Delirium

Chapter Fifteen: The End

"Can anyone tell me what the Pathagereom Theory is? Anyone?"

Liv rested her head against her fist as her eyes fought to stay open. Her eyelids nearly weighed a ton as they slid halfway done. She closed them for a second- long enough for her to see the depths of the tunnels- before she opened them back up. 

She sat up tall and shook her head to wake herself up. She ran a hand through her hair as she leaned back in the stiff chair. She grabbed her pencil and fiddled with it to give her mind something to do. 

"That's, like, the fifth time you almost dozed off," Bev whispered to her while Mr. Cannister wrote the equation on the board. "Tell me you got some sleep last night."

She shook her head as she kept her eyes on the board. She wrote down the equation he had given her without knowing what it was for or how to solve it. 

Truthfully, she barely slept the entire week. Every day, like clockwork, Steve would come to her house. He'd help her clean, talk to her, then she'd fall asleep on him. Then, like clockwork, she'd wake up terrified thinking he was being eaten alive right in front of her. She didn't sleep the rest of the night. 

It happened every day. 

Like clockwork. 

She was exhausted. 

Bev leaned closer to her. "That's not healthy. You look like a ghost, Liv."

"Because I'm pale?" She quipped dryly. 

"Nah, because you're thin and you have bags under your eyes. You're killing yourself here, babe. I'm scared for you."

Liv gave a half-blink as she looked over at Bev. An entire night without sleep didn't fare well for her. "I'm scared," she admitted lowly. "All. The. Damn. Time."

Bev pulled her shoulders back in astonishment. She didn't say anything, only swallowed as she looked her over. 

The bell rang, making both Liv and Beverly jump. 

Liv packed up her book and notebook before leaving her best friend. Beverly scrambled to try and follow after her. "Where are you going?"

"Detention."

"You're exhausted."

"I don't think Coach Wilson will care."

"I care."

She huffed. 

Beverly grabbed her bicep and spun her around. "Now you're getting into the period of your trauma where you're being a straight-up bitch, Liv Bilton. I get that you've been through some shit- I may not be able to understand what that shit was, but I know it was bad. But you cannot keep pushing me away and staying up all night and except to be alright in the end. 

She's right, Liv thought to herself. But I'm too tired to try. "Maybe I won't be alright in the end," she told her solemnly. "Maybe this will kill me." She turned to walk out to the field. "At least then it will all end."

She left Bev standing in the middle of the hallway, fearing for her best friend's life. 

She was the only one in detention, so Coach gave her a pair of gloves and told her to pick up all the sticks, leaves, and debris along the track and inner field. Compared to pulling weeds it was a cakewalk, so she got to work. She put her headphones on and played a Cheap Tricks cassette to drown out the rest of the world. 

She worked the entire length of the cassette, then switched it out for a Phil Collins cassette and worked through the entirety of that one. After that, Coach Wilson came and told her to go home. She nodded and walked home with The Smiths playing.