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Everyone Has a ProblemChapter 4: Lucky Escape
By musiclover94 and Baby-M-xo
Recap…She felt a strong lurch in her stomach, as if to retech again, but cleverly disguised it as a hiccup. At the same time, Gabriella felt a strong, painful surge through her brain and a slight, burning pain in her scarred wrist. But the pair of them kept quiet, keeping their lethal secret private.
"Hey Gabi, hey Sharpay," Troy said, sitting down on the fake-wood lunch table and opening his paper bag. Gabriella frowned at him, being a very green person.
"Why are you still sitting here, if Gabriella and you have broken up?" Sharpay asked, looking at him over her once again massive lunch.
"Well, number one, everywhere else is full, and number two," He looked at Gabriella, who was barely eating her miniscule salad and determinately not meeting his gaze, "I'm worried about you, Brie…"
"Even though you broke her heart?" Sharpay asked nastily.
Troy ignored Sharpay.
"Why do you worry about me?" Gabriella asked hotly, still not looking at Troy.
"Because you're wearing a thick long-sleeve sweater and it's late May. Something is up, Gabriella," Troy said seriously, not breaking his gaze.
Gabriella finally looked up. Her face had turned a paper-white shade and her whole body was shaking with pure fear. She slowly rose out of her chair and said, in a voice of forced calmness, though you could clearly hear her voice shaking almost as bad as the rest of her. "I'll be right back….bathroom…." She ran quickly to the bathroom door and hastily shut the door.
"What was that about?" Troy asked after a moment.
Sharpay didn't answer. She was staring at her lunch tray, deep in thought, thinking about the conversation they had had a couple days previously…
Flashback"Gabriella, what happened to your wrist?" she asked shakily.
"My dog bit me," she said, surprised she could think of a lie so quickly.
"Gabriella, you don't have a dog," Sharpay said, now sounding really worried.
"It's nothing," she said, as if shaking it off, "let's lat back to this work," she said opening her science book and opened to a random page, but wasn't reading.
"Gabriella…did Troy break up with you?" she had asked quietly. What else would prompt Gabriella Montez to do this to herself? She was practically attached at the hip to Troy.
"N-Yes," Gabriella had said resignedly, not looking at Sharpay.
"Oh, I am going to murder him the next time I see him…" Sharpay said dangerously.
"That won't fix it," Gabriella said unknowingly, catching herself too late.
"Fix what?" Sharpay asked quickly.
"My broken heart," Gabriella said, shocking herself by how truthful she sounded.
End FlashbackWhy had she been so stupid? Why had she not questioned her further? She stood up abruptly and said, "I'll be right back, too," and left before Troy could say anything.
Gabriella let the plastic blade slide further down her now-scarred wrist. The hot, crimson liquid snaked down her forearm like a great, red river. She just wanted this grief, this ever-growing agony to stop. A fresh wave of tears poured out of her eyes, as thick and fast as the blood pouring down her arm.
"Gabriella, I know you're in here!" Sharpay said, slightly hysterically, her voice echoing around the cavernous room. She kicked the stall door nearest to her. She saw Gabriella sitting on the closed seat, looking very gloomy and a stream of dried tears on her cheeks and was slightly swaying, looking very disoriented.
"What?" she asked, sniffing.
"What's that?" Sharpay said accusingly, looking at the now-crimson knife lying next to her, which Gabriella had not had time to hide.
"A knife," Gabriella said lamely.
"What's it doing here? Why's it red?" Sharpay asked, her voice slightly higher than usual.
"It was in my pocket and I forgot to take it out. It's red because I had pasta," Gabriella said, chucking the knife in the garbage. In doing so. She had reveled her still slightly oozing wrist.
Sharpay turned an even paler shade of white. "What are those?"
"I scraped myself on the…door handle," she invented, realizing all to late that the door handle was very blunt. Sharpay realized this too, for she seized Gabriella's wrist and examined it.
"Gabriella, you're cutting yourself, and there's no denying it. If you don't get help, you might hit a vein and die," she said, giving her a piercing stare.
Gabriella wrenched her arm from the blonde's grip, wincing as she did so.
"I'm telling you, I'm fine," Gabriella retorted.
Sharpay gave her another look and then scribbled something down on a piece of paper and put it in Gabriella's palm.
"Here's a physiatrist address and phone number," she said.
"Why do you know a psych's number and address?" Gabriella asked, using the same accusatory tone Sharpay had used on her.
"That," Sharpay began, "is none of your business." The reason was that her family had suspected her of an eating disorder some months ago, but every time she went there, she wouldn't budge.
Before Gabriella could ask more, Sharpay said, "It's ten minutes to the bell, you'll want to finish your lunch."
Gabriella crinkled up the inscribed piece of paper and grudgingly walked out of the bathroom. Sharpay made sure she was well away from the door before turning sharply to a stall and locking the door behind her. Her enormous lunch was starting to churn uncomfortably in her stomach. She was reminded horribly of the Big Mac version of herself. She roughly shoved two French-manicured fingers down her throat and felt the familiar lurch as she emptied her lunch in the toilet. She straightened up and wiped her mouth. She unlocked the door and sauntered shakily to the mirror. The Big Mac version was gone. She smiled self-satisfactorily at her reflection and walked out of the bathroom.
When she returned to the table, she saw her boyfriend, Zeke Baylor, looking at her with a worried expression on his face.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"I'm fine," she said quickly, "why do you ask?"
"Because you haven't been eating my baking, but eating excessively at lunch," he said, "usually, you eat my deserts like it's your last meal."
Just then, the bell rang and Sharpay said, as everyone shuffled out loudly, "See you tomorrow!" Zeke looked very confused, but didn't say any more.
That was a lucky escape, Sharpay thought shakily to herself as she joined the mass of students going up the steps.
Author's Note: Please review and check out Baby-M-xo's stories!