Too Proud to Breathe

All through gym, Daisy decided to show me just how much trouble I would be in if I were to tell someone about her threat or to not oblige to her demands.

Throughout basketball that lesson, everybody made my body their personal target instead of the net. Of course, they only did this when the teachers back was turned, leaving me proof as to why I had gotten many more, new bruises on my body.

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The next two classes passed slowly but finally the lunch time bell rang, signalling the end of that class. The butterflies I had been experiencing all day at the thought of Taylor sprung back up in the pit of my stomach.

As I approached my normal lunch table at the back of the canteen, I saw that Taylor and Tanisha were both already seated, along with 5 other people I did not know.

"Hi," I mumbled just loud enough for Taylor, who was right in front of me, to hear. Everybody else were already talking and laughing and I didn’t want to interrupt their conversations. However, as I sat next to Taylor, everybody's conversations stopped and all eyes were on me. Tanisha was the first to say 'hi' and sent me a wave, to which I returned.

"Hello. I'm Brianna, but please call me Bree. Or I might have to kill you," the pretty red head joked to my left. I found myself instantly warming to her. She seemed to be one of them people who aren’t hard to like.

After Bree's introduction, everybody else started introducing themselves.

"I'm Tom," the boy who had his arm wrapped around Bree's waist said. It was obvious that these two were going out from their body language towards each other.

"I'm Jack," another boy in the group said. His warm smile was dazzling and he was gorgeous. I felt myself blushing and instantly tried to get it to go away. It seemed that everyone in this group was amazingly good looking and I instantly felt ugly in comparison.

"And I'm Hayden," the boy opposite to me said. However, after he said this to me, his eyes strayed back to where Tanisha was sitting. It was obvious that he was starting to like her. Gosh, it seemed that everyone was going to pair off but me.

The only one who didn’t introduce themselves was the girl sitting opposite to Taylor, picking her nails with an annoyed look set on her face. Taylor's angry expression soon materialized on his face, obviously there to counter the girls. I tried not to feel intimidated by this little situation that was occurring, but this girl terrified me with the snarl that was directed towards me. For some reason she already hated me. Wow, another one to join the club.

"That's Elise, don’t worry about her. She's just been really crabby lately, she wont start anything I promise," Taylor whispered to me, just loud enough for me to hear, and gently laced his fingers with mine under the table and gave it a gentle squeeze of encouragement. Everyone then returned to their previous discussions, as if nothing had happened.

Taylor held my hand surreptitiously under the table, occasionally squeezing it lightly, as he had done before.

Everyone seemed eager to get to know Tanisha and I throughout lunch, asking us random questions such as "what's your favourite food?" or "have you ever been abducted by angry aliens who want to sex you up?" (of course that question was made by Tom who immediately started laughing at his own joke). Well at least everyone but Elise tried to be civilized.

Lunch time seemed to be going well, so well that we were surprised that the lunch bell had rang.

"God, it only feels like we've been talking for like 10 minutes," Tanisha said to me, before gathering her tray and heading towards the tray dispenser near the front of the canteen. I followed right behind her.

I had nearly made it to the dispenser when a foot was suddenly kicked out in front of me. Gravity took its toile and I hurtled towards the floor, with my head cascading off of the floor with such speed that a deafening 'thud' was emitted from it.

All heads whipped around to where I lay on the floor; left over food covering me and my head feeling slightly disorientated. A herd of laughs started echoing throughout the canteen as I tried to stand back up, feeling dazed.

"Oh sorry, must have accidently left my foot out," a high pitched shrill echoed in my aching head. I knew the voice to be that of Daisy but her voice felt like needles in my skull. I squeezed my eyes shut tightly before attempting to stand again. However as soon as I made it to a standing position, the floor felt like it was being taken from beneath me and I started falling backwards and into a land of darkness.