III

A Chapter by Jane

“Take it easy, Laura”. Kevin called over his shoulder.

She was walking downstairs, over and past the hand rails, going to leave. What was he talking about? It was as if she knew the answer. The whole day she had felt it. At school, in the morning she saw girls gossiping, in the gym class she was found out hiding, and the entire volleyball team watched as she slipped out of the change room, evidently guilty of skipping class… she was aware. Tessie, her blonde friend, had given her a warning: “and before I hit someone in the face, just thought you should know”. Tessie, who never had a tendency to be violent, never even had the guts to talk over people, was offering to punch someone for her.

Laura tried to think. She opened her phone and closed. A splotch of white infiltrated the sky, hovering over the scarlet horizon, golden pink, a lingering sigh, neigh over.

She was skipping through the chunky road, here and now in heaps of snow, where the feet sunk; sometimes there was ice, and she slipped. Walking in winter was adventurous. Surely a bit more fun if there was less cold.

Shadows of blue reflected off the surface, and more positive colours in the sky tried to infect them. Or at least that’s what it seemed to Laura, not to Ann, the girl walking beside her, walking home, what was she thinking? Laura wondered, she seemed to be so happy, she talked infrequently, but laughed when she heard a joke, everyone in the cast seems to like her. This girl walking next to her. Just walking.

She couldn’t stand them just walking together. It wasn’t like she could tell her anything. Oh, I had a bad day. Oh, I’m sorry. Hope you have a better evening- what else can they say? It wasn’t easy to communicate.

So she said “I’m gonna be late”, and made off on her own.

More girls, more girls she ran into, more cold faces, tentative glances. “Hi”, she said to some, then quickly left. No one wanted to say hi. It was like a phantom in her, an elephant in the room, everyone could see it… She went back to her room.

Clothes flung everywhere.

A knock.