"Who're we waiting on?" I asked. "Austin." Tammy answered. I grit my teeth. "Can't we just go without him?" I begged. "We can't." Lily said. I sighed. I sat down, and put my feet up on the table. We were supposed to go into Princeton today, but Austin was a couple hours late. I didn't care, but everybody- Keith in particular- cared. Rose sat down next to me, Tammy on my left. "I don't understand what the big freaking deal is." I muttered. "It's only one day." Rose reminded me. "One day too long." I grumbled. "Mikayla, chill." Lily said. I rolled my eyes. Keith randomly walked in, his phone in his hand. "Austin's here." He announced. Everybody stood, but me. "Get up, Malfoy." Tammy said. "No." I replied. "Please?" She pleaded. "Whatever. Just don't expect me to be nice." I said, standing. We all walked outside. I can tell you right now, we were an odd group of kids. We all had different styles of clothes on, and we looked out of place with eachother. Someone walked up to us- Austin, I guessed. I bit my lip, and looked down. Everybody but Keith introduced themselves- by username of course. I was last, given I didn't want to do this. Tammy elbowed me. "C'mon, Malfoy." She muttered. I sighed. "Ariana. There. I said something. Can I leave now?" I complained. "Man up." Lily rolled her eyes. I made a face. Tammy chuckled a little, but then she stopped. I looked up from my skate shoes and up at Austin. For a few millaseconds, we made eye contact. He looked like he was going to say something, but Rose noticed and cut him off. "I say we go back first, let Austin get settled and then go." She suggested. "That's actually a good idea, Rose." Keith said. We turned around, and headed back. Instead of going inside, they sat outside. I was the only one to go inside. "If anything crashes, don't worry about it." I said. I walked inside, and slammed the door. I shut the curtains and leaned against the wall. The only person who my side of the whole HEX situation was Tammy, and I told her not to tell. I was feeling mixed emotions. Anger, angst, and a little bit of sadness. Out of frustration, I kicked the end table, knocking over a lamp. I ran my hand through my hair and paced. I stopped, and grabbed the counter. "I'm about to lose my mind." I muttered. I kicked the cabinets, causing the top ones to fall. One hit my head, nearly knocking me over. In a panic, I lifted my left hand to where I was hit. I held it there, and brought it back down. Blood. My heart sped up, and my hands started shaking.
"What the hell is she doing in there?" Keith asked. Lily and Rose exchanged glances, and Tammy shrugged. "She said not to be worried if something crashes." She said. "Well, I'm worried." Austin mumbled. Tammy gave Austin a strange look. "What? That crashing sounds kinda bad if you ask me." He said. "Just don't worry about, like she said." Lily replied. They continued talking about inside jokes in the role-play, Austin's taco fetish and whatnot. Another loud crash made them all jump, and they were all worried now. Rose tried to look inside, but the curtains were drawn. Keith turned to Tammy. "Okay, you're the only one who can tell us what's wrong with her. Start talking." He folded his arms, waiting. Tammy took a deep breath. "Okay, when Mikayla started to like Austin, he just stopped talking to her out of nowhere. He told me it was because he died and moved to Canada. Around then, it was the second fight after her second chance. Then it was the whole Erika thing when Erika posted in the first planning thread around the first sixth one. What we said." Tammy went on, and Keith and Austin exchanged glances from time to time. "It's because of us?"
If I don't panic, the bleeding won't be as bad. I think. I've had head injuries before, but never this bad. I took a shaky breath, and stood still for a few seconds. I thought about Austin, him not talking to me, what Keith said about me. I was angry about it all over again. I grabbed a random vase and crushed it. Peices of glass cut my hands and there was more blood, but I didn't care. I didn't even feel the pain. I felt the sting, but that was it. There was no point in wiping the blood of my hands, since my hands were bleeding. The glass in my hands looked a little gross, but I wouldn't take it out. The cabinet that hit my head was hanging on the wall by a thread, and it looked like was about to fall for real. I stared at it, as if it were going to stop moving. It didn't. The cabinet fell onto the counter, and then on me. It knocked me over, and I landed on the glass from the vase. I felt the glass cut my leg, and the blood drip. I carefully pushed the cabinet off me with my elbow, and tried my best to stand. The place was trashed. I guess I had some explaining to do.
"She's acting like this because of...us?" Lily asked. "Not all of us. Not me, not Aston, not Rose and not you, Lily. Just Austin and Keith." Tammy said. Keith and Austin looked at eachother, then at Tammy. "She said all of that?" Keith said. Tammy nodded. "This is all my fault." Austin's shoulders slumped. Lily and Rose heard glass breaking, and their eyes widened. Tammy nervously scratched the back of her head, trying not to notice the crashing. "I say we go in there. See if she's alright." Keith suggested. "That's a bad idea." Rose said. "Why?" Austin asked. "Because who knows what she's breaking? She didn't turn on any lights, what if she hits us with something?" Lily pointed out. "And she probably wouldn't want us in there anyway." Tammy added. Austin bit his lip, and Keith rubbed his eyes. "She'll come out if she gets hurt, no doubt about it." Tammy said. "Yeah. If." Austin mumbled.
Once I managed to get to my feet, I turned on the nearest lamp, ignoring the pain in my hand from the glass. Once the light was on, I saw all the damage I actually caused. Keith was going to kill me. That is, if I didn't bleed out first. I thought about the time my cousin used my GMail to talk to Austin after the second fight. I thought about what he said. He told Morgan to tell me not to cut myself. If he didn't say that, who knows what I would have done? I owe my life to Austin, and I was going to tell him that. I found a peice of paper and a Sharpie. Ignoring the pain in my hand again, I wrote "I owe my life to you". I folded it, trying not to get blood on the page. On the front, I wrote Austin's name. I left it there, and went to look for a mirror. When I found one, I stood in front of it. I looked like a mess. There was blood all over my face, my hair was matted with dry blood and my eyeliner was running. But I never started crying. My hands and leg were still bleeding. My head was, too. If I didn't go out there, I was going to bleed out. I took a deep breath, and carefully limped out of the bathroom, minding my leg. I stood in front of the door, and gripped the handle, the pain in my hand coming back a third time. I opened the door. Rose, Lily, Keith, Tammy and Austin turned their heads to look at me. Their eyes all widened at the sight of me covered in blood. My hands started shaking again, and I felt as if I was going to pass out. I took another deep breath. "I need a doctor."