Romi
"Miss Dillon, I found your essay on the elements of human nature to be extremely distressing," Mr. Jackson, my English teacher, said at the end of class on Thursday. It was my final class of the day and like always, I was the last student to leave the room.
A necessary survival tactic in this cesspool of snakes.
School had started again less than two months ago and already the vultures of these halls were out in full force, circling and stalking their prey, preparing to execute the killer blow.
Breathing through my nostrils, I grasped the corners of my desk, unwilling to give my teacher a response.
Unwilling to look up at all.
If a person's eyes were the window to their soul, then I didn’t want anyone looking into mine.
"Can we talk about this?" he asked.
That wasn't an option for me.
I couldn’t talk.
I couldn’t do a damn thing.
It's not safe…
"Please," he pressed, his voice taking on a gentler tone. "I'm worried about you."
Keeping my head down, I released my grip on the desk, pushed the sleeves of my navy cardigan down to my wrists and snatched my bag off the floor, holding it close to my chest.
I knew I messed up when I wrote that essay and handed it in for extra credit. Free thinking was only welcome when it fit into what society considered socially acceptable.
My thoughts, along with my presence at school, were not.
"It was a joke," I finally said, forcing the words out of my mouth. My voice sounded strange, even to my own ears. Probably because of how rarely I used it anymore. "I can rewrite the essay if that's what you want."
Mr. Jackson loomed closer, his shoes clicking against the patterned tiles of the classroom floor. "That's some joke, Romi." I felt the air change around me when he lowered himself into the desk next to mine. "And no, that's not what I want. You've always been an excellent student and your work is top notch." He paused, fingers drumming against the wooden desk as he thought about how to word his next sentence. "To be quite frank, I'm more concerned about your state of mind."
That makes two of us.
Tensing, I tightened my grip on my bag and kept my gaze cast downwards. "I'm fine."
"Senior year is stressful enough without the added pressure and strain that the trial put on your shoulders."
"I'm fine," I repeated, numb.
"You're clearly not," he said quietly.
There was a long stretch of silence before I broke it by asking, "Can I go now?"
"No one is forcing you to remain after class, Romi," he replied, tone resigned and a little disappointed. "I just wanted to talk to you. No bullshit. Just us."
"I'm fine," I said for the third time, the words barely audible to my own ears.
"I know you haven't been visiting Mrs. Dahlia's office since returning to school, and God knows I'm not judging you," Mr. Jackson said. "But I just…I wanted to check in with you. We're almost two months into the school year. That's a long time to go without confiding in anyone and I want you to know that if you're not comfortable speaking with Mrs. Dahlia, then you can always talk to me."
I remained silent.
He sighed heavily. "Come on, Romi. Give me something to work with here."
I offered him nothing.
Nothing was solid.
Nothing was safe.
Trust no one, Chris had told me. Nothing in this town is as it seems.
"Are they still picking on you?" he asked then. "The team? The squad?" He reached across the row and settled a hand on mine. "Have they upped their taunting? Because I can help you. I will go directly to their parents myself. It's unacceptable for you to be treated this way."
Dragging in a deep breath, I brushed his hand off and slowly rose out of the curved desk. Stalling for several beats, I debated saying something to him, anything, and then quickly decided against it.
There was no point.
My lips were sewn and my hands were tied.
Moving for the door, I kept my spine straight, my shoulders hunched tight with tension.
"What happened to Chris wasn't your fault," Mr. Jackson called after me when I reached the door. "And I'll be here when you're ready to talk."
If he was expecting a response, he was going to be disappointed.
Slipping into the hallway, I walked straight to my locker, keeping my bag clutched to my chest.
My movements were rigid, almost alien, as if my body no longer belonged to me, and when I passed the window looking onto the quad, memories of another lifetime flooded my mind.
Stolen kisses and strong arms.
Cheerleading skirts and Letterman jackets.
First love, popularity, and friendship.
Wide smiles and contented laughter.
Safety and security.
Pain and betrayal.
Revelations and whirl spins.
Darkness, blood, and death.
And then nothing.
Just fear.
Forcing the images from my mind, I pushed on, not stopping until I was standing in front of my locker in a sea of identical blue ones. Dropping my bag at my feet, I set to work on my combination, ignoring the familiar insult scrawled across my locker door in blood red paint.
I knew the janitor would scrub it off tonight, but it would reappear again tomorrow morning – just like every morning since my return to school for senior year. The whole world's thoughts projected in one single word.
Killer.
Like I could forget.
Happy fucking birthday to me.
Yanking the door open, I pulled out the textbooks I needed for tonight's homework assignments and quickly tucked them into my bag before closing my locker.
The moment I clicked the metal door shut, he was right there in my peripheral vision – just like every day – leaning against the locker to my left, and making my deflated heart thud violently.
The instant my gaze landed on those razor-sharp blue eyes and that devastatingly handsome face, a tsunami of unease and sorrow washed over me.
"How's it going, killer?" Sketch Capaldi's voice was deep, his tone hard and full of unrestrained hatred, as he geared up to inflict another batch of misconstrued justice on me. "Enjoying another undeserved day on earth?"
Quickly averting my eyes, I reached for my bag and stepped around his powerful frame, knowing that reacting to him was about the worst thing I could do.
Of course, Sketch fell into step beside me, invading my personal space with his big body. Before the accident, I'd never given much thought to the corded muscles hidden beneath the white school shirt and navy slacks he was wearing. Growing up, he had always been careful with me. Now though, I was on high-alert. I was achingly aware of the damage he could cause me.
In more ways than one.
"I'm speaking to you." He moved closer, his arm brushing against mine and setting off a jolt of electricity in my body. It was an intentional move. He intended to frighten me. To intimidate me with his blatant physical superiority over me.
"What's wrong, killer?" he taunted, wrecking me with that deep, familiar, Southern drawl. "Cat got your tongue?"
I remained silent, hugging my bag to my chest. There was a very good reason I didn’t wear my school bag on my back anymore and that reason was walking beside me. After he and his football buddies used the bag strapped to my back to catch and then drag me through the hallways on my butt, I wasn't taking any chances.
Pushing the exit door open, I stepped outside and quickly descended the mountain of steps at the entrance of Newton-Willis Academy, the private school I attended on the outskirts of Lake Charles, an hour north from my sleepy hometown of Pocketful.
Only a handful of the wealthiest kids from our hometown attended Newton-Willis, but that didn’t matter. News spread fast around this school, just as it did anywhere else, and the Capaldi twins were notorious here. Being the enemy of Sketch meant that I was everyone's enemy.
Upping my pace, I hurried through the quad and into the student parking lot, where I hoped Presley, one of the students that lived in Pocketful, would still be waiting. If not, I was going to have to call my father's driver to come get me.
The October breeze picking up outside caused my navy tie to swish around my face and my pleated skirt to flap against my thighs, but I didn’t dare stop moving.
A few more steps and I would be free.
A few more steps and I could bury myself under my comforter and stop my world from spinning.
Until tomorrow.
There was always tomorrow.