“Tired.”
I’d rather pass out than keep playing chicken with my uterus. Period pain’s been trying to dig my ovaries out with a screwdriver since dawn. If I had a pain chart, I’d be looking for the one with the noose around its neck.
It makes no sense. My period usually lasts a couple of days. By now, I should be deciding whether to risk not using a tampon. Instead, I’m having to replace my tampon every few hours.
Then there’s my brain, which is hopping around in my skull like a frog with too many Red Bulls in its system.
Comfort is a delusion. Sleep is impossible. And peace of mind is something that happens to other people.
Because apparently my body likes to torture me more than the men in my life.
“Still cramping?”
“Hence why I’d really like to go to sleep and wake up when it’s all over.”
Or never.
I’m not fazed either way.
“You really shouldn’t be skipping more classes,” Melissa says, her voice moving to her closet as she keeps talking. “I’ve got some pills that will help with the pain. After you’ve eaten something, obviously.”
I wish I had the will to laugh. I’m hungry, but too nauseous to eat. Plus, outside is the last place I want to be right now.Aliveis rapidly rising into second place.
“All I need is sleep…and your notes.”
“She demands,” Melissa says pointedly.
“Please?” I keep my eyes shut, willing her to stop being a bitch, even though I know I’m being one.
“You’re letting them win, Haven.”
For a second, I think she’s talking about Bastian and Kai and the third figure who’d been lurking in the corner last night. Guess there wasn’t space under the bed for dear Uncle Lenny this time—Kai was already there.
But she doesn’t know about them.Can’t.Which means she’s talking about Ezra, and all the people still circulating the video of the ‘prank’ he pulled on Friday night.
I force my eyes open a crack. She’s rooting around in the top of her closet, her back to me. “This? Now?”
“Stop feeding the trolls, Haven. Best thing you can do for yourself is walk in there with your head held high.”
“Ugh. Stop feeding myheadache.”
She turns, shaking her head. “Look, I don’t know what landed you on the Jordan’s radar, but soon as you stop reacting to them, they’ll get bored and move on.”
I look away, and let my stinging eyes slide shut. “Think I care about them?”
“Think I didn’t see what Kai did to you at the G’s party on Saturday?”
I laugh again. Kai was treating me like a fucking princess.
Rolling back to face her, I squint over at her as she studies an orange prescription bottle. “You see what I did tohim?”
She flashes a tiny smile. “Knee to the groin? Looked brutal.” Then her face is serious again, her curtain of sleek red hair shifting as she shakes her head. “You should tell someone, Haven.”
“You mean the teachers haven’t seen the video of Ezra and me by now? Or they have, and they couldn’t care less?”
I finally relented and turned on my phone this morning. I closed out all the notifications and missed calls without even looking at them, though not before I spotted that same number Kai used to message me on Saturday afternoon.
Being bullied isn’t on my to-do list. Damage control is, though.
