Please, Ignore My Sobbing.
"What? How?" Ori said, stumbling over their words.
"I don't know but when I came back with the nurse, you were both on the ground except that Olivia was a few metres away from you and she was bleeding with a broken leg."
"What!" Ori couldn't believe it, Ori knew that they missed...wait did they? Even if they didn't miss, Olivia shouldn't have had a broken leg or bleeding, Olivia shouldn't have even passed out. Ori was very weak, or so they'd been told.
"Ori, what happened when I left?"
"Um, Olivia-"
"What are you doing here?" The nurse said, holding Ori's lunch.
"Oh uh, Ori's my friend, so I came to check up on her."
"Well, that's my job but being concerned for your friend is understandable, and you can stay, just keep your voice down," The nurse said as she sat down and placed Ori's lunch down.
"Yes, Ms." Temple sighed in relief, "Continue."
"Well, Olivia kept bothering me and-" Ori looked to see what they had for lunch. They had spaghetti, a red apple, and some peas. "Is it okay if I eat only the spaghetti?" Ori asked the nurse.
"Yes, of course, just check your blood sugar again."
Ori nodded and checked again and Temple watched very carefully, "My blood sugar is...4.0."
"Uh-huh, alright" The nurse pulled Ori aside and gave them an insulin shot.
"Can I have the apple?" Temple asked shyly.
"Yeah, I don't like red apples, so you can have it." They enjoyed their lunch, but Temple left quickly to get the lunch he had brought home.
He also came back with Ori's backpack and their other stuff. "Here. You left this in class," Temple handed Ori their glasses as he put their backpack next to them.
"Oh, thanks!" Ori smiled awkwardly and put their glasses in the pocket of their coat.
"Aren't you going to put them on?"
"Mm? No. I don't like how they look, it's…stupid." Ori stared at their glasses, their stupid pink, blue, and purple frames. Stupid glitter.
Temple took off his glasses, pulled out a cleaning kit, sprayed the lenses, wiped them, and put them back on. "Hm…nope. Give me your glasses."
Ori handed him their glasses, "um, okay?"
He did the same, cleaned them and handed them back to Ori. "I don't know what you're talking about, your glasses are cute! I love the colours! Blue and pink are my favourite colours and I like the sparkles."
"I like pink and blue too but, I don't know, aren't they…weird? You know, cringe."
"I don't think there's anything "cringe" with needing to see. I remember you complaining about how you needed glasses, and you were so excited about finally getting glasses and you told me that you were happy about the frames you picked, what happened?"
Ori stared at the ground, looking away from Temple, they tried their best to hide that they were crying. He sounded like one of her lectures. They wanted to hit themself, not in a way where it hurt but like a knock, but they were going to have to wait until they were by themself.
They took deep breaths, blinked their tears away, and kept their eyes on the ground. "Do you really want me to answer that?"
Temple shook his head, "No, I think I know the answer."
It was muffled, but Ori heard a car that was blasting Bicycle Race from Queen. "My "dad" is here," Ori said, putting on their backpack.
"Oh alright." Temple walked Ori to the front office. "Oh and," Temple gave Ori the invite to his party, "here. I understand if you don't want to go anymore, so you don't have to go if you don't want to but, I'd still like for you to be there." Temple smiled and Ori shook his hand before pulling him into a hug.
"I'll think about it, Happy birthday and I hope you have a great day!" Ori smiled back at Temple who almost forgot to let go.
"Bye, see you on Monday!" Temple waved as he probably headed back to his actual friends.
Pity. Ori thought.
"Ready?" Alistair asked. Ori turned around and saw their "dad," who was actually their godfather, and also their biological dad's boyfriend.
Ori nodded, "Yup."
Once they left the building, Alistair looked at them. "So, who was that?" He said, casually, extending the "O" in So.
"Temple."
Alistair looked as if he was thinking, which was usual. "Temple...Temple, that name seems familiar."
"Temple is the name of a flower." They responded. He rolled his eyes playfully.
"Oh wait, now I remember. Temple's your friend, right?" He said as they got to the car, which was blackish-grey.
"Eh, I guess." Ori opens the back car door and gets in.
"Is she not your friend? You two were inseparable when I was a chaperone on your last field trip." He made sure Ori was safely secure.
"I mean, I want to be her friend." Ori waited until he was in the car to say.
"Temple seems to want to be your friend too."
"She's just being nice."
"From what I saw, I'm pretty sure she wants to be your friend."
Ori looked back at the school, Temple was there with his friends, and he was pointing at Ori. They all waved at them, and they smiled and waved back, "Maybe, you’re righ- Ah!"
As soon as the car started, music started blasting again, and Ori immediately covered their ears, Alistair turned down the music. Where it was audible but just barely. He turned around and gently tapped Ori's shoulder, Ori then uncovered their ears. "Sorry, I forgot about that."
They nodded, "It's okay."
"So, what happened at school today?" Alistair asked.
"Oh um...I, I don't want to talk about it," Ori said, just barely above a whisper.
"Oh, that's perfectly alright!" Alistair smiled, Ori couldn't see it, but they could hear it in his voice, "Sometimes your dad doesn't want to talk about his day. Sometimes I don't, that's normal."
Ori smiled and then sneered at a thought that popped into their head, That's not true, you love talking, but that was rude. "But um, It's Temple's birthday, she's having a party today."
"Wait! It's Temple's birthday?!" Alistair paused, and so did the car, but that was because they were at a red light.
"Yeah? I was invited but she said I didn't have to go if I didn't want to, and that I didn't have to buy a gift either."
"Well, do you want to go?"
"Not really, I did at first but I don't know now. I sorta want to visit Olivia to make sure she's okay."
Alistair rolled his eyes, "Ugh, no offence to you or Olivia," he didn't mean the latter, "but Olivia's not really a good friend."
"She's my only friend, Dad."
"Well, if you went to Temple's party, maybe you would make new, better friends."
"You're one to talk, your only friends are your boyfriend, your boyfriend's sister and your boyfriend's ex-wife."
"Why'd you have to say it like that?" Alistair said in feigned offence.
Ori looked out the window, I said it that way because it's the truth and the truth hurts. Really hurts.
***
They arrived at Cass's house, where Alistair and Hector, Ori's dad, lived. It was a nice house that was a short drive away from Ori's mum's house.
Ori's Aunt Cass wasn't around often because of work; She was a professor at some boarding school, but sometimes, mostly on holidays, she would come home.
There were three bedrooms, one was Cass’, Alistair and Hector shared a room, and the other room was for Irene, Ori's oldest sister, who was currently away at university. She had told their dad that if any one of her siblings wanted to stay, they could use her room.
Nobody does except for Ori. Nico comes over sometimes, just usually not overnight. Estrella hates their dad, for some reason. Plus, they both have other reasons to stay at their mum's house. Like, most of Nico's friends live closer to their mum's house, and Estrella has her own room where she can be left alone, which is understandable.
Ori entered Irene’s room and neatly put away their backpack and shoes, and they just stood there, staring at the door. They debated leaving the room, they didn't want to be alone but maybe they deserved it. Who would like to be around a monster, someone who has inflicted pain on their only friend? Ori started tearing up. They smoothed their black hair then grabbed their hair and pulled. They took a breath, and let go. "I'll just check on Alistair."
Ori quietly opened the bedroom door, sneaked downstairs, peeked out and saw that Alistair wasn't in the living room. Judging by the fact that there was loud singing to the left, Ali was in the kitchen. Ori was as quiet as they could be and looked over to see that Ali was cutting up some fruit. They stood there for a while before realising that he had headphones and that he wouldn't notice so they looked back to the bedroom and walked towards it before stopping.
Maybe they should tell Alistair what happened. Ori looked back. Or does he already know? Did the school not tell him? I highly doubt that.
What if the school told their mum?
Ori felt the dread seeping into their mind and heart as that thought became clearer. Their heart beats faster and faster, Oh. No, no, no, NO! She can't find out! WON'T—MUST—PERFECT—FIND OUT! NO! Ori sank, sitting on the first step of the stairs, rapidly taking in all the air in the atmosphere.
Then there was something in the back of their mind, a voice. Whispering that what happened was their fault—Olivia was in the hospital and it was all their fault—why did they have to make such a big deal out of nothing?
Ori hid their head between their knees. If I had just shut up none of this would have happened—I knew how Olivia was, I should've just acted like everything was normal! "Stupid, stupid, stupid!"
"Hey, what's wrong?"
Ori froze and realised that they were crying, really loudly. God, I'm so dramatic… Ori looked up. Alistair was standing at the base of the stairs with tired eyes and a kind smile. The ceiling light behind him made his blond hair look like it was glowing like he had a halo.