thoughts interrupted by a soft moan. I look down to see Alex slowly roll over, her Auburn eyes, flicker open, her eyelashes so long and dark, casting a shadow making her eyes look almost black. I could see they were slightly bloodshot.

“Hey babes,” I run my hands over her hair and down her cheek. “Are you okay? What happened?" Alex just shakes her head and groans in pain, covering her eyes. The lights are pretty bright. I make my way to the light switch and flick the one off on her side of the room. “Better?” Alex nods. I pull out my phone to text Eli, he’d definitely want to know.

Those two are so cute together, they’re basically already dating, just without the intimacy, but oh well. I’m sure as soon as she turns 18 her mother will drop that silly rule.

(Kayla) Hey, Alex is in the nurse’s office

(Eli) Is she okay???

                                                    (Kayla) She honestly doesn’t look too

                            good at the moment :/

(Eli) I’ll be over as soon as class

finishes!!!

I look at my phone, only 10 minutes. Alex whimpers next to me, poor darling. Maybe she shouldn’t stay at school. I walk back out to the nurse, who is still deeply focused on her book. “Hey, I think we need to call Alex’s mum, she doesn’t look to well.”

“Okay, I’ll give her a call. Would you mind waiting with Alex until her mum gets here?”

I don’t even respond, just walk straight to Alex, planting myself on the end of the bed. I sigh “what are we going to do with you Alex? The nurse is calling your mum. I’ll let your teachers know you’re going home.” She gives me smallest pained smile.

It only took Miss Anette 10 minutes to arrive, looking panicked as she entered through the door, her heals clicking as her pace fastens arriving at the side of Alex’s bed. She looks to me, with a sad smile. “Thanks Kayla, I’ll take her home, you should get back to class.”

I leave Alex with her mother and head back out to the hallway. The bell rings signalling the end of class. Just another boring school day.