Page 234 of As the Rain Falls
The entire room smells of lilies.
I bite my lips so hard they start to bleed.
“Because I’d do it in a heartbeat.” I hear her add a moment later.
The second girl giggles. “I’ve seen them.”
“What do you think of it?”
I take a step back, then another.
“Honestly?” she laughs. “Nothing to brag about. She sort of has this huge upper body, but she’s very thin, too.”
A soft cry bubbles in my throat.
I swallow it.
“No way, it had to be the angle. She’s a really pretty girl. I think she looks kind of like a doll.” The first girl insists, eager to be heard. “I mean, I wouldn’t let her anywhere near Tobias, you know? She has that sweet, kind of look with that Jessica Alba kind of face!”
“Right!”
“No, she’s way too fucking bland for—”
My back hits something hard, and a loud noise echoes. I gasp, closing my eyes shut. It seems like I’ve accidentally flushed the toilet. The three of them stop talking, and I brace myself for the next worst thing to happen.
“Who’s there?” The first girl asks.
I breathe deeply, unlocking the door.
The girls freeze, watching me walk out of the bathroom stall. It’s one of those moments that makes me wish I could press pause and rewind, change the course of things. I don’t want to be here right now.
“Oh.”
“Shit.”
I recognize two of them as second-year students, but the girl who talked about seeing my pictures is my age. Really, I’ve seen her with Maria, walking to classes together, sharing lunch. They’re very good friends, in fact.
Laura Andre, I think, is her name.
She asked me for help back in fifth grade. I was the one to take pictures of her science project. I even remember telling her how much I liked her black-and-white dotted socks.
“I’m just…” I take a step, then another, trying to walk out of the bathroom. “I’m going to leave now.”
Laura grabs my arm. Yanks me forward.
“Laura?” One of the other girls, a brunette one, gasps. “What are you doing?”
“She was listening to us like a fucking creep,” Laura snaps, pushing me back into the bathroom stall. “What are you going to do now? Report it? Say what? We’reharassingyou?”
“No?” I shake my head, frowning. “I’m not going to do anything.” I try to slap her hand away, but she holds me tighter, forcing me to sit on the toilet. “Laura, what is wrong with you? Let me go!”
She pushes me down. I try to hold onto something so I won’t fall and get myself all wet.
“This is for what you did to my friend.”
Laura growls before grabbing my face and banging it against the left side of the bathroom stall. The hair charms I wear dig into my scalp, and I use my feet to kick her away from me.
I scream, “Stop!”
