TW: Mentions of bullying, panic attack
Veronica's POV:
"Aww.. How adorable." I hear a smug accent tease. I look over and see Joe Black standing in the doorway with a dopey grin plastered on his face. I roll my eyes. Tia's asleep. I lay her down on her bed.
"Can it, Joe." I chuckle. Joe and Awhora have something in common. They think Tia and I have crushes on each other. But we don't. I think. I don't think I have a crush on Tia. It's hard to tell for certain sometimes if I'm completely honest. Joe starts laughing.
"Keep telling yourself that, Ronald." He laughs. I playfully nudge him. I look over at Lawrence, who's holding a sleeping Ellie. Tayce and Awhora are cuddling, and both are asleep, and Tia's curled up on her bed. I smile, Joe sneakily takes a picture, snapping Lawrence out of their trance.
"Joe?! When did you get here?" Lawrence uttered. They panic and set Ellie on the floor. I notice Bimini is nowhere to be found. That's quite odd. I wonder where Bimini went off to. Joe chuckles and sneaks out of the room and I roll my eyes. Lawrence seems embarrassed.
"Looks like someone has a crush on Ellie." I tease. Lawrence shakes their head. I laugh. If they didn't have a crush on Ellie, then why were they holding her? Lawrence gets flustered and leads Ellie out of the room. I go to Awhora and Tayce and see them out.
———————
"Ronnie?" I hear a quiet voice mumble. It was late last night when Joe came in. Now it's bright. I check my phone. It's a Saturday. It's ten in the morning. I need to get up, but my bed feels so comfy. I look over at Tia, who's hugging her blanket.
"I had a bad dream... Can we cuddle?" Tia mumbled. I smile and lift up my arm and Tia snuggles up under it. She curls up into a ball and I hug her. This is nice. Maybe we can get up later, I want to stay like this now.
"We gotta get up soon, Ti Ti." I spoke as I play with het hair. She shakes her head. Of course. I should've known. She doesn't want to get up. She's never really been a morning person. I don't blame her. Mornings are hard. Tia looks up at me, smiling.
"I want to cuddle." Tia states firmly. She lays her head against my chest and wraps her legs around my waist. It's quite clear that she's gonna be attached to me all day. I don't mind the fact that she gets clingy sometimes. Actually, I personally think it's super adorable.
"I know. We can cuddle later, okay?" I compromise. Tia reluctantly agrees and rolls out of bed. I chuckle and go to make breakfast. I get a text from Ellie. That's odd. Why would Ellie be texting me so early? On weekends, she normally gets up around noon. Sometimes later.
———————
"Ell Bell?" Tia murmurs. I'm frozen. I don't want Tia to come in. She'll panic. The text was from Lawrence, they used Ellie's phone. I can't move. I'm trying to move but I'm frozen in place. If Tia sees Ellie like this, there's no doubt that she'll have a panic attack.
"Don't- Tia-" I try to stop her but she enters anyway. I shut my eyes and hear her gasp. She's gonna panic. I don't want her to panic. I open my eyes and see that Tia already has tears pouring down her face. I knew she was going to panic.
"Ellie?!" Tia whimpered. She's scared. I know she's scared, I can hear it in her voice. I try to move to go comfort her but I can't move. Someone needs to comfort her. I can't move but someone needs to comfort Tia. Tayce is crying. Awhora is trembling. Ellie's crying too.
"Ti Ti..." I finally choke out. She turns to me and trembles. I don't know if she can speak. She keeps choking on her breath. I need her to calm down. She can't stop crying. I wish she could stop. Ellie reaches for Tia, but Tia screams before she reaches her hand.
"What the hell is happening?!" Tia whimpered. She sounds so scared. And her voice sounds different. Not loud and energetic and happy. It sounds scared and disconnected and fuzzy. I didn't know it was possible for a voice to feel fuzzy. But I do know I don't like it.
"This is all a joke, right?! Tell me it's a joke!" Tia whimpers. Why is she whimpering instead of speaking, that sounds weird. I can't focus. I'm spacing in and out. I don't wanna space out. I need to comfort Tia. She starts to walk over to me.
I hug her and she hugs me too. Her body is violently racking with sobs. She's having a panic attack. I don't want her to be having a panic attack. That's not good. She needs to calm down. I need her to calm down. She's gonna make herself get sick.
"What is going on?!" Tia screeched. I feel a lump forming in my throat. I want to cry too. I don't know what's happening either but I do know that I want it to stop. I know Tia wants it to stop. And Lawrence, Awhora, Tayce, Ell Bell and Bimini.
"I don't know..." I have no other answer. I really don't know. I want everything to be okay again. I don't know what's going on. Ellie's all bloody. She got beat up again. I wish she wouldn't get beat up. It looks like it really hurts. It probably does hurt.
Tia curls up on my lap and hides her face against my chest. I hug her. Ellie looks upset. She's trembling horribly. I don't know what's going on but I want it to stop. It's scaring Tia. And it's scaring me. Tia looks up at me, shaking.
"I'm scared, Ronnie.."
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