Afterglow

fierce

"Katrina, come down so we can check your phone."

I groaned as I trudged down the pristine marble floors, heart in my throat as I unlocked my phone to show my parents.

I'd gotten a new message that day in class, it wasn't all that threatening, just a reminder that he was still watching me, but the fear that it struck in my heart was enough to send me teetering on the edge of a panic attack, which I thought I'd overcome considering the fact that I'd pretty much faced death after nearly drowning a month earlier, but it seemed that my mind worked in mysterious ways, all of which included debilitating fear.

Ever since returning, my mother forced me to do daily routine phone checks, and came to pick me up from school each day to have family dinner and then promptly returned me to campus before lights out. It was easier to avoid the rest of my friends, but not Sloane, or Holden who usually tagged along with the family dinners, though my mother didn't include them in the little phone check situation.

"Coming," I shouted down, unsure whether or not to delete the message. I decided on keeping it. Letting them know the full brunt of the problem would only help me in the future. I hoped.

I found my mind flitting to earlier in the day when the message had come in the middle of class, and how weak I'd been. I knew better than to let him comfort me, I just couldn't help it. I needed him, no matter how much I hated what he'd done to me.

~8 Hours Earlier~

The familiar tang of pubescent body odor and desperation in the form of exuberantly priced cologne and perfume tinged the air and I had to force myself to look down at my black combat boots instead of finding solace in the comfort of my friend's faces as my senses became hyper aware of the teenaged atmosphere around me.

They'd gotten the memo when I'd promptly blocked all of their numbers upon returning back to New York, though I couldn't do that with my own sister, but everyone else had to respect my boundaries.

Except Vera.

She'd tried coming up to me in the halls, chatting up a storm until I'd ignore her completely and turn the complete opposite direction causing her face to fall but I couldn't let her see my face because then she'd see how completely and utterly broken I was at the prospect of shutting out my only best friend.

Every single one of them had tried their hardest to chat me up at lunch until I avoided the lunch room altogether for breakfast, lunch and dinner, deciding to find a nice, quiet (albeit frigid) hiding spot outside on one of the concrete alcoves built into the side walls.

The silent treatment had most of the guys resenting me, including Evan, as every time I'd spotted him after the first initial weeks, his face had been a mask of anger and guilt, but the girls never stopped trying, especially not my sister, though her tough love approach was a bit different than Vera and Blythe's.

I knew I was hurting them, but in hurting them emotionally, I was keeping them physically safe. I wasn't joking about keeping them out of harm's way. Better me dead than the people I love...

I shook myself from those morbid thoughts and ducked into the third class of the day, one that I shared with Lachlan and his sister, along with Evan and Holden.

It was my hardest class of each day, all of their eyes constantly pinned onto my sad eyes but none of them tried to approach me realizing that I'd needed my space, which I was grateful for.

I still missed Lincoln's inappropriate jokes, and even Taylor's condescending remarks. I missed Vera and Blythe's sweet couple moments, even Sloane and Holden's strange antics were missed. I especially missed talking to Evan and having him as a shoulder to lean on, and I was pretty sure it went without saying what I missed about Lachlan...