Author's Note: I hope you enjoy this chapter! Please review.
Disclaimer: I own the plot (YESSS!!). But nothing else, unfortunately.
Everyone Has a Problem
Chapter 9: Symbols
By musiclover94
She took another handful and shoved them down her throat, the capsules squirming down her throat. The path ahead was fuzzy and floating in and out if focus, but she walked to it, accepting it wholeheartedly.
Gabriella scowled as she heard Sharpay's approaching stiletto footsteps the next day, just as she said she would. The door opened and the rail-thin blonde stepped onto the cold tile, seeing as it was early morning.
"I have news. Good news," she said, sitting down in a chair.
"What is it?" she asked gruffly, refusing to look at her friend.
"You're getting released tomorrow!" she said, trying to sound happy.
"You make it sound like it's more of a jail then it is."
"It's not a jail. You're here to get better," she said, using the age-old excuse for the whitewashed halls of horror, at least to teens.
"Fat chance of that happening. Do I look any better to you?"
Sharpay had to agree with Gabriella on that one. Truthfully, she looked worse. Her once perfectly tan skin had a gray tinge to it, her brown eyes had a bloodshot and hardened look to them, and the thing that Sharpay's eyes lingered on the longest, the slight sticking-out of Gabriella's stomach. Not wanting to estrange her friend further, she took a deep breath and said, "You look a lot better, Gabs." Total Lie.
Gabriella could see right through her though, and not just because of the lack of meat on her bones. "That's a lie. I'm getting worse, and you know it." She pointed to Sharpay as she said this, and revealed several scars on her wrist; several of them were still glistening scarlet…
"Gabriella," she said, her eyes widening at the gashes, "are you cutti-?"
"No, I'm not. So drop it, okay? Okay," she said, glaring at the troubled blonde.
The door opened yet again and a friendly-looking nurse poked her head in and said, "Ms…Evans, is it?"
"Yeah," she said. Gabriella was still glowering at her.
"Visiting hours are over, and they begin tomorrow at 11 a.m." she said kindly.
"Okay." Sharpay stood up on her thin legs and said to a still-angry Gabriella, "I'll be back soon. All of the others should be here, too, because it's finally the weekend. Ryan, and Taylor, and Troy, and ev…"
Upon seeing Gabriella's bloodshot eyes tear up, she said quickly and sincerely, "Oh my god, Gabriella, I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have mentio…!"
The brunette quickly shook her head, keeping the tears at bay, and said with an annoyed tone, "God, I'm fine, Gabriella! Just because I'm in a hospital doesn't mean I'm an emotional wreck!" She glowered at her again.
"I didn't mean it like that, Gabriella," Sharpay said quietly. "I'll see you later, okay."
Gabriella said nothing. Sharpay walked with a click-clack of her heels on the off-white tiles.
As soon as the door fully closed behind Sharpay, Gabriella's eyes let loose. The fat tears fell down her face from her chocolate-brown eyes, snaking down her neck. She shoved a hand under the mattress and found the blade. She whipped it out and dragged it across her already severely battered wrist. The cuts were almost halfway to her elbow by now.
She made a fresh divot in her graying and clamming skin and the blood stuck out like the blood in Sweeny Todd. It gave her a sense of calmness, so she continued to dig it into the flesh.
Why did Sharpay bring up Troy? Thinking of that, fresh tears fell from her face and fell to her forearm, mixing with the thick crimson substance that symbolized all her pain.
Author's Note: I wouldn't blame you if you hated this chapter, I do too. But please, please, please review! And I NEED IDEAS! If you have any, please send them to me, I'll credit you! Thanks so much and please review!