The Locker Wars

March was turning into April, which was turning rainier and rainier. Adele spent most of her time with Skyler. She watched as her old life suddenly turned into the life passing by in front of her. She still didn’t know what exactly was going on.

That was, until Skyler had her alone in the back seat of his car one afternoon after school. His hand had gone up her skirt and she’d slapped him in the face.

“What the hell!” Skyler groaned. “What was that for?”

“How many times did I tell you?” Adele hissed, and it was true, there must have been a hundred duplicate encounters like this. Skyler has his hand up Adele’s skirt, Adele says to stop, Skyler stops while mumbling about ‘later’. But this time, Adele had had enough.

“What do you mean?” Skyler asked.

“God, like, what’s your problem?” Adele sat up and faced the window, away from Skyler.

“What’s your problem? Every time I just go to maybe touch you, you get all defensive and violent,” he shot, sitting up.

“Oh, sorry, I can’t help it when it seems like you want sex.” Adele shot back.

“Seems like? More like, yeah, maybe I do!” Skyler shouted. “Maybe I just wasted all this time because all I wanted was some fuck.”

“Oh.” Adele’s voice turned low. “You’re such an asshole!” And with that she slapped him again.

“Fuck you!” Skyler growled.

“As if!” Adele rolled her eyes.

“Then get the fuck out of my car. I don’t ever want to see you again.” Skyler was unlocking the doors and Adele was already opening the passenger door to squeeze out. She grabbed her bag and watched Skyler give her the finger as he drove away.

Just then, she heard some hisses and whispers behind her. “Oh, look, she turned from the school’s smartest girl to a hooker.”

Adele felt her insides shrivel to nothing. How could she have let this happen?

* * *

A few tubs of ice cream and a long cry later, Adele was lying on her bed with her homework. It sounded nerdy beyond belief, but how she missed the feel of accomplishing what others sometimes couldn’t! She scrawled the answers down onto the page, and then searched her notes. When had she learned this? She flipped through messy handwritten notes, with little love messages from Skyler on the side, and then burst out into tears again.

And the worst thing was, she couldn’t call anyone about it. Couldn’t whine to Riley, couldn’t call up Kirsten... so she picked up the phone and dialed another number.

And old woman’s voice filled the line. “Hello?”

“Hello,” Adele sniffed, “Could it... could I be able to talk to Adam, maybe?”

“Sure!”

Adele sat back and waited. Through the muffled end of the call, Adele could hear Adam ask who it was, and then she heard his mom’s confused tone. She sniffled a bit more before Adam’s voice became clear on the line, “Hello?”

“Hi, it’s, um, Adele,” she sighed back, her stomach doing flips. “My life is so messed up right now. I need to talk to someone.”

“... I don’t think I’m allowed to talk to you anymore,” Adam replied nervously. “I’ll seeya around at school, Adele.”

“But—”

“Bye.”

Adele groaned and threw the phone across her room. There was no use anymore. She ruined everything. There was no one left to console her or listen.

She flipped over on her bed, took out her secret notebook, and started planning.