Just Another High School Story!

After puking her guts out, she got up, clenching her fists in pain, practiced smiling a bit, she hated this too, the pretending, maybe worst of all. When she walked to the stalls, she saw the girls who were talking about her, on their phones badmouthing some Instagram model, "She's got skinny legs, they're just weird and her curves, dude...", they wouldn't shut up at all, even a model was not up there, at their ideal beauty level. Leah hated being controlled by their meaningless words but she could not forget them, "When did she ever throw herself at Ethan. Which guys is she hanging out with and if she is, what is it to them? Is it her fault that she can't gossip about other people, the real reason as to why she felt comfortable around boys was that they didn't call her fat or talk about models, or sizes or badmouth others, they did not use the word 'bitch' in a conversation to describe a fellow classmate, nope, rather they used the word in a funny way, no one took offence because the person being talked about was in front of them. It was being said to their face." They had a weird understanding among them that Leah longed for.

These thoughts occupied her mind until she fell asleep, after having cried for three hours, she went to sleep at 4 am, and woke up at 6, she got up with puffy eyes, but it was time to hide herself, not sulk, she worked out, in pain, her stomach hurt, her throat burned, but she did it, swallowing the pain like always, then proceeded to take a shower, put on light makeup to hide her dark circles, then she didn't eat breakfast and leapt out the door.

She did not wanna be late, today was the first day of the elections, the candidates for head boy and head girl would deliver opening, speeches today and the voting would begin, it would then continue for a week, and the results would be announced, Leah's problem had made her very nervous, as she got to school, she saw Linda getting out of Mindy's car, arms linked with her intimately, she had not seen Linda come home last night, what was going on? She went to say hi to her, but Linda pretended not to hear her and walked right past her. In that moment, her heart shattered into a million pieces, this moment was painful to her, Linda was the only one that she had ever been best friends with, and she even told Linda something that she had not told any other soul alive, what was with this attitude? She shed a tear and before she could wipe it away, a cheerful Ethan greeted her, "Coffee?" he asked and she refused, "Oh, come on, are you worried I've drugged it. I'm not scared of you Head Girl." He smiled his dashing, dimply smile, everyone in the world had to be in love with those dimples, his smile looked so innocent and beautiful but to Leah, it was a reminder, he was the deceptive kind. Once when they were playing in recess, Leah was running after other kids, despite being a little chubby, she was really fast, and ran the track with boys, leaving them to bite the dust as she crossed the finish line before they could get past the first obstacles, Ethan had joined the team too and once cornered her after practice, and when she fell, he smiled his dimply smile, offering her his hand, she had reached out but he grabbed her hand, and pushed her into the pool, she was soaking wet when she got home, crying and there was no one that she could share her problems with, she listened to Shawn Mendes until she fell asleep and the next day, she had caught a very serious cold and a fever, and she was forced to miss school, the only place where she could hide from her mom. She was forced to stay in the hospital for a couple of days, her mom consistently nagged her about being impudent, selfish, crazy for attention as she was sure it was through Leah's fault that she had fallen into the pool, she kept going until Leah cried and then her own mom had hit her with the classic line that shattered her every time it reached her ears: "You're just a stupid failure."

She broke out of her reverie and declined once more, in her head, she was counting calories, I can only have a salad for lunch, I can't have coffee right now, her thoughts were centred around food portions, calories and it was a mess, she hated living like this, looking at other kids enjoy food like it was a friend while food was something that suffocated her, and made her life so hard, she felt truly defeated. Ethan smiled and said, "No probs, I'll just drink both." "Sure, do whatever you like!" and after saying that, Leah flitted away so fast that he barely noticed when she left his side, she went into the hall where the speeches would be delivered. Writing is all she had. She wanted to escape reality when she was writing, it was a safe haven, she often thought that if God hadn't given them paper, she wouldn't have been alive. After being tortured by Ethan and his gang, and being sick of hearing the cute nickname they had made for her, she had cut her wrists and tired to kill herself, it was hurting really bad and she became unconscious soon after, a miracle occurred when the doctors saved her, they said that if she'd lost even one more ounce of blood she would have died, her mother kept this a secret from her father; Linda, as she was the one who had found Leah lying in her room like that, was terrified, she would never forget it, Leah had ruined her too.

When Leah woke up, and saw her mom's face, she cursed herself for not locking the door. Ever since then, she had been blaming her mom, thinking that if her mom had not saved her, she would have escaped this hell. It was then that her mom amped up her cruelty, her taunts became horrendous and she stopped loving her. Leah returned the courtesy, she never said anything to her mom, she held it in, smiling sadly at every remark.