The Crumbling Pyramid

The following Monday morning was probably one of the worst in Anette's life. She was late to school because quit honestly, she didn't want to go. Her classes frustrated her because she couldn't focus and words and numbers moved around so much that they became another language and she nearly made herself sick from trying to learn it. No one talked to her, and she didn't try to talk to anyone. Ray only spoke to her during Chemistry because they were doing a lab, but he didn't make any small talk with her. He did however give her a grim, understanding smile when she had sat down next to him, so she took this as a sign that he was feeling like she was.

At lunch, she figured she should talk to Chase, so she grabbed her lunch and started walking towards the table where he usually sat. But as she approached, Kate gave her a look of disgust. "What do you think you're doing?" she asked as Anette made to sit down. Anette looked at Dawn for some support, but she only shook her head sadly.

"Sorry, I didn't know I wasn't welcome," Anette said, looking at the floor.

"That much should have been obvious, considering what you did to Andrew," Rachel added with venom. Even if Andrew only kept her around for a fuck buddy, everyone knew that Rachel was infatuated with him.

"Sorry," Anette mumbled again, and she took off, tears stinging at her eyes.

"Hey, Anette! Come eat with us!"

She looked up to see Gerard and Frank, each with their lunches, standing at the cafeteria doors.

"We're ditching this place. You should come with us," Frank said.

"Alright," Anette replied, and she followed them out of the cafeteria and through the hallways. "Thanks."

"No problem. We weren't about to let you suffer in there by yourself," Gerard said, shooting her his awkward smile.

They walked down to the hallway where she and Ray spent their free periods to find Ray, Mikey, and surprisingly Hailey and Bob all eating their lunch together, laughing at someone's joke.

"Hailey? Bob? What are you guys doing here?" Anette asked as she sat down between Ray and Frank and started un-wrapping her sandwich.

"Same as you, though we were a little more informal," Hailey answered, taking a bite of her pizza.

"Informal? What?"

Hailey's face fell. "Oh. You haven't seen The Stall."

Anette's stomach dropped. The Stall was the bathroom stall in the both restrooms on the second floor by the library that was basically the communication board of the students. Mostly, the popular kids issued threats like so-and-so is to be treated with respect now or you're gonna get your ass kicked, or if you hand out with this person, you're an outcast, don't come to our parties, etc., and it was where the I-want-a-good-fuck list was kept. Anette had had to write a threat there once freshman year, but hadn't visited The Stall since. She hadn't much cared since that was more for people like Rachel and Kate and Andrew.

But now she wanted to know what was going on. "Which one, boys or girls?" she asked.

"Boys," Bob replied. "I saw it this morning."

He pulled out his phone, found a picture on it, and handed it to Anette, who squinted at it. In black sharpie, someone had scrawled her, Mikey, and Frank’s names and a message, but she couldn't read it.

"What's it say?" she asked, handing it back to him.

"Andrew put out a notice saying anyone who valued their lives was to not be around you, Mikey, or Frank," Bob said without looking at his phone, as if he knew it by heart.

Anette's jaw went slack in shock. Anyone who valued their lives? "What's Andrew going to do, kill people?" she asked, her voice a bit squeaky. "That's illegal!"

"Yeah."

"We should report him!"

Frank snorted. "Yeah, let's go report him to the person who's probably going to say we wrote it there."

"Then the police!"

Gerard just shook his head. "No, we need to just wait for this to die down. It eventually does."

"But—so, this is why you're here?" Anette asked Hailey.

"Yeup. I like you more than Andrew, so I figured I might as well just ditch myself."

"And I'm automatically out. They were pissed when I joined My Chem, and they probably won't let me back in as long as I'm in it," Bob said, using an affectionate nickname for the band. "Not that I plan on leaving any time soon."

"But—but—"Anette stuttered, unable to understand how these people could just throw away the lives they had like this.

“Sweetheart, there are worse things we could do,” Hailey said, taking a casual bite of her pizza crust.

"Anette, quit stuttering and eat. You might as well get used to our company," Frank said, smiling at her. "There's no turning back."

"Yeah..." she said quietly. “No turning back indeed."

-

We need to talk after sixth hour. Meet me outside at the hill.

Anette had read these words that Chase and written over and over again. He had slipped it to her at the end of History, and now she was hoping, praying that he was going to be on her side. He just had to be. He would never side with Andrew.

As she started for the front doors from the theater, she ran into Dawn. "Way to be a friend, Dawn," Anette said a bit snidely as they bumped shoulders.

"Anette, I can't be seen with you," she muttered. She looked sad. "I'm going to get kicked out like you if I am. And really, who knows what Andrew will do?"

"He can't do a damn thing, Dawn. What is wrong with you?"

"Sorry Anette. I'm really, really sorry," she said quickly before walking away with her head down, trying to get away as fast as she could.

Anette huffed, angry, and walked out the front doors. She made for the small hill that was in a courtyard in the front of the school. Standing next to a bench was Chase. As she reached him, the last of the stragglers made their way into the school or off campus, leaving them alone.

"Chase—" Anette started, but he pressed a warm finger over her lips. She hoped he might kiss her, hold her, anything, but he didn't. He just looked at her lips, unwilling to make eye contact with her.

"Anette, I... I've been thinking a lot today," he finally said, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"Me too. Funny how that works."

"Anette, don't. You... I love you, but..."

"But what?" she asked, fear and despair filling her.

"But we can't be together," he said finally, looking in her eyes for the first time. His eyes were full of confusion and doubt.

"What?" Anette said, finding the words taking a while to sink in. He couldn't mean it. This was a sick joke.

"Anette, I have to break up with you."

"Have to?"

"I... I can't be with you. Not after last week, and—" He stopped, but Anette could sense that he was going to say something about the message in The Stall.

"You're going to choose social status over me?" she finally said, small and defeated.

"I have to. I have to do this," he said, and unable to bear it anymore, he walked away.

Anette stood alone on the frozen sidewalk, stunned. This was it - the last straw. The last straw keeping her sane had snapped in two, hell, into a million pieces. She felt hot tears begin to stream down her face as she hugged herself, wishing more than anything that she could rewind time and have just ignored that flying sandwich.

She had no idea how long she stood there - it could have been a lifetime for all she knew. But she did know that when she finally moved, she was stiff and freezing. As she walked back into the school, she checked her memory for what was supposed to happen today - there was no makeup crew meeting, and she had turned her designs in for the four lead's makeup to Mr. Wind just last hour. Getting those designs done had been the only perk to her not being at school all of Thursday or Friday. So she could go up on the roof and be alone, be as alone as she felt right now.

She had to pass her and Ray's hallway en route to the roof door, and he was there, sitting and writing in the music notebook like he usually did. He looked up as she passed, but didn't say anything until he figured out that she was not going to be sitting with him.

"Anette, what's wrong?" he asked, jumping up to follow her, leaving his belongings in the hallways unattended. But she kept walking, and he only caught up when she paused to open the door to the roof. "Anette, why are you crying?"

"Ray, I—I just want to be alone, okay?" she half-yelled, and she pushed the door open and was up the stairs to the roof in seconds. He stood down in the hallway, propping the door open with his foot and staring up at her with a sad expression on his face.

Once on the roof, Anette cleared off some snow and sat down on her jacket, wrapping her arms around her to keep her warm. She cursed the school's uniform and of their not letting her wear something warmer than a skirt and knee-high socks in the middle of January. But she soon came to not care about the cold, or the fact that her makeup was running, or that this was only the second time she had cried this hard in her entire life. All she could think about was Chase and how much she hated him and wanted him at the same time right now. It was so, so unfair.

"Why Chase?" she choked out to herself, squeezing her knees tighter to her body. "Why did you let Andrew win?"

She heard the door to the roof open and she turned around shocked to see not Ray but Mikey standing there, one hand in his pocket and one hand pushing up his glasses that were sliding down his face.

"What are you doing here? I don't need to deal with you, too," she said shakily, sniffling and turning back around. He didn't say anything, but instead walked over and draped his warm jacket around her shoulders. She tried to ignore it.

"Ray said you were upset," he said simply, sitting down next to her after he cleared away enough snow to do so. "And I decided that this was more important than French class."

"You'll get in trouble for ditching," Anette pointed out.

"So?"

"So... I don't know."

They were silent except for Anette sniffling, trying to stifle her tears, but nothing she tried was really working. After a few minutes, Mikey said, "So, you gonna tell me what's up or are we just gonna sit here until the snow melts?"

"Why should you care what's wrong?"

"'Cuz you're upset."

"Lots of people get upset all the time."

"Yeah, they do."

"So why me?"

"Why not?"

"Because you hate me."

"I—" Mikey stopped, frowning. "I don't... I don't hate you, okay?"

"Really? Could have fooled me," Anette replied, with perhaps a little more venom in her voice than what she had intended.

"I mean... I did, but then I decided that I didn't really have a reason for hating you."

"Whatever."

Anette wiped more tears and makeup off her face, wishing she had brought her mirror today so she could get cleaned up.

"Well... Chase broke up with me."

"Why?" Mikey asked, looking a bit surprised as he shook some of his brown hair out of his eyes.

"He... well, he decided his social status was more important than me I guess, but other than that I don't know."

"That's stupid."

"Yeah," Anette agreed, holding back a sneeze. "And I—I'm not sure what to do," she said miserably, a fresh wave of tears flowing down her cheeks.

"You can't talk to him about it?"

"No. I don't have any way of communicating other than person to person, and I'm apparently not allowed to talk to him at school."

"Well, obviously if he's going to break up with you over something this stupid then he doesn't deserve you."

Anette gave Mikey a curious look. He glanced at her and then swallowed.

"I mean, that's the general situation, isn't it?"

"I guess." She wiped her eyes again, making sure Mikey's jacket didn't slide off her shoulders. "I just... I'm so mad at him, but I can't be at the same time."

"Why not? I'd be pissed if I were you."

"I love him."

Mikey didn't say anything to that, and Anette didn't really want him to. But he eventually did.

"You sure he loved you?"

"Yes," Anette said quickly, but she second-guessed herself. "At least, I really hope he did."

They heard the bell ring and then moments later, people started to exit the school. Anette and Mikey stood up. She gave him back his jacket and picked up her own, which was soaking wet. Without a word, they went back down the stairs and out the door, shutting it tight behind them. Just as Anette was about to walk away, Mikey said, "Hey Anette."

"What?"

"You know we're here for you, right? Ray and Frank and Gerard and... me. We're all here for you."

Anette smiled slightly with trembling lips. "Th-thanks Mikey," she said, and they left together, walking side by side, alone together in a sea of students.