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Me: She’s not doing well.
Colton: What’s going on?
Me: She’s staring into space. There’s nothing there. Lights on but no one’s home.
Daxon: Shit. After English, let’s take her back and see if we can get her to come around.
Me: Yup. Colt, did you get those pictures off her phone?
Colt: Yeah, I did. Think that will work?
Me: No fucking clue. Worth a shot. Something has to shake her. She’s been like this since Saturday.
Putting my phone back in my pocket, I turn back to her. I rub my chest, trying to do anything to get rid of the pain I feel in it. The hurt and feeling of worthlessness right now. I just want to make this all better.
Nothing we did would have done this to her. We just wanted her gone. Whoever is leaving these for her, stalking her, has turned her into a shell of herself.
Class ends and she just sits there. I gather up my things and walk over to the other side of her, picking up her backpack, which she never took a thing out of it, and throwing it over my shoulder. She looks up at me blankly and then gets out of her seat, heading out of class.
She walks on autopilot to our next class, pre-calc. I stay behind her, just watching her navigate through the crowds. People are staring at her, noticing that she’s not herself. I can hear them whispering, but I can’t make out what they’re saying.
She passes through the door of the room and heads to her desk. Phoenix slides in the chair and stares down at her hands. Fuck, I can’t take this. Watching her like this.
“Phoenix. Hey, sweetheart.” I scoot my desk closer to her and reach out to touch her, but she flinches. “Hey, it’s me. It’s alright. Just me.” She looks up and nods. “Hey, I need you to snap out of it. You have us worried.”
She doesn’t say a thing.
Bianca struts into class with a knowing grin on her face. She immediately homes in on Phoenix.
“Does it smell like trash in here?” she says loudly. Students in the class laugh, and a couple yell out that it does.
“Sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up.” Colton come up from behind Bianca and immediately, the room falls silent. “No one will mess with Phoenix. No one with fuck with her. She’s ours. Fuck with her, you fuck with us. I suggest not putting a target on your back.”
“What the fuck, Colt? She’s with you? What bullshit is that? She’s trash! How is she with you?” Bianca screeches.
“Withus,” I correct. “As in she isours. Plural.”
“What?” I swear her voice just broke the sound barrier. “Does Daxy know this?”
“First off, it’s Daxon. He really does hate when you fucking call him that ridiculous name. Second, he was the one who initiated it.” Colton cocks his head to the side as he stares Bianca down.
She sneers, “Chad was right. You guys are losing it. Falling for trash pussy.”
“Chad said that? That’s rich from a guy who has to drug women in order to get laid.” I chuckle.
“Well, the only one I know that he drugged was her, and he didn’t get to fuck her. So, your accusations are unfounded.” She shrugs.
I look up at Colt and see nothing but red. We knew he did that to her. “Oh see, now you are going to explain that. How did he do it?”
“I’m not saying a wor—”
Colt yanks her up out of her seat and drags her out of the room. She’s trying to pull away from him, but he’s too strong.
The teacher comes in, obviously ignoring the commotion that is going on outside the classroom with Colt and Bianca. He goes into the lesson for today, and I look over at Phoenix. She has her arms crossed on her desk, and her head is laying on them. Her eyes are staring at me, but again, they are empty.
My phone goes off in my pocket, and I take it out.
Colt: He had Bianca slip it in her drink when she wasn’t looking. When she was on the deck that night. That’s why she was there. Phoenix caught her but had no clue she drugged her.