“Why do you always look so grumpy? And you have a really scary resting bitch face” Bridget as usual was already in her hyperactive state and Caroline was already done with her. It was their lunch break at school and they were all seated at the cafeteria

“I don’t” Caroline snapped at Bridget for the last time. She mostly didn’t enjoy her company but she couldn’t bring herself to tell Bridget to just shut up and leave. She didn’t like being rude to people but she tried to ignore Bridget as much as she could. Caroline continuously sipped from her juice box and turned away.

“I agree with the part of the resting bitch face, it’s really scary” Max added in bursting into a fit of laughter trying to evade the glares that came from Caroline

“What do both of you mean?” Caroline huffed and tried the ignore the two laughing people that were seated with her

“Plus” Bridget continued “You never talk to anybody. The only person I ever see you talk to like a normal person is Max” She said pointing a finger to Max who did nothing but shrug at her statement

Caroline rolled her eyes and said “That’s because he is my best friend. What do you expect?”

“Bridget gave a long sigh and shook her head “If I didn’t know better I would have said you guys were dating”

Caroline spewed the juice that was in her mouth and faced Bridget with a piercing glare. She couldn’t bring herself to like Bridget and she only made it worse for herself. One the other hand Max burst into laughter again and almost fell from his seat. He seemed to be enjoying the whole display in front of him as he stretched a handkerchief to Caroline.

“Would you stop laughing already?” Caroline said taking handkerchief but Max didn’t heed one bit. She got up after cleaning the spilled juice and threw the hanky at Max. “Whatever, I’m going to the bathroom” She said before leaving.

After a while when Caroline left, Max said to Bridget “You shouldn’t have said that” He looked more serious that her had been when Caroline was there.

“But seriously she ignores everyone and I’ve only ever seen her act normal with you” Bridget tried to explain but stopped when Max released an exaggerated sigh which made her look puzzled.

Max folded his arms and continued “That doesn’t give you the right to conclude on anything, besides she has a different orientation from you. If you don’t know about something just simply ask”

After a short silence with Bridget thinking, she finally said “Alright then, I’m sorry for assuming”

-----------------------

TW: Self harm.

Caroline got to the door of the bathroom still a bit annoyed at Bridget “Why does everybody think that I need more friends or even a boyfriend?”  she thought while she tried to rinse off any residue of juice from her clothes. She pondered about the fact that besides Max she also had Ellie, although not real she still was close to her.

It had been two weeks since her hospital incident which only she could remember which was strange and after the last dream she had of Ellie she found it even weirder but she had to keep it to herself for the time being. More strange was the fact that when she had more dreams of Ellie, she had less panic attacks.

“whatever”. She dried her had with some tissue that was in the bathroom and started for the door when she heard some girls talking. She didn’t care about them and continued until she heard her name.

“I think I saw her pass a while ago” the first girl said. There were three of them and they walked right into the bathroom but Caroline had already hidden in one of the stalls.

“haha yeah, what a freak” the second girl added and they all started laughing.

The laughter resounded in Caroline’s ear as she stood there in the stall. The girls had already gone but she could still hear them in her head. “I’m not a freak, I’m not a freak” she said over and over in her head but no matter what she did it couldn’t stop the claustrophobic feeling she felt in the stall. Her heart pounded fast in her chest and she found it hard to breath. She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt the way and the  pain drowned all her senses as she fell to the floor of the bathroom.

Useless. Good for nothing. Freak.  All the more as she tried, all the more the thoughts came pouring. Thing only thing that you deserve is pain.

“No, no stop” Caroline tried to whisper down the voices that screamed in her head but with each second that went by her resolved only weaken and as if on impulse she took the closest sharp thing to her and started cutting away.