Cristina let out a sigh. She was tired, not having had very much sleep the night before. She had been up most of the night trying to think of a way for all of this trouble to end and when she finally managed to get to sleep, her dreams were filled with rivers of blood… At this rate, she would be a vegetarian…
After waking up early and being unable to go back to bed, she decided to watch some videos online… Only to find that to be a very bad idea. She started with watching kitten videos, trying to get herself to relax, then moved through to terrible life hacks that wouldn't work in a million years. After letting her computer play through things for a few long and very boring hours, she decided to take a break and grab some breakfast.
Not only did she manage to drop two separate slices of toast onto the floor, butter side down, but she also managed to get electrocuted when a third got stuck in the toaster. After bandaging a burn, she gave up on eating. At this rate, she would run out of food.
Deciding to return to her room, hoping to find a bar of chocolate or something, she managed to stub her toe. As in, really stubbing her toe. Not the simple, you stub your big toe and cry for a second. No, it was her kicking the corner of the wall full force as she tried to ascend the stairs and not just any toe, no, it was her little toe.
After feeling her toe shatter like a light bulb getting smashed with a baseball bat, she fell, face planting into the stairs.
Cristina slid down the stairs, curling into a tight ball starting to cry. Not only did she force her toe to her heel, but she also bit her tongue. Not hard enough to make it bleed, but it was really hurting…
Cristina lay there, wishing for her mother or father to come through the door and run to her. To scoop her into their arms, whispering kind words till she stopped crying. Then, after making sure she didn't break her toe, they would bring her to get a Flippy. Those always made her feel better…
But it didn't happen… and Cristina had a feeling her parents wouldn't ever do it again… It wasn't fair… She made a stupid mistake and yet the whole world was trying to break her down… It was working… She dreaded the day when her parents returned home… After today… It would be in three days… She wished she was a good person…
Cristina pulled herself out of her tight ball, trying to both rub the pain from her foot and to wipe the tears from her eyes. Neither was working… She gave up, deciding to just crawl up the stairs to her room. She was feeling really tired all of the sudden…
She hobbled into her room, moving for her bed, but froze, hearing something from her computer….
"Wait, I need your help. Where is Lincoln?"
Oh no… They didn't…
"Why? So you can bully him some more?"
Oh no no no no…
"I think you need to leave him alone. He already promised to leave you alone, so why can't you just leave…"
Cristina felt tears well in her eyes. They did… Rusty… Boy Jordan… Paige… They posted the whole thing… All of it… Cristina felt sick to her stomach. She couldn't look away from her computer. This was worse than being there… Seeing the whole thing again…
"BANG… AHHHH… THUND…"
Cristina couldn't… It was too much… She felt bile rise in her throat… She forced her feet to move, dashing for her trash can. Having an empty stomach, all she could do was dry heave. Pain shot through her stomach as her muscles tightened, trying to stop her heaves… It wasn't working… So much blood… The look in Lincoln's eyes… She thought it was bad in her dreams… She thought it was bad in real life… But it was way worse seeing it up close on camera… Oh god…
Cristina wanted the noise to stop… She could hear the laughs of the classes… She heard Lincoln's sister yell at them to stop… She heard her demand to know who it was… The kids all blamed Cristina… She got yelled at… She ran off crying… But the thing that really hurt… Was hearing Lincoln's broken hearted voice…
"I want to go home…"
"Why did she do this?"
Cristina sat up, reaching out for the nearest object and chucked it at her computer, smashing the screen. It died immediately. She didn't care that she just destroyed her computer… She just had to make it stop… Really, what was the chance that the video would play on her computer at that moment?
She didn't want to think about it… She couldn't… She had to make it stop… It didn't…
Cristina pulled herself to her feet, ignoring the pain shooting through her foot and wiping her mouth. She had to get out of there. She had to get out now…
Cristina started for her door, not even bothering to pull on her shoes. If she stayed in her room, much less her house, for one more second, she was going to pull out her hair…
She limped down the stairs, wiping her eyes dry. No more crying. No more thinking. No more anything. She just needed to go outside. She felt like she was suffocating. Her heart was pounding, her mind was foggy…
She raced out of her house, ignoring the pain in her foot. She didn't care where she went, she just had to move. If she stopped, her thoughts would overwhelm her…
Cristina stopped running, her lungs burning and her foot throbbing. She had finally calmed down enough to think straight, though, she wish she couldn't. Running felt great, until it started to hurt, then, she remembered her foot. She was about forty percent sure she broke her toe…
She had stopped behind some random building, doubled over as she gasped for breath. She had no idea where she was and quite frankly, she didn't care. Maybe she could keep running and just leave her troubles behind… No, she wasn't wearing shoes… She might be a bit dense at times, but she wasn't stupid. Her feet were already killing her… And she was really thirsty…
She slowly limped to the front of the building, freezing when she realized where she was. Flip's? How the hell did she end up here? She shook her head, confusion starting to fill her head. God she hoped she had some money…
She slid her hands into her skirt's pockets, digging around. She wrapped a hand around a few pieces of paper, pulling it out. She looked at it, letting out a sigh. A five and a one… Just enough to get a Flippy and a snack… That is if Flip didn't raise the prices again… Cheep old coot…
Letting out an exhausted sigh, she limped into the store, hoping she wouldn't get kicked out for not wearing shoes. She slowly made her way to the back of the store, making a line to the Flippy machine, frowning when she saw that her favorite flavor was out.
She shook her head, getting a random flavor. At this point, she was so tired and thirsty, she would drink the Flip special. Which she was pretty sure was just juice and glow stick fluid… Sometimes she wondered how that man didn't get shut down… She once saw him pull a sock out of the nacho cheese machine… That almost made her puke… She hadn't had nachos since…
She grabbed her drink and headed to the checkout counter, grabbing a bag of chips on her way. Luckily, Flip was at the counter, waiting for her. She definitely wasn't in the mood for his crap…
"Hey there girly, find what you need? Maybe you would be interested in buying…"
Cristina slammed her cup and the chips down, making Flip jump. "No thank you. Just this."
Flip gave her a blank look before calculating the price of her stuff. "Four bucks. What's got you down kid?"
Cristina handed him the five dollar bill, waiting for her change. "Life."
Flip gave her, her change and raised a brow. "What on earth does a kid know about life? You've barely lived it."
Cristina grabbed her things and turned around, moving for the door. "I think you might be surprised. Of course, this is you I'm talk…"
"Come on Rusty, tell us more."
Cristina froze, stopping mid sentence. Oh no…
Her heart skipped a beat as three very familiar looking kids came into the store, followed closely by two others Cristina didn't know. She started backing up, moving out of sight. She dashed behind a shelf just as Paige looked where she had just been, making her heart pound. No, no, no… God, please…
Paige shrugged, turning back to the others. "Come on Rusty, stop talking out your butt. We all know you have never dated anyone. You haven't even ever kissed a girl… And you mother doesn't count."
Cristina started moving around the shelf, moving in opposition with the threat. She was scared. She didn't know what they would do if they saw her and she didn't want to find out…
"Oh really? Well, we both know you can't say the same about you, now can we?"
Cristina's face grew hot and she saw Paige's grow red as she looked away. She would never forget that… She hated her so much… She wanted to punch her… But Cristina was terrified she would try to kiss her again… She didn't like it… It made her feel dirty. When she had gotten home yesterday, she had taken the longes shower of her life and she brushed her teeth until she bled… her gums were still sore…
"Shut up. You weren't supposed to tell anyone about that…"
"Oh, come on Paige. How could you kiss the girl that hurt Lincoln?"
Cristina's blood started to boil as she heard one of the other kids speak. She didn't know what they were told, but it definitely wasn't the truth…
"I uhh… I didn't know it was her until after… Besides, it was a dare. Who would want to kiss her because they wanted to anyway? Not me, that's for sure."
"Yeah, I bet. I still can't believe Lincoln ever liked her. If I ever see her… Well, for her sake, she had better move cities."
Cristina frowned, moving to the next shelf. She was doing her best to ignore the words of these jerks… But it was harder that she would have thought… She really didn't want to get caught…
She saw all of them turn towards the Flippy station and she bolted, moving for the door. She only had one chance and she wasn't going to waste it…
"HEY! IT'S HER!"
Cristina's heart stopped as she heard footsteps behind her, quickly growing louder. Why didn't she wait for them to leave?
She ran, trying to pick up speed, but having just finished running for the last hour, along with her toe, that she was about eighty percent sure was broken, and the fact that she was running with things in her hands, she wasn't amounting to much…
"OUFF…"
Cristina managed to make it to the edge of Flip's before she was tackled onto the grass. She felt arms wrap around her, keeping her in place and making her drop her food and cup. She was turned to face them as she desperately tried to claw her way out of the tight grip around her. She didn't know the kid who was holding her, but he know who she was and it seemed that he was out for blood…
Cristina let out a pained groan as her arms were wrenched behind her back, bringing tears to her eyes. "Please, let me go. Please, I didn't do…"
"SMACK…"
Cristina was cut off as she received a hard slap to the face. She tried harder to pull away, but the arms around her only held her tighter, making it hard to breath. She started to freak out again, her heart pounding and her thoughts growing fuzzy. She wanted to go home…
"Well, looks like you got your wish. Now that you have the girl responsible for hurting my friend, what are you going to do with her?"
Cristina closed her eyes. She wanted it to stop… Why did everything have to go wrong in just two days? Why did everyone hate her? Was it really her fault?
"I think she needs to know what it's like to get hurt. She publicly humiliated Lincoln… So I guess we could do the same… We could strip her down to her underwear and tie her to the school's flag pole tonight. We could just leave her there over night. I bet we would be given a metal or something… Everyone would probably just leave her there for a few days and just throw food scraps to her like a pig. How would you like that?"
Cristina shook her head, squeezing her legs closed as a hand grabbed at the bottom of her skirt. "Please… I didn't do it… it was Rusty and the others… Please…. I didn't do it… Please…. Don't hurt me…"
"Wha…? Ha, you seriously think we would believe that one of Lincoln's best friends would do that to him? You have to be the dumbest bitch I have ever met… I should kick you ass for even saying such a thing… You know what? Why embarrass you when we could just teach you a lesson? They say violence never solves anything, but I bet you wouldn't go near Lincoln again…"
Cristina tried to curl into a tight ball, managing to pull out of their grip… Or so she thought… All of the hands let her go, scaring her even more when nothing happened. She just curled more, pulling her skirt tight around her and bracing for what she knew was coming.
"Come on guys, this is a bit much, don't you think?"
Cristina almost opened an eye in surprise, hearing Paige question her friends, but they quickly tightened as a foot nailed her in the side, knocking her breath out. Pain shot through her as the foot returned, kicking her again and again, nailing her hip and stomach.
She was so scared and she thought she was going to be beaten to death…
"BAM…"
A foot collided with her head, making stars spin in her mind. She shot her hands to cover her head, sobbing in pain and wishing them to stop… Why were they doing this?
"Please stop…"
Cristina's cry was ignored as a foot came down on her hand, pressing her face into the dirt. Pressure was added to it as the owner stepped down. She felt her nose crack as it dug into the ground, filling her mouth with blood. She though they were going to kill her…
"STOP! STOP, YOU'RE GOING TO KILL HER! STOP!"
The weight on Cristina's head was quickly removed and she heard a loud thump, which was quickly followed by a low groan.
"What the fuck? I wasn't going to kill her, I was just teaching her a lesson."
"No, this is going too far. Leave her alone, I doubt she will ever go near Lincoln again… Isn't that right Cristina. Just move anything to let us know you agree and that you are okay. If you do, we will leave you alone"
Cristina raised a finger from her head, completely confused. Why was Paige stopping them? Didn't she hate her as much as them? Why did they even hate her? What was going on? "Please… I'm sorry… I'll never look at him again… I'll never go near him…. I'll never go to school again, just please… I promise… I promise… Please…. No more…"
"See? Now leave her alone… We should call for an ambulance. You really hurt her."
"Come on Paige. Since when do you have any… Oh… OH!... HOLY SHIT... You actually… Ha… Fine, have it your way. Come on guys, let's go. I'm sure she will stay far away from my dear friend, wouldn't you agree? I think she knows what will happen if she tries to tell anyone about how she got hurt. Good Bye Cris… oh, and watch your step. Wouldn't want to fall down anymore stairs, now would you?"
Cristina froze as a foot stepped next to her head, making her tremble. Please… Please… I just want to go home…
"SPLASH…"
Cristina started to flail as a cold Flippy was poured on her, making her shiver. She heard all of the guys start to laugh, making her curl up again. She didn't want to risk getting hurt worse if they decide to change their minds…
She tensed up as someone crouched done beside her, leaning down till Cristina felt a pair of lips touch her ear. "I am so sorry… Please… Forgive me… This whole thing was a giant mistake… I didn't know they would go this far… Please… Stay home. You will be safe there…"
"Paige, stop trying to kiss her and let's go."
"I didn't want this… I'm sorry…"
Cristina felt Paige stand and head off. She stayed in her curled up position for a long time, waiting for something to happen… She waited a really long time… She was cold, she was terrified, she hurt… She thought they were going to kill her… She waited for them to return… I'm sorry Lincoln… This is all my fault… I deserve this…
Cristina dragged herself to her front door. Everything hurt, she was wet and cold and she was one hundred percent certain that her toe was broken… Along with her nose… She shook her head, moving her hand to grab the door knob… her hand wouldn't close right…
She let out a sigh, slowly dropping to her knees. She was done. There was nothing left in her. She slid down, sitting, resting her back against the door. She was so tired, so hungry, so thirsty… It was too much to think about… She wanted her parents… She was scared… She was terrified… She wanted… "Mommy…"
"Cristina?"
I have had a really bad day. I know this a really dark chapter, but there is a reason. Also, I stubbed my toe really hard when I tried to make toast earlier… it wasn't good. And yes, I dropped two slices butter side down and got shocked going for a third… Luckily, I didn't break a toe. Not breaking a toe was the only good thing about today…
Anyway, tell me what you think. As always, have a good one.