Fragile Bones

Chapter Twenty-Two

It was now Thursday morning, which brought me a momentary surge of joy, until I remembered my life that was slowly falling apart. After my parents told their plans for divorce and I had stormed off into my room, I hadn't come back out. I stayed in there the rest of the night, and neither of them bothered to come to my room. Perhaps I was rude, or overreacted yesterday, but I don't see how I should be expected to just sit there and agree. I know that they didn't have a good relationship anymore, but at least my parents were something I could be sure of in my life. Now, I would probably have to pick which one I wanted to live with, and visit the other sometimes. To be honest, I wasn't even completely sure how divorces work, which made me feel worse. I suppose they would want to have another discussion about it, but who knew when that would be. Pushing those thoughts away from my mind, I focused on getting ready for my second-to-last day of school for the week.

After quickly getting ready in my bathroom, I hopped downstairs. I had checked what my weight was at yesterday, and was pleasantly surprised so I decided to grab an apple to eat on the way to school as a small reward. I know I shouldn't be rewarding myself with food, but I was feeling kind of weak lately, and one apple wouldn't hurt all that much. Worst comes to worst, there are many bathrooms in my school that would be empty during class time.

Seeing my mom standing by the door holding her keys and a coffee mug took me by surprise. I had been expecting to walk to school like I had gotten so used to doing recently. Although I didn't really want to spend a fifteen minute car ride alone with her, it was better than walking in the cold. It was nearly November now, so the weather was really starting to chill. Thinking about that reminded me that Halloween was tomorrow, and I sighed at the thought. Halloween meant candy, and I didn't need to be pressured by chocolate and sweets all day.

"You ready to go Madeline?" My mom asked, with a small smile. I could tell she wasn't fond of how we left things last night, but she was trying her best to hide it. Even though it came relatively easy for me, I think most everyone would be able to see through that facade.

"Sure," I answered.

The drive to school was actually filled with silence, which was unexpected. Besides the quiet pop tunes playing from the radio and my moms fingers tapping the steering wheel, not a sound was heard. There were a couple times where it looked like she wanted to say something, but stopped herself. When we reached the school, she let me out and then sped off. How nice.

I really didn't want to go into the school, but I didn't have much other choice. Skipping yesterday meant I was already behind on my schoolwork, and my grades were sort of slipping as it is. Recently I had been so focused on myself and my body, I neglected to do some homework, and as a result was suffering more for it.

All eyes were on me when I walked inside, some people outright staring and some trying to make it less obvious. I tried to ignore it and immediately I headed for my english class, not caring that school didn't start for another ten minutes. I was planning on talking to Mr. Henderson about making sure mine and Asher's presentation would still be okay. I know Asher told me it would be, but I wanted to make sure myself. Before I could push open the wood door, Lindsay came bursting out, looking like she was about to cry. She nearly ran into me because she was in such a hurry to leave.

Once she noticed me standing there she smoothed out her hair, and asked, "Are you going in there?"

I nodded, a bit confused that she was even bothering to talk to me. She should hate me even more after what Asher did to her boyfriend.

"You should wait until class starts. He's... not in a good mood right now," she trailed off, not meeting my eyes directly. Something told me that she wasn't lying, and I felt slightly concerned for her. Whatever happened in there clearly affected her in a bad way, and I remembered the other time I had seen just her and Mr. Henderson together in the classroom. In a flash I saw his hand on my shoulder, just like it had been touching hers, and him reaching for my face, and everything clicked. She wasn't just randomly telling me to not go in, she was trying to prevent what happened to her to happen to me. Will the sexual harassment in this school never cease?