Her Rock

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Ella's POV:

I was released from the hospital this morning after spending three long miserable days there. I've always hated hospitals. They smell of nasty chemicals and bleach. Whenever someone walked by, the floors would squeak annoyingly, and it kind of reminded me of the screech of a chalkboard.

Not only was the smells and noises irritating, staying in bed all day, and only being able to get up to go to the bathroom was exasperating too.

It wasn't as bad when I had visitors to keep me company, but when I was alone, it was aggravating.

Declan spent all the nights with me. He said he didn't want me to be alone here. He couldn't come during the days though, because he had errands to run, or something like that. I don't know if he meant school and football or something else totally.

It's not like I was completely alone during the day. Olivia came with magazines and such to keep me busy. My mom was here too, but when she wasn't and was working instead, she sent me texts all day. I'm not even exaggerating when I say 'all day'. Oh, and Thomas popped in every day.

What shocked me was when Wes came one night with Declan. It was only for a little while, but still, it was sweet of him. He brought me a whole bunch of junk food and chocolate, claiming it would make me feel so much better. I couldn't stop laughing. Wes loves food, so he thought it would comfort me like it supposedly does him.

Declan called it, and I quote, 'packaged poison' which only made Wes and I laugh harder.

Thomas is driving me to school today, because my mom said she didn't think it would be safe for me to drive. I tried to convince her that I would be fine and driving won't cause an attack to happen, but she wouldn't budge and said it wasn't up for discussion. So here I am on the passenger side, looking out the window.

When we arrive at school, Thomas and I go our separate ways. I walk to my locker to do my normal routine. I bet I have a lot of work to do, considering I was gone for three days.

Hopefully, people have already forgotten about what happened at the football game and the attention won't be on me. Olivia said I was the hot topic this week. I don't do well with attention and definitely don't do well with interacting with others. So, I crossed my fingers praying the scene was already forgotten.

As I walk down the hall with my head averted down, I can feel the burning gaze of people's eyes all over me. I can even hear people whisper under their breath as they pass me. To calm my overactive brain, I try to think happy thoughts, like my birthday for instance.

Just one more hall and then I will be at my locker.

One more hall, Ella, you can do it. Breathe. One more hall. I chant in my head.

I quicken my steps and lengthen my strides, hoping to get to the safety of my locker faster.

Once at my locke,r I let out a big sigh of relief and open it, taking my sweet old time getting out the things I need. The longer I take to switch out my binders, the longer I don't have to face people's questioning eyes.

Reaching for my phone, I send a quick text to Olivia to ask her to meet me at my locker today. She immediately responds saying 'will do'. I didn't want to wait for her near the library when there were lots of people eyeballing me today. My discomfort would probably get to me, and I would probably end of bailing school.

When my binders are all in my bag, I turn around, and as I do I bump right into someone. Great, I've been doing that a lot lately.

I hope to God that it's Olivia, even though there's no way she could be here yet. I just sent the text.