Let Them Speak

My goal was to ignore Darryn today. Maybe he wouldn't ask about my little outburst yesterday. But when he'd noticed the hickey I'd gotten from Aiden, I had no choice to talk to him. When he left, I sighed and followed suit.

I went to my locker- a place I usually don't go to. Usually, my classes didn't require books. I usually brought my book bag with me everywhere. I opened it up, and nearly cried. Through out high school, we had t keep the same lockers. Mine hadn't been open since last year.

It also had dozens of pictures of my family in it. I slammed it quickly and tried to calm myself down. Haven spied me and came toward me. Talking to her would most likely distract me.

"Addii, I'm really sorry about Aiden last night." She tried to sound upbeat.

"Nah, it's fine. He just needs some sense talked into him, that's all." I laughed. That seemed good enough for her. I entered Drama earlier than usual and I made sure that ghost wasn't around. I pushed my sunglasses up and put my headphones in.

I'm in the business of misery,
Let's take it from the top!
She's got a body like an hourglass,
That's tickin' like a clock,
It's a matter of time before we all run out,
We I thought he was mine,
She caught him by the mouth.
Eight long moths she finally set him free,
I told him I couldn't lie,
He was the only one for me,
Two weeks and we caught on fire!
She's got it out for me, but I wear the biggest smile...

Whoa! I never meant to brag!
'Cause I got him where I wanted and now!
If you could then you know you wo-

Suddenly, my headphones were pulled out of ears. I turned around, ready to cuss some one out, but when I saw the scowling face of Mr. Lison, I held my tongue. He gave me his glare and I held up my hands in mock surrender.

"Today, I just want you to spend time working on your monologue. Bounce ideas off he each other, act something out. Just, try to work." He said, letting me go.

I was about to go work on my monologue, but something in my gut told me that Darryn deserved a thank you for yesterday. I made my way towards him. For once he was alone. He was up on the small stage in the back, reading something off of a small script.

He seemed to know I was coming. I was starting to get suspicious, but I decided against interrogating him. "Hey." He said smoothly, sitting down. I sat down as well.

"I just want to thank you for yesterday." I muttered.

"Hey, no problem. Don't mention it." He smiled. That's it? No questions? Maybe he was being polite.

"I don't no what happened, I just-" I started to lie, but he interrupted me.

"Don't worry about it, really." His words started to wash over me, making me to slowly forget about yesterday.

"You're doing it again."

"What?"

"Your making me feel something. How do you do that?" Instead of the denies I thought he'd give, he changed the subject.

"I'm not sure what your talking about. So, do you want to work on your monologue."

I would've replied back, demanding an answer, but my pocket started to vibrate. I pulled out my phone, hid it from Mr. Lison's view, then read the text from Haven.

Meet me in the back parking lot. I'm freaking out! Hurry! I asked Mr. Lison if I could go to the bathroom, then ran out of the school as fast as I could. About a minute it later, I was in the back parking lot.

And so was Haven. She was sitting between to dumpsters- though she didn't mind the smell. She had her knees pulled up to her head, crying almost hysterically.

"Haven! What happened?" I shouted, running to kneel down beside her.

"I just snapped. Bridgette just, she-she-she!" She started crying harder. I knew Bridgette and her had problems. Bridgette was head cheerleader and hated Haven's "freakish emo personality."

"What did you do?"

I pulled out a chunk of her hair, gave her some nasty scratches on her cheek. Then, this. She held up on wrist- one bleeding, and slit wrist. "Haven, we're getting you out of here. Come on." She stood up with no argument. I wasn't really sure where we were going, but I had to get her away. Then I had an idea.

* * *
I looked around the abandoned theater with awe. This place had been abandoned at least fifty years ago, but I went here when I was truly sad. I'd cleaned it up, put some of my own touches. It was my safe haven. No pun intended.

Haven curled up into a ball on the stage. I didn't ask questions. I just bandaged her wrist and tried to calm her down. I stroked her hair for awhile, eventually she stopped crying.

"So, this is where you ran to that night."

She meant the night I came back fro the hospital. I'd ran to this place. I stayed her for actually two days, I knew no one would find me. I nodded.

"I can see why."

"Yeah."

"What do you think I should do."

"Well, it's gonna be hard, but stay home from school the rest of this week, if you can manage that." She nodded and smiled slightly.

"Do you think I could stay with you tonight? I really need a friend. I nodded. For once after the accident, I realized that I'm not the only person who has a problem in this world. That, and I was going to have Haven stay with me for the first time ever.