I looked at the paper in my hands. An “F”. Chemistry has never been my strong suit, but an “F”. I feel my eyes sting with tears but push the feeling back. The teacher continues to teach, so I put away the paper and start taking notes. Wouldn’t want to fail the next one.
The horrible third-period chemistry class ends and the horrible fourth-period study hall starts.
I enter the classroom and sit down. The teacher takes attendance then sits down. I pull out the test and the large red “F” taunts me. I put my hands on my forehead and rub the area to attempt to soothe a forming headache. I can’t stand to look at it any longer so I put the paper away and just lay my head down on the table for the rest of the period.
The bell rings and I get up to head for lunch. Maybe, this period won’t suck. I’ll get to see Peter and Ned. They always lift my mood. I walk into the lunchroom and see Peter sitting with Ned. I make my way over there, but on the way, someone bumps into me and I drop my books.
“Hey, watch it!” The guys yells in my face. I feel the tears welling in my eyes once again, but I resist the urge to break down. I can’t cry, I’m not weak, I think to myself. I bend down to pick up my books when I hear a sharp ripping noise. I quickly stand up again and reach back to feel the back of my pants. I groan as I cover my butt with one hand, and pick up my books with the other. I walk over to the table Ned and Peter are sitting at and I drop my books on the table.
“Peter, can I borrow your hoodie?” I ask him with my best puppy dog eyes.
“Yeah, sure, why?” Peter asks shrugging his jacket off. He hands it to me and I tie it around my waist.
“I happened to split my pants earlier.” I say. Ned tries to hold back a laugh.
“Really?” Ned asks.
“Yes, just let it go.” I snap.
“Touchy, sorry I asked.” Ned says.
“Sorry, I’m in a bad mood, just continue talking about what you were talking about before I came over.” I say sitting down at the table and resting my head on my books. Before I know it, I fall asleep on my books.
“Y/N, wake up.” Peters’ voice says. I feel his hand on my shoulder and I immediately never want him to move his hand. What is Peter doing in my bedroom, I think. Crap, I’m not in my bedroom! I bolt up and out of the seat.
“The bell just rang, you have to get to class.” Peter says soothingly. I grab Peter by the shoulders and peck his lips.
“Thank you! I’ll see you seventh.” I say before grabbing my books and running to my next class. As I’m running through the hall, I feel something whipping me in the leg. I look down and see it’s my shoelace is untied. I don’t stop running to fix it, I figure I can just fix it in the classroom, once I get there. I was wrong. My footsteps on the shoelace on my shoe and the momentum throws me to the floor. I feel a sharp pain under my eye. Luckily the hallway was empty so nobody saw me take a tumble. I pick up my books which had scattered across the floor. I walk the rest of the way to my classroom and open the door. The teacher looks up to see who’s getting a detention for being late when he sees my face. He gasps.
“Y/N, you can go to the nurse.” My teacher says.
“Why, I’m fine.” I say trying to push past him, tears welling up again. Mr. Winchester pulls me out into the hallway.
“Who did this, was it Peter? I know you guys are together.” He says. I smile at the fact that Mr. Winchester cares so much.
“No I fell in the hallway, is there something wrong with my face?” I ask.
“Y/N, you have a huge black eye.” Mr. Winchester says.
“What?” I say pulling out my phone. I open the camera and look at my face. He was right a big ole black eye. Tears almost fall down my face. I open my mouth to say something but no words come out.
“Y/N, you need to go to the nurse.” Mr. Winchester says gripping your shoulder, trying to ground my glazed eyes. I nod.
“Do you need someone to come with you?” He asks calmly. I nod again. Mr. Winchester enters the room and calls for MJ to come out. She follows the directions of her teacher, wondering what kind of trouble she was in, she didn’t remember doing anything recently.
MJ opens the door and exits the room to find me sitting on the floor with a huge black eye and an emotionless face. Mr. Winchester follows MJ out.
“Can you take her to the nurse and make sure she’s alright?” He asks her.
“Of course.” MJ says. She sticks her hand out for me to grab. I reach for it and she pulls me up off the floor. She bends down and grabs my books and holds them for me as we walk. I smile at her in thanks.
“So, what happened? Was it Parker? I’ll kill him.” MJ asked.
“No, Peter loves me, I fell in the hallway.” I say looking down at the ground. MJ could obviously tell how sad I looked. I was trying to hold it together but it was hard. We enter the nurse’s office and I have watery eyes again.
“Hi, she needs an ice pack.” MJ says to the nurse who nods and grabs one from the freezer next to her desk. MJ pushes me to sit down and she sits next to me. The nurse hands me the ice pack wrapped in a paper towel. We sit there until the seventh-period bell rings.
“Thank you, MJ.” I say smiling at her.
“No problem.” She calls out. I give the ice pack back to the nurse who thanks me. I walk out of the nurse’s office and then to the seventh period. I enter the classroom and see Peter already there. He looks up from his phone and smiles at me. I look up at him and he frowns. I probably look like I was just run over by a car. I sit down next to him and he grabs my face in his hands.
“What the hell?” He asks. I look at him with teary eyes and he understands to stop talking about it. He pulls me in for a quick hug and he presses a kiss to the crown of my head.
“I’m sorry.” Peter whispers. I nod. I turn my attention to the teacher and the period flies by. The bell rings for eighth period.
“Do you want to come over tonight? Maybe 6?” Peter asks. I smile and nod.
“Yeah sounds good.” I say. I press a kiss to Peters’ lips as I head for my last class of the day.
The class goes quickly and soon, I exit the school. I walk home to my apartment. Before I head up, I stop by the mailroom to pick up my families mail. I notice a letter from the college I applied too. This is just what I need, a win. I run up to my apartment and throw my books on my bed. I look at the letter in my hands and I rip it open. I unfold the letter, it’s only one sheet of paper. I read the first few words. “I’m sorry to tell you…”, I didn’t get in. I sit down on my bed. The tears that have been begging to fall all day reappear, but I push them back again. There are other colleges I applied to, I’ll be fine. I grab my phone and a sweatshirt, my mind going to the place that gives me the most comfort. I exit my apartment and lock up. The walk to Peters apartment was short. I run up the stairs of the apartment and over to Peters door. I bang on the door willing Peter to come quicker. He swings the door open and he is on his phone.
He looks up, “What are you doing here?”
“I’m running from my problems, duh.” I say, trying to lighten the mood.
“Right, well come in.” Peter says shoving his phone into his back pocket.
“Well, Y/N, what’s wrong, you’ve been upset all day.” Peter asks moving us to the couch. I feel the tears again, but this time I let them fall. Peter grabs me by the waist and pulls me in for a tight hug. He holds me, my face buried in his chest, for at least an hour. I let the stress of the awful day wash away as Peter rubs his hand in soothing patterns on my back. Once I’m done crying my eyes out I pull away.
“Y/N, I’m worried, are you okay?” Peter asks.
“I’m fine, just a terrible day.” I hiccup.
“Well then cure for any terrible day, I think, is watching Harry Potter.” Peter says getting up and popping in the first DVD. He walks back over to the couch and lays down. I lay next to him and rest my head on his chest. He wraps his arms around me and I sigh in content.
“Nice shiner, by the way.” Peter laughs.