Page 94 of Apparently, I’m Torture

It was over. I had to accept that it didn’t matter if I was actually innocent. At this point, just being under investigation guaranteed career death. No school would want me now. No hero, or prince, or magic spell could save me from this.

A knock sounded at my apartment door, and I groaned at the thought of having to get up. But if the poor person knocking had just finished making it up three flights of stairs, then the least I could do was answer it.

Ugh, the least I could do. I was going to get those words tattooed on my ass one day. I hated how they reminded me of Shawn. And what was with these stupid chest pains? Since Friday, they showed up whenever I thought of him, and I was not a fan.

“Lilly, would you hurry up?” Mia yelled; her voice muffled by the wood.

All hunched and careful, I resembled my seventy-year-old uncle as I shuffled to the door. I let Mia in, and she vibrated where she stood.

“You haven’t been answering your phone,” she said as she pushed past me.

“Sorry. I think I just needed to wallow.” My stomach growled. “Any chance you brought food?”

Mia produced a box of Krispy Kreme donuts from her oversized tote bag and slapped them on my kitchen counter. I moaned happily. “Mia, you’re amazing.”

“Eat while I talk.”

I raised a brow, gripped the box, and sank into my sofa. “What happened?” I asked, mouth full of original glaze.

Mia’s eyes darted around my chaotically cluttered apartment, and her words came out in a rush.

“Shawn took the fall for you. He’s under investigation, and he quit the fundraiser. He quit his own initiative, and he’s on his way to our school, right now, to talk to Principal Rutton.”

I gasped, and a bite of donut clogged my windpipe. I coughed, spluttered and choked as Mia rolled her eyes and smacked between my shoulder blades. “You alright there, love?”

I made a horrible, deep, rumbly throat-clearing noise and said, “He took the blame? What do you mean?”

She shook her head. “No no, I’m not sitting here and chatting over tea and donuts with you. You need to swallow that down, don’t choke on it–Lilly! It’s not Shawn’s bloody penis, is it? Stop shoving it down your throat.”

I trembled, my chest shaking with laughter as I swallowed my last bite. Mia pulled me up and pushed me to the bedroom. “Go get dressed. We’ve got to hurry.”

Lilly

I walked into my school wearing my stretchiest pair of jeans and a tank top. The summer heat was in full swing, and I dug my sweaty fingers into my beltloops to haul the fabric higher over my ass as my tennis shoes padded across the concrete floor.

“Come on,” Mia pushed, half a step in front of me.

She led me down the narrow, quiet hallway, and I tried not to think of the fact that this could be the last time I’d set foot in here. This school was more than just my job. This was my place, my reason for getting up in the morning. It was the closest thing I had to a real purpose, and the closest connection I had to my mother.

And I couldn’t believe Trevor did what he did just to take that away from me.

Mia was furious over it. I knew she wanted to do very violent things to Trevor and Stacey, and I couldn’t blame her.

But we were here for different reasons. Mia was here to support Shawn, and I was here to stop him. I wanted my job back, yes, but not at the expense of Shawn losing his.

He might’ve been here to help, but he didn’t call or text for three entire days. And now he thought he could ride in here like some gallant prince ready to save the girl?

No. That was not happening.

My stomach twisted, knotted and pretzeled. I didn’t even know what I was going to do. All I wanted to do was forget all this happened, and yell at Shawn until my lungs caught fire.

I still didn’t know what to think.

Did Shawn leave me again? Or was this all in my head?

He was here, fighting for me, trying to help. Sticking his nose where it didn’t belong.

But I didn’t want it. Any of it. I just wanted him to understand how much his silence hurt me. It was like being rejected by him all over again. Like being run out on when I needed him most.