Just Breathe

Chapter Thirteen

Her father must have since updated her mother about "the irresponsible occurrence of Thursday night", which was what Vanessa had officially dubbed Lia's party. Lia's alarm had been set for nine a.m. so she could get a few hours of work in before heading to school for the start of fourth period around noon. At about 11:30, after Lia had carefully applied makeup to her lip to minimize the appearance of damage, her mother called. Lia sat through the anticipated tongue-lashing like the good daughter she usually was.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Vanessa asked her daughter, mostly concerned with Lia's physical and emotional well-being. She was still plenty steamed about the whole thing after Lin had updated her. As her mother, she still had to give the expected lecture.

"Yes, Mom," she groaned, then realized she sounded like a petulant child. After her talk with Lin earlier that morning, she felt like he was at least starting to see her in more of an adult light. If she was going to convince her mother of that, her first step was probably to stop whining.

Lia cleared her throat. "I mean yes," she said more maturely. "My lip's covered with makeup and no one at school would even know about the party."

"But you did just break up with your boyfriend of three years," Vanessa pointed out as Lin opened the hotel door for her. After freshening up, she was in her professional dress and cardigan, ready to face the day.

Lia had already psyched herself up for the day and didn't need the reminder. But again, she was shooting for maturity. "I know," she conceded quietly. "I'm just...I guess I'm a little relieved? I don't know what that means."

"Oh, sweetheart," Vanessa cooed as they began walking down the hall to the elevator. "I wish I could be there with you. I'm so sorry you're going through this without me."

"I'll be fine, Mom," Lia assured her, then picked up her backpack. "I gotta go. Good luck."

They hung up and Lia let out a deep breath. She checked her phone one more time to see if Ayden had texted her. He hadn't. She must've checked her phone at least a dozen times already. Wasn't that sort of pathetic? They'd mutually broken up and now she was hoping he'd text and say he was sorry?

Lia tucked her phone in her back pocket and left the still trashed apartment. Her father had thankfully told Ayden not to come over that morning, knowing that was the last thing she needed. The cleaning crew would be there that afternoon and then life would be back to semi-normal.

At least Ayden's friends had had the decency not to post any photos of the party. The last thing she needed was a social media frenzy on top of all the drama. She caught the A train as part of her normal school commute. A bus ride later, she was climbing the steps to Hunter College High School.

Her mom had called in her late absence, so she checked in at the front office and got a pass to fourth period. As she sunk into her seat, somewhat relieved to get to focus on something other than Ayden, she heard a "pssst" sound from the next row over.

Lia discreetly looked over her shoulder and saw Miko, one of her classmates, leaning over. She mouthed, "Where were you?"

Lia mouthed back, "Long story."

"Miss Miranda," her calculus teacher called her out. Lia's face began to redden in embarrassment as she turned to the front. "Care to share your solution for number seven on last night's homework?"

She cleared her throat and began to quickly shuffle through her well-organized backpack. Within moments, she'd pulled out her color-coded red folder and notebook. Lia found number seven and sat up straight. "What is the square root of pi over r squared?"