"You look like shit," austin said and tossed his book bag onto my bed as he entered the room.
I looked up from where i was seated on the edge on my bed confused, i wasn't expecting any company.
"Well you didn't exactly catch me at the best time." I looked down at myself and gestured to my bare body. "i'm in my underwear."
"I can see that." he nodded and examined my messy room. he strolled over and stood next to me awkwardly, being sure not to step on my dirty clothes. "This is pretty gross."
"Like i said, i didn't think i was going to have to impress anybody. Why are you here anyway, and how the fuck did you even get in?" I looked up at him and studied his nervous glances around my room until his eyes met mine, which wasn't very long at all. he sucked at eye contact.
"Yesterday you said i should come over at noon and help you catch up with work in your classes." he shrugged. "unless you forgot. again."
already over it, I waved him off, "Nah, you can just come by tomorrow then." i layed back on my bed, stretching and pulling my blanket over my body.
"Erin, the deadline for all missing work is tomorrow. It's now or never." he crossed his arms.
"goodnight." i said blankly and rolled over, closing my eyes.
"ugh," he grabbed my ankle and yanked me half way off the bed. i screeched and resisted, crawling back under the covers, kicking his hands away.
"come on, you're acting like a child." he whined.
after a moment of silence, austin walked over to his book bag and unzipped it, rummaging through it.
"here," he offered and placed something onto the bed next to me. My head perked up and i looked at the piece of paper.
"What's this?" i asked and picked it up.
"don't know, i assumed it was some english worksheet of yours. like some sort of poem, it has your name on it." he leaned over and pointed to my name at the bottom.
I squinted.
"What?"
"nothing, i don't remember writing this." i sat up and scratched my head.
austin sat next to me and looked at the paper over my shoulder. "she still calls my name even when she's bleeding," he read, "never did i think i'd leave her there weeping-"
"stop." I inturrupted. my stomach felt like it was about to throw itself up. "This isn't even my handwriting." i said under my breath, my eyes scanned quickly through the words. my fingertips felt cold and my eyes started to water.
"You okay?" Austin asked.
"Yeah, this is just weird." I shook it off and rubbed my eyes.
"Very."
***
i read the poem for at least the 15th time while i was sitting at the lunch table, ian and miles acted like i wasn't there-whether or not it was intentional-they hadn't even looked at me the whole five minutes that i was sitting there. i didn't care though, i was trying to focus on my homework. I folded the wrinkly poem up and slipped it into my hoodie pocket.
it was rare for me to do homework, but it was my senior year and i wasn't happy with the thought that i went through 4 years of hell just to not graduate when i was supposed to like everyone else, i refused to give up even though i was holding on with the last of my strength. i had been blowing off my work too much and to be completely honest, i wasn't even sure why.
