A/N: I'm back... ;)
Usual disclaimer applies. Enjoy!
March, 2012
~39~
Sitting at lunch with Angela and Ben, I enjoy the first real appetite I have had since watching the video of Leah. I suppose releasing some of my aggression on Tyler has helped. The cafeteria is full and the plethora of different foods students are eating lend to an interesting odor permeating the room.
I'm used to it by now.
While Angela and Ben sit in their own little world, locked in a gaze while they nibble at their food, my eyes are trained on the East-Ender table.
On Jessica Stanley in particular.
She is sitting there amongst her friends, all identical in hair, makeup, and clothing. Even from here I can see her leaning over the table, displaying cleavage to the guys sitting on the opposite side of the table.
Finally, Jessica shuffles back and gets up from the table. She throws back one last comment to the conversation at the table before walking away.
I know why she is leaving early.
Jessica has a bulimia problem. But I'm pretty sure most of the girls from the East End do too.
I quickly pack away the lunch I haven't eaten yet, and stand up from my table. Ben and Angela both look up with questioning glances.
"Be right back."
They nod, used to my surreptitious antics. I quickly follow Jessica out, remaining at a comfortable distance. I know exactly where she is heading.
I slip into the bathroom after her, and she turns to me in a protective stance.
I wonder if she knows what I want.
She looks to me, arms crossed across her chest, left hip gutted out. Her caked-on makeup is more apparent from this close up, and her teased hair is already started to fall out of its careful up-do.
And I try. I really try to see past it all, back to the girl that I used to be friends with before everything happened. But there are so many layers covering her now, layers of low self-esteem and self-deprecation. I doubt she can even find herself anymore.
But I feel little sympathy.
Yes, high school is hard. I can testify to that more than anyone. But people like Jessica, they make themselves targets and they don't see the big picture. In two short months, we will all be out of here forever, and all of this, all of the rumours and the pain, will become distant memories.
"So Jessica," I begin, "What do you remember from your party last September?"
A/N: Let me know your theories! I love to hear them :)