Chapter Text
I’m breathing heavily. I just did that, didn’t I? Squinting lazily at the lights that hang by threading cords above, I let my mind wander. The faces they made would’ve been good leaving gifts. Ha. I should’ve had a camera ready. Little Miss Perfect doesn’t burst out into a fiery rant daily, I suppose. His speechlessness is worth far more though. Blinking furiously, with his mouth hanging as if on broken hinges and the confusion of emotions that erupted onto his face will make me laugh for years.
Chronic lung problems subsiding, it hits me like a fifty ton truck. I actually did that, I spoke my mind like an erupting volcano of pent up hatred from over seven soul-destroying years. For a sudden second I feel the dread of unknown consequences, but then I remember how free from these god-awful people I’m about to be. University is a summer away and none of these self-centred pricks will be there. I’ll be free from all this BS.
I strut out of my little hiding closet and brace all my senses for the onslaught that should be outside the door, only to find a bunch of wide-eyed first years (I swear they just keep on getting smaller and more helpless looking each year). Their huge eyes tell of terror… Great even the firsties know. So the world knows, must be all over daytime news by now, huh? Shifting to the other foot I stare over their tiny heads at the growing crowd. Damn.
All of my resolve to be confident and arrogant slips through my clumsy fingers as the amount of staring eyes seems to grow exponentially. What does one do in these situations? Everything other than what I do. Standing stock still, with wide eyes and non-functional limbs. Ha ha… I’m screwed.
Raven to the rescue. I really do not understand how she does this. She’s like a goddamn super hero. Does a bat signal shine every time I bury myself in embarrassment or piss some arrogant asshole off? (the former more than the later). She just appears to one side of the crowd, muscles her way through as I stare on like a damn deer in some immobilising headlights. Stepping in front of me, she glares at every single face in the accumulating sea, each getting an equal amount of her terrifying malice and all looking at least slightly terrified for their lives.
As they should.
It doesn’t take long for me to become physically mobile again as the crowd disperses. They have things to do, people to cry on the shoulders of as they double or triple promise to stay in touch and all that sap. Since I have precisely one friend in this entire school, who just happens to be studying mechanical engineering of some kind at the very same Irish university I intend to go to, no sob goodbyes. Not that Raven has ever shed a tear since she came into existence.
She looks over at me. Obviously she knows all the details of what ‘went down’. Maybe even every word said/yelled. Gossip spreads like damn wildfire in this school. She just stares for a moment and I know what that face means. “Stop looking at me like one of your projects.” I say while trying (unsuccessfully) to stifle a wave of giggles.
Then a grin just over takes her face entirely and she starts getting all pretend mushy about how she thought this day would never come and “her girl’s all grown up”. I shove her shoulder and give her a small smile.
“Yelling at a guy constitutes as being grown up?” I look at her side ways, smirk curling my lips “Well, I’ve been shouting at Wells for years now so...”
Raven eyes me saying, “Best friends who you are practically siblings with do not count, doofus.” She ruffles my hair as we wander down the corridor. I don’t even give thought to any retaliation. I’m like a mouse to her giraffe-ness, all her long limbs and curves? Does that even apply to giraffes?