It Happened Last Year

I walk into the cafeteria with my backpack hanging from one shoulder, ready to fall off. I catch a glimpse of Jana, Taylor, Jordan, surprisingly Trent, and even Daniel sitting at the lunch table today. In my head, I thank God for it. I like to look at him, which seems stalkerish, but I can’t help it. They are schoolgirl thoughts, it’s a schoolgirl crush, and it will never happen.

“Hailey Fonte, you just won’t give up, will you?”

My eyes freeze at a spot on the floor, it is tiled, white with black speckles. I know that high voice all too well, and I know better than to flee. The cafeteria is silenced by her.

Glancing up, slowly, I see her long platinum hair. Her hand is on her hip and her white t-shirt glows with the words: Coldgrove Dance Team.

Daphne.

“What? Have you gone mute too? Have your lies gone to your head? You know, you have real nerve coming back here.”

I knew this would happen eventually. “Look, Daphne-”

“No. You’re a lair. An attention whore-”

Suddenly, Jana shoots up from her seat. “Hailey,” she calls me over, waving. The entire table is looking at me, watching me struggle, not sure what to do. This doesn’t happen here, not in dear Coldgrove. Daniel doesn’t look strained, though, he looks calm, as he usually does.

I step to the side, ready to walk around her and join Jana, but Daphne steps in my way, swiftly. “You’re not going anywhere but out the door.”© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

My heart squeezes in my chest. Why did you do this Hailey? Why did you come back to this school? Why did you come back to Coldgrove? They hate you. They’ll always hate you.

Everyone’s eyes are on me. They’re waiting, waiting for something. Will I leave? Will I push past her? Will I fall to my knees and cry?

The worst of the worst happens then.

Harrison Keller stands up from a table and walks over, as he does so, he calls out, “Leave her alone, Daphne.”

I can feel myself starting to hyperventilate.

Daphne peers at him, who is now standing beside her. She scowls at me then drifts back to her lunch table, the one filled with other dance team members.

Like an arrow shot from a bow, Harrison’s hand reaches out to me, maybe to my shoulder, maybe to somewhere else. Immediately, I flinch back. “Don’t touch me!”

Maybe it was the words I said or the sound of actual fear in my voice, but the crowd seems taken back.

Jana runs towards me and slaps his arm away, shoving herself in between us. She shelters me before leading me out of the cafeteria, through the main doors. I don’t dare look back at all their faces, their beady eyes.

The doors close behind us and we turn into the nearest bathroom. Jana shoo’s out one girl who is standing in front of the mirror, fixing her hair. She shuts the bathroom door, kicking out the wedge, and she locks it.

The mirror taunts me, daring me to take a look at the mess standing before me. I grab the laminate counters and squeeze before tumbling to the ground. I land on my butt. Jana watches me. “Do you want to be alone?” She asks. I nod. She leaves. I cry.

I assume she’s blocking off the door to any students, and I love her for that.

Mr. Russ closed the classroom door, then turned to me. I want to kiss you, Hailey, he said.

I stood against his desk, watching him near me like a starving lion, hunting in the Savannah. I was the zebra, waiting to be slain. I didn’t move, I fought myself to stay.

He grabbed my hand, a baby step, then reached out to my face, caressing my cheek. I wanted to run, to cry, but I held it all back. He leaned in as he had done before, then brought our lips together, touching softly. My knees buckled. He moved his lips, I tried to, he touched my back, I squeeze my eyes shut. It was like dancing with a shattered leg.

He wanted more from me, I could feel it.

Tears slipped from my eyes, and he pushed me against his body, closing the space between us. The drops rolled down my cheek, joining the kiss, and Mr. Russ stopped. He pulled away, stared at me as I frantically pushed myself from him.

The bathroom floor is cold, dirty, no place for a person, yet I continue to sit here, leaning against the wall.

“You can’t block off the bathroom!” I hear someone yell from outside.

“There’s another one down the hall, now walk away,” Jana’s voice fights back, and I smile, almost laughing.

The tears have stopped now, and Jana peeks in for the second time. “You okay?” She calls and I nod. She then slips in and locks the door behind her. “Daphne is a bitch, she had no right.”

“It’s okay,” I murmur, “I expected this.”

“You don’t deserve this,” she says with fire, “what he did to you? You have to fight back! You need justice!”

I shrug. “I tried, a year ago, but no one listened, you know that. No one cares that I got hurt, they only care about Harrison, about his reputation. The only people that know what happened-the truth-is Harrison and me, and I know he is never going to come clean. Who would.”

Jana falls back against the wall. “I’m sorry, Hailey. I wish there was something that I could do, something to help bring him down.”

“Don’t be sorry. The past is the past, and I suppose the only thing I can do now is to survive this year and move on.”

Jana and I avoid the cafeteria for the rest of lunch, and instead, we walk around the campus. She talks about Tyler Bradshaw, her love interest, taking my mind off of Daphne and Harrison. I enjoy listening o her talk, especially about her date. It is nice to hear about those things, flirtation, handholding, the first kiss, words can’t hurt me like actions would. I live vicariously through her stories.