After The Accident

Fight or Flight?

Present day

Even as Alyssa hobbled out of the cafeteria, she had already begun to curse at herself. She had just made her first major mistake in her plan.

Earlier that year in one of her AP Psychology lessons, Alyssa had learned that when it came to a conflict or a dangerous situation, humans automatically chose one of two responses: fight or flight. It was an instant reaction, and in primitive times had often proved to be very useful in saving the lives of our species. Despite this being the 21st century, human fight or flight responses still hadn't changed, and when anyone feels pressured or threatened, they revert to one of those two instincts, often unconsciously.

The old Alyssa, from before the accident, was very passive. So much so that it almost caused her demise in the end. The old Alyssa had been the type of person who chose flight over fight, but as the accident had clearly proven, flight wasn't really helping anyone. Therefore, in order to save herself and strengthen her defenses, the new Alyssa had planned that she would choose to fight, rather than run away in conflicting times, so that she didn't end up destroying herself later on.

However, by walking (or rather, crutching) away from the first major conflict that new Alyssa had to face, she had instinctively reverted to the flight method versus fight. Definitely will need to change that, Alyssa thought grimly as she strengthened her resolve, and turned to head back to the cafeteria. She had no idea what she would say, what the right thing to do was. She could try explaining her secret to the others, but she knew that in the end it wouldn't make a difference. Not that any of them could ever understand.

So that left her to lie. But the question was, what sort of lie should she conduct? She had no idea how much her "friends" knew about her secret, so she had to be careful. One wrong move and she could end up spilling a lot more than she bargained for.

Moving back to the table, she felt all eyes turn to stare at her as she made her way back to an open spot. It was awkward, to say the least. No, it's not awkward, Alyssa reminded herself. It's not awkward because you don't care. Obviously they don't care about you. You are the one that needs to get a grip.

Shaking her head to clear her unwanted thoughts, Alyssa looked up from her lunch to see her ex-best friend, staring straight at her. Initially Alyssa glanced away, but her inner mind kept pushing her to hold the stare, and to not show any weakness, so instead she leveled her gaze with Emily, and held it for a moment or two before Lexi, ever the peacemaker, broke up their little stare down.

"So, uh, how's the leg doing Alyssa?" Lexi asked with a small smile on her face as she tried to reduce some of the tension at the table.

"It's been better," Alyssa admitted after a short pause, "but I've got a PT appointment tomorrow so hopefully my therapist will have some tips to get the knee feeling better again".

This of course, prompted Lexi to spring into a gush of enthusiasm as she grilled Alyssa on her therapy techniques, mainly because she wanted to become a PT herself one day. As a result, the rest of the table's apprehension slowly began to die down, until finally Lexi's questions became too boring too follow, and they slowly resumed their usual gossipy chatter. Once a safe amount of time had passed, Alyssa mouthed Lexi a quick thank you. Lexi's eyes grew sad for a moment, because she knew Alyssa still wouldn't confide her secrets to her, but nodded and smiled brightly again after a moment, before turning to her phone as a distraction.

Emily of course, hadn't removed her eyes from Alyssa the entire time, and wasn't at all satisfied with the reception Alyssa had received. That much Alyssa could tell just from her body language. But, Emily hadn't commented on her anger, which made Alyssa almost wonder if Emily knew more than the others. It made sense, Alyssa supposed, because she had known Emily the longest, but after the accident she had been careful to inform her parents that Emily wasn't the close friend she used to be.

Oh well, Alyssa thought grimly as she started to hack away at her lunch, ignoring Emily and her vicious glares. There would be plenty of time later for personal drama. But right now, Alyssa was hungry, and she'd be damned if anyone tried to stop her from eating. So she ate, and decided to put off her confrontation, at least just half an hour, so she could enjoy her tastey sandwich first.