Due to a short chapter 6, I decided to make a long chapter 7. Less humor in this one cos shit got pretty cray, but I hope you guys will still like it though!
P.S. t's 2am here, and I posted this without proper editing, so forgive any typos you might come across!
Elsa
Congratulations on your subtlety, Elsa. Really. Bravo. You nailed it perfectly.
"Acting strangely? I don't know what you're talking about," I said, pulling my arm away from Anna.
That would have been convincing if my knees weren't trembling and if I wasn't sweating bullets out of every pore on my body.
"Will you stop doing that?! Godddd, Elsa! It's getting really old!"
"And what is it I'm doing, Anna?" I managed to force out despite being in total shock from Anna's sudden outburst.
"That right there! Stop asking questions to throw me off and then leave me all disoriented while you happily skip away," she bellowed, making me feel about a good 10 inches tall.
Pointing a finger right betwixt my eyes, Anna went on, "You're avoiding something, Elsa, and you're not fooling me with that ice queen bullshit anymore! I mean if you don't feel the same way about me as I do about you, fine! But don't go acting all weirdly jealous one moment and then back to being as prickly as a frigging porcupine the next! Will you just be honest and stop pretending for once?"
My throat had gone dry. Anna's explosion of emotion left me speechless. I had never seen Anna even the slightest bit angry before and I felt like a horrible human being having sparked such a rage in her. She was right though. About everything. And that scared me immensely.
"It's not that simple, Anna" I croaked. My voice had turned so hoarse it was like I had eaten gravel for lunch.
"What isn't that simple, Elsa? Be honest with me! Help me understand! I just…I just want to understand," she said, her voice lowering toward the end.
Her blue-green eyes stared back at me beseechingly; searching…waiting for an answer. I knew I had to tell her the truth eventually, I owed her that much, but I couldn't bring myself to. I could feel people starting to look at us. My breathing increased rapidly. My chest was tightening. It was happening again. The feeling I had when that senior kissed me at the party was slowly creeping up on me.
"Anna, please, let's not do this…"
"You're avoiding things again!"
"No I'm not, Anna! Can you please just stop, people are watching!" The quiver in my voice was getting worse.
"Huh…?" Anna did a quick scan around us, "Elsa, no one's watching, there's hardly even anyone around. And even if they were watching, so what?" She shrugged, dismissing it so easily.
"…yes, they are! I can feel them staring at us!"
I shut my eyes which were brimming with tears. My knees buckled and I had to hold on to the wall to support myself.
"Oh god Elsa!" Anna cried.
I felt her arms wrapping around me, trying to keep me steady. I was doing all I could to keep control over my legs; I felt like a fawn taking her first steps. Anna hoisted me up, her arms wrapped tightly around my body and I buried my face in her neck, no longer able to hold back the tears.
"Make them stop looking, please" I begged through hapless sobs.
"Okay…alright, come on let's turn in here okay? Can you walk?"
I nodded, looking like a child being chastised. Anna led me into an alley just a few feet away from us and sat me down on some desolated looking steps. Anna sat next to me and pulled me in, resting my head against her chest. We sat like that in silence for several minutes with Anna softly stroking my back. My breathing was returning to normal and I didn't feel overwhelmed anymore. Now I was dreading the inevitable explanation I would have to give Anna about my "little" meltdown.
"I'm sorry about all this" I said, ending the long silence between us.
"Hey, you don't have to apologize! ...well okay maybe a little for scaring the crap out of me back there!" she said, her finger lifting my chin up to face her.
I snickered at that despite being thoroughly jaded from all the crying…and hyperventilating.
"It's not funny! I was worried that I would have had to call the ambulance…or give you mouth-to-mouth resuscitation myself" she smirked.
"Oh and wouldn't you have liked that" I sat up, nudging her side with my elbow. Growing serious again, I reached out for her hand which was resting listlessly on her bent knee and intertwined our fingers, "Thank you, Anna."
"Why are you…thanking me?" she asked in genuine bewilderment, her thumb gently caressing my hand.
"Just…thank you for being here…and for not leaving me back there"
"Elsa…of course I wouldn't leave you, you silly girl!" she assured me, leaving a little peck on my forehead.
Silence engulfed us once more. Anna started shifting and I knew the question was burning at the back of her mind.
"You were right" I started.
"Elsa…you don't have to"
"I know. But I want to. I want you to know this…I need you to understand"
I had been best friends with Clara Brightman since we were in preschool, sandbox buddies and all that. We were inseparable and loved each other to the moon and back. But things changed drastically in the 6th grade…
We were in different classes for the first time in 7 years. For the first few weeks of school we had lunch together every day, but soon Clara had started getting closer to the "cool" girls from her class, and I, apparently, was not cool enough to hang out with them so from then on I ate lunch with the other "rejects" in the school. I would look at Clara from afar whispering little jokes and giggling with her new friends, and I would feel so lonely. I wanted my best friend back.
I started dropping a letter a day into Clara's locker. It was something we used to do back in elementary school- we would write at least one compliment about each other in a letter and then drop it into the respective lockers. I can't pinpoint the exact moment we stopped doing it but that doesn't really matter. I thought I would start the tradition again and Clara would simply follow suit and it would be just like old times. What did I know; I was a silly 11-year-old…
I had been dropping letters into Clara's locker for three weeks, that was 15 letters for every school day, but I had received not a single one in return. Each time I would wait by the pillar to see Clara open my letter, but all I would see was her looking at the envelope and then chucking it back in without even opening it. I felt a part of my heart dying for each day that happened but I was adamant on winning back her friendship that I hadn't even lost in the first place- it was stolen from me.
It was 5 minutes before gym class, I went to my locker to grab my gym clothes to change into and then it happened…
SLAM
I moved my hand just in time before it got caught between metal and metal. Susie Angermyer's chubby hands were on my locker door. I whipped my head around and saw her sneering at me, Clara and posse standing a step behind her.
"Hey Faggy! Stop dropping faggy letters into Clara's locker you hear me?!"
"The letters I give Clara are none of your business" I argued, quietly wondering what faggy even meant.
Susie had a crude older sister who was in high school so I assumed Susie had picked it up from her. And though I didn't know what it meant, the venomous way Susie spat it out was enough for me to know it was not a nice thing.
"What did you say to me you stupid dyke..?!" she shouted, grabbing me by my collar.
Dyke, must be another word she picked up from her nasty sister. And also the thing you should know about Susie Angermyer is that she was big for an 11-year-old. Both her parents stood like giants and she had obviously attained their tall genes. So when a girl almost twice my size grabbed me by the collar, I knew well enough to not say anything more. My feet were no longer fully touching the ground. I looked past Susie and Clara was just standing there; doing nothing to save me.
The other students had congregated around us; the commotion stopping most of them in their tracks.
"Listen you little fag! Stop being so obsessed with Clara, she doesn't want to be your girlfriend get it you worthless piece of shit!"
My eyes were fixed on Clara the whole time. The words Susie was hurling at me didn't hurt nearly as much as seeing Clara just standing there allowing this to happen.
"HAHA! Look at that the stupid dyke is crying!" And with that she threw me against the lockers, laughing maniacally as she did so.
As if it wasn't bad enough that I was sprawled on the ground, my back hurting from the impact of being hurtled into the metal lockers, Susie pointed at me and started chanting, "Dyke! Dyke! Dyke!" And naturally, like the old cliché of "monkey say, monkey do", everyone started doing the same as well.
"I begged my parents to transfer me to another school, and they did. From then on I changed completely. I mean I didn't even know what homosexuality was till I was 14, and I figured if that is how people are going to react about it, I'd go through hell and high-water to make sure they never find out. Heck, the kids did that when I wasn't even in love with Clara! She was my best friend and I wanted her back into my life but even that was enough for them to…" I sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of my nose to relieve the slight headache I was getting from reliving the memory.
"So do you see? I'm too afraid of people finding out the truth…I can't go through that again, Anna, I just can't…" I said, my voice trembling again.
"I-I don't really know what to say. That must've been one horrible, horrible experience and I'm so, so sorry you had to go through that. But Elsa, this time it won't be like that. You're not alone anymore; we'll face whatever comes together. I'm here, Elsa, and I'll always be here for as long as you want me to…"
Anna gently cupped my jaw and pulled me towards her slowly, as if allowing me to make a break for it if I wanted to, but instead I quickly closed the gap between us. I parted my lips for her, longing to taste her again. She slipped her tongue into my mouth causing a low moan to escape my throat. Oh how I've missed this. I buried my hands in her hair, drawing her in, wanting as little distance between us as possible. A warm tingling sensation ran through my spine, my heart was thumping hard against my chest, and in that moment I knew I was in trouble- I was falling in love with this girl, and I hadn't a damned clue whether I was ready for that or not.
We eventually decided it was time to head back to the office, I stood up ready to go, but Anna had a shoe malfunction and bent down to fix it. I was stretching my back which was rather stiff from sitting too long, then from the corner of my eye I saw some movement and turned my head around…but there was nothing there. Hmm, I must be so exhausted that I'm starting to see things…
