East Chapel Academy

Chapter 43: Nia

"I can't go in there."

We sat outside East Chapel, and every time I moved my hand to open the door something stopped me.

"What do you mean you can't go in? You have to go in or you're going to be late," said Maya.

I shook my head. "I can't."

She sighed pinching the bridge of her nose. "I feel like I'm having déjà vu. Why not?"

"Everyone thinks I'm a slut, and they won't stop staring and whispering." It wasn't so bad when they were talking about other stuff, but what they're saying now isn't true.

"Fuck those people, Nia," Maya said. "Ignore them. They have no idea what they're talking about."

"That's easier said than done, Maya, and you know it," Tasha said from the backseat. "It's hard to pretend like you don't hear people talking shit about you. Maybe you should just skip."

"I can't do that."

"Okay. Okay. Don't think about it as skipping," she said, "Think of it as taking a mental health day. You know, a self-care day. We could do some retail therapy, maybe get our nails done it'll be fun."

"Why do all your solutions involve shopping?" asked Maya, looking at her through her rearview mirror.

"I'm just trying to be helpful. We don't have to shop if she doesn't want to, we can just get ice cream or something."

"Okay," I breathed. "Okay, we should do it. I want to leave." I can't do this today, I just got here and I already have a reputation based off of something that I didn't even do.

The school day hasn't started yet, and if we leave now I won't be caught.  "Alright, I guess that's it then," Maya said preparing to pull out of the parking lot. Suddenly, a loud knock rapped on her window.

"Ah!" We collectively yelled. Fuck, we've been caught.

"Don't confess to anything," Maya said keeping her eyes forward.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," Lavender said from outside the car, a pair of large black heart shaped sunglasses perched on her nose and an iced coffee in her hand.

"Oh, thank God," Maya sighed relieved. "Tasha, let her in." Tasha leaned across the back seat and unlocked the car door so Lavender could get in.

"What are you guys doing?" she asked slipping in the back seat.

"We're skipping," Tasha said joyfully.

"I thought you said it was a mental health day?" Maya asked.

"Oh, you know what I meant," she waved her off.

"What I want to come," Lavender said, "I can't believe you guys were going to leave without me."

"Really?" I asked turning to face her. "Are you sure?"

"Hell, yeah! I don't want to hang around those losers while you're out having fun. Of course, I'm coming."

"Okay, you guys this discussion is great but if we're going to go we need to go now." Maya stressed.

"To the mall, we go!' Tasha yelled buckling her seat belt.

***

     Turns out this mental health day is exactly what I needed. Allowing myself to go through the motions of sadness and have fun with my friends has made me realize some things.

.It was also nice to be away from all the drama and commotion that was happening at school, it just gave me enough time to breath. It's given me time to think about my break with Marcus, and Whitney. I've come to the conclusion that she's just a bitch.