Sing Me To Sleep

‘Go away,’ Katy whined uselessly in her head as she backed into the corner of the girls’ bathroom on the second floor of the school. The day hadn’t even begun and yet Lindsey was already on her ass. The five-foot-six girl walked towards the girl two inches shorter slowly, an evil smile on her face.

“That’s a pretty ring,” Lindsey told her snidely, glaring down at Katy’s right ring finger. It was a silver ring, with a tiny opal set in it. Alex had bought it for her almost two birthdays ago – Katy had been born in October, hence the opal, and Alex had wanted to get her something nice, because it was a couple of months before that he’d realised he was in love with the younger girl. It was a full year and a half before Alex met Lindsey.

Katy gave no response to Lindsey’s comment. Lindsey’s foul grin turned into a grimace, and before Katy could stop her she had grabbed her hand and torn the ring from her finger.

“No!” Katy cried, trying to reach the ring from where Lindsey had it raised high, the snarl of a grin back on her face.

“Aw, is Katwy gonna cwy?” Lindsey taunted, her fingernails digging into Katy’s shoulder to keep her at bay. Katy tried to blink her tears back but they betrayed her and two slipped from her eyes. This made Lindsey’s eyes glint triumphantly, and she shot across the bathroom and into a cubicle.

“NO!” Katy screamed, chasing Lindsey just in time to see her beautiful, precious ring disappear into the schools sewage system through a toilet. The sobs escaped Katy’s chest.

“God, he’ll be so glad you’re not wearing that thing anymore,” Lindsey sniffed, referring to Alex. She pushed Katy to the floor. “He’s with me,” she told Lauren. As if she didn’t know! “Stop acting like you mean something to him. It’s pathetic!”

Despite herself, Katy cried out, “He’s my best friend!” This caused Lindsey to snort.

“Sweetie, he’s always going on about how pathetic you are. He only puts up with you because he’s such a good person.”

Katy couldn’t disagree. Lindsey didn’t deserve Alex, but then again neither did she, in her head. He was cute, funny, talented… he could be heartless sometimes, and often thought with his dick, but Katy accepted that everybody had their faults. Alex was kind a lot of the time.

Lindsey made a sound of disgust in the back of her throat before leaving the bathroom, and Katy.

The tears came thick and fast down her cheeks now, and it was all Katy could do to stop her sobs from alerting somebody in the hall way.

She pulled herself up by the counter which held the sinks and stared at her self in the mirror, disgusted at what she saw.

“I hate you,” she whispered to her reflection, salty droplets trickling into the dips and crevices of her face. She wiped them away furiously and picked her bag up, searching in an interior pocket for something she knew she shouldn’t use at school.

When she found it her heart race increased. Should she do this at school? What if she went too far? People would find out. What if…

“Fuck it,” she whispered, and pulled the small razor of the sanitary towel tin, taking a small glance around the bathroom before locking herself in a cubicle. The whole school was well into first period by then. No body should bother her.

Katy pulled up her sleeve and removed the gauze from her arm. She stared at the marred flesh before ghosting her finger tips over scars from months ago, to the unhealed cuts from just that morning. It was the only beautiful part of her, in her mind.

She smiled feebly before lowering the razor’s edge to a healed piece of skin, sucking in a tiny breath before…

“Oh! Sor-… Katy?!”

The door to her cubicle burst open. She’d forgotten to lock the door. ‘How did I forget?’ Katy screamed at herself. She looked up with fearful eyes to see her best female friend, Cassadee Pope, staring at her with nothing short of shock and hurt on her face. It made Katy feel bad to know that she could put such an expression on such a happy, jubilant person’s face. Cassadee Pope was the life of the party, the school and their group of friends. She could see why Rian was so in love with her. Katy was boring and plain and depressing – she didn’t know why Cassadee chose her as her best friend.

“Katy!” Cassadee exclaimed again. “What on Earth are you doing? Your arms… I…” Cassadee looked lost for words, which was a change for her. Lauren pulled her sleeve down and shoved the razor back into her bag.

“Go away, Cassadee,” she mumbled, pushing past the short blonde-and-brown haired girl.

“No!” said Cassadee indignantly. “What the hell is this?!” She came up beside her. They stared at each other’s reflections in the mirror.

“It’s nothing, Cass,” Katy said quietly, begging her with her eyes to shut her big mouth.

“The hell it isn’t!” Cassadee stared at Katy with tearful eyes. “How can you do this?” She grabbed her best friend by the upper arms and spun her around to face her.

“Cassadee,” Katy said quietly but strongly. “It really is nothing. You’re over-exaggerating.” She flashed the tanned girl what she hoped to be a reassuring smile. “Honest to God. Don’t worry about it.”

Cassadee eyed Katy speculatively. She knew the pale girl well enough to know that she would not give in. Not right now.

She let go of Katy, and in turn Katy sighed in relief. Cassadee wasn’t about to give up, though.

She sighed greatly. “Let me pee and then you can come back to class with me. I was wondering where you were, y’know. Check your cell once in a while!”

Katy laughed and leaned against the sink counter.

“Not all of our lives revolve around our cell phones like yours, Cass.” Cassadee stuck her tongue out before disappearing into a cubicle. As soon as the other girl had disappeared, the smile fell from Katy’s face like a ton of bricks. What the hell was she going to do?! She knew Cassadee better than to think she would actually drop it. Soon, she’d tell the others, seemingly in Katy’s ‘best interest’, but then Alex would think her even more pathetic than before! Yeah, she knew Lindsey liked to make up shit to torment her, but Alex thinking Katy was pathetic seemed feasible in her mind.

“Katy!” Cassadee all but yelled. “Wake the hell up, girl!”

“Huh? Sorry… I was thinking about the guys’ gig on Friday,” she quickly lied, flashing Cass a quick smile before turning around and picking up her bag.

“Oh! It’s going to be so good!” Cassadee jumped on the subject like a powerful predator. “I hope ‘Lex doesn’t have another panic attack, though.” She frowned. So did Katy. She remembered the last gig, when it had to be cut short because Alex had run off stage and into the bathroom, his mind going haywire and his breathing erratic, and Katy had looked after him, made sure he calmed down properly. She still remembered the wet, hot tears pouring down his face as he tugged at his dark hair, the anxiety saturating his system. That was before Lindsey, though. If it happened this time all Lindsey would have to do was suck his dick, probably.

‘That’s not fair to him, and you know it,’ Katy’s mind scolded her. ‘I know,’ she sighed back to herself.

The two girls walked into the classroom, and their Biology teacher, Mr. Ronson, raised his eyebrows at Katy.

“Miss. Ross,” he began, and Katy fought the urge to roll her eyes, “how kind of you to finally grace us with your presence.”

“Sorry, Sir,” Katy apologised.

“Hmm,” he mused, eying her cautiously. “Sit down.”

“Yes, Sir,” Katy responded, and sat down on the other side of Cassadee to Zack, who leaned forward, questioning her with his eyes. She shook her head slightly, still looking straight ahead, and the black-and-blonde haired boy sat back in his seat.

sumfin’s up wiv katy, bro

Jack looked down at his phone discretely from under the table. He was currently sitting with Alex in a boring Math lesson. Jack frowned, and quickly text Zack back.

what u mean?

Jack slid the cell between his thighs and pretended to be listening to Mrs. Capehorn babble on about algebra. Personally, Jack liked the topic merely due to the fact it had ‘bra’ in its title, and Jack liked bras. Jack liked bras a lot.

The phone vibrated between Jack’s thighs and he giggled. Alex, who was slouched forward over his arms, stopped tapping the end of his pencil against the desk and turned to look at Jack, raising an eyebrow. Jack flipped him the bird and looked at his phone.

i dunno. she came in l8 w/ cass, and cass wuz frownin, and u no cass. she doesn’t frown. katy didn’t luk 2 plsed either.

Jack frowned. However funny it sounded, it did take a lot to make Cassadee freaking Pope frown. Jack was actually under the impression that the girl couldn’t frown.

alright, i’ll ask cass bout it l8r. thx 4 lettin me no, bro.

Zack text back ‘no problem’ and Jack sat back in his seat to ponder what on Earth could be going on. What could be wrong with Katy that would make Cassadee frown? When was the last time he’d seen Cassadee frown? He thought for a while, and came up blank.

“Jack.” Alex dragged Jack from his thought pool. “Please do not tell me you are actually figuring out algebra. I will actually drop down dead this very minute if you are trying to do math.”

“Huh?” Jack asked, confused. “Oh. No. I’m just thinking about Friday,” Jack lied smoothly, which was surprising, seeing as he didn’t do it very well very often. “You gonna be okay?”
Alex blushed. His panic attacks embarrassed him, even though his friends assured him they were nothing to be ashamed of.

“Yes, Jack,” he mumbled, burying his face in his arms and closing his eyes. Jack clapped him on the back in reassurance, but really it made Alex feel worse. He felt like everyone was worried he was going to cock up, like everyone would be better off without him in the band…

“Stop thinking what you’re thinking right now because what you’re thinking isn’t true,” Jack said quickly, narrowing his eyes at Alex. Alex looked up in surprise, and slight confusion.

“Pardon?”

“I know you well, Gaskarth; probably too well. I know you’re beating yourself up right now, telling yourself you’re holding the band back, blah, blah and blah. So you can stop, right now - alright?”

“You’re such a freak,” Alex muttered. Jack rolled his eyes fondly.

“You love it, bitch.”

“So does your mom,” Alex got out whilst yawning.

“Seriously, Alex? That sucked.”

“Suck my dick,” Alex responded nonchalantly, his mind wandering back to the last gig when he’d had one of his fucking panic attacks. His frustration at himself was kept at bay, though, at the thought of the person who had comforted him, and who had calmed him down. Katy. He smiled fondly at the thought of her dark blue eyes staring into his as she told him to chill out and look at the situation rationally.

The bell for second period went off at that minute and made Alex jump. Jack chuckled.
“Calm down, bro.” Alex sent him evils and got up, racing out of the classroom with the rest of the kids in the room as Mrs. Capehorn called out useless reminders to her students.

Alex wasn’t all that stoked on second period. He’d have to see Lindsey, and he’d much rather be at lunch with Katy and the rest of the group. He hated the fact Katy, Cass and Zack were in a different grade to them. He didn’t get to see them as much as he saw Rian and Jack.

“Baby!” a girl’s voice squealed as soon as Alex entered the room; Lindsey, of course. Seconds later her lips were pressed against his. He kissed back. After all, he didn’t hate Lindsey. If he hated her then he wouldn’t be dating her. To be fair, she had a nice figure, a pretty face and she blew him good. She also didn’t ask too much of him. Alex thought she made a nice enough girlfriend… for high school, at least.

“Hey, gorgeous,” he mumbled against her lips.

“Mr. Gaskarth, Miss Clarke,” Mr. Aberforth scolded. “Sit down in your seats and stop swallowing each other’s faces!”

Lindsey giggled and led Alex over to their desks. They both sat down and Lindsey crossed her legs just right, leaned forward just so, and Alex got a perfect view.

The rest of the lesson passed with Lindsey teasing Alex and Alex giving in to his hormones. When the bell went for third period, Alex got up quickly to catch Lindsey.

“Meet me in the first floor janitor’s closest; now.” His breath was ragged, and Lindsey giggled. She pressed her lips hard against his and slipped along a different route to Alex so no one would guess that they were together.

‘You’re a dick,’ Alex’s mind told him. ‘I know,’ he shot back angrily, before rushing down to the janitor’s closet.