Two days after the fight and I still felt as roughed up as I did an hour after the fight.
Rolling around and out of bed was not an option because every move I made forced a grunt out of my lips.
I still had to go to school today and with the way I was limping everywhere, I’d need a miracle for it to go unnoticed around school.
I didn’t want to miss a day of school unless it was a life and death situation so calling in sick was definitely not an option.
When my alarm went off, I gingerly stepped out of bed and tried to make as little movements as I could.
I carefully made my way to my closet and took some clothes to change into before limping away into the toilet.
To say that every movement ached like a bitch was an understatement and I could only pray that it’d all dull away somehow before my last fight. I needed to win, badly.
I could only hope my opponent would be in a worse condition than I was. It’s probably the only way I could win the fight.
After getting myself cleaned up, I tried to make myself as presentable as I could. I never liked the feeling of my face getting caked up with make-up and so I sent a quick thanks to God for not getting any hits to my face during that last fight.
I still had deep bags under my eyes and a small cut here and there on my face but nothing the bruises weren't as bad as the ones I got from the last fight.
I quickly took a hoodie with me, planning to make myself as comfortable as possible during the lectures.
Lucky me, my parents had been called for an emergency board meeting for another week. Right after my last fight.
When they come back, everything was going to be right. No more fighting, no more danger, no more vengeance.
I didn’t know how long it’s been since there was peace in my life. It had been years since I started fighting in the Underground Place. I’d forgotten what it felt like to live without being on edge every second of every day.
I couldn’t remember why I chose to continue live that kind of life, but I guess it did help occupy my mind. It might sound horrible but worrying about getting ambushed by someone from the Underground Place on the streets kept my mind from thinking of Bryant’s death 24/7.
I grabbed my things on my way out and drove off to school.
When I arrived and parked, I took a deep breath to steel myself. I sent a quick prayer for strength to get through the pain of moving around this huge ass campus and opened the car door before shifting sideways to get out of the car.
I took small steps to avoid sharp pains from shooting through my body while everyone else walked around me, some taking a double take at my pace.
At one point, I realized I had to climb the stairs to get to one of my classes and I internally groaned. The urge to cry out in frustration was so hard to suppress that I had to take a second to calm myself down and convince myself to not fret about it.
Burn that bridge when you get to it, Case.
I focused on not getting trampled by the ruthless University students that were shoving people around without a care. I almost punched someone in the face for elbowing the side of my head but I decided it wasn’t worth the pain.
I better save it for the last fight. I’ll certainly need everything I could muster if I was going to survive that fight.
10 minutes into the lecture after a long struggle of getting to the auditorium, I began questioning my reasons of going to school today.
What was I bloody thinking?
Since I was already there, I guess it was a pointless question to ask myself. I’ll just keep fighting through the day and hope people in the corridor won’t trample me to death.
I couldn't die yet, I still had to fight and win.
After the lecture, I had an hour break before I had a tutorial to attend. I looked to my left at the staircases I had to climb to get to class and to my right to where the food court was.
Decisions, decisions.
I decided that I deserved some reward for making it through the morning traffic in the hallways and started limping towards the restaurants.
It was pretty sad that I didn’t have friends in University. The thought of making some was tempting as I trudged over the open field to where the food stalls were at.
Thinking about friends reminded me of Penelope and Monic.
And Jake, of course.
It hadn’t been the same since Penelope and I moved away to different Universities. I didn’t doubt that she was already being swarmed by a bunch of friends.
Monic, the last time I heard from her, sounded stressed and upset. I assumed it had something to do with Jake since she avoided talking about him when I brought up their relationship.
There was just too many things going on and I imagined the hassle of having to keep my secret from another soul. I was tired of the lying and sneaking away. I was lucky enough that my parents are away most of the time but I don’t have it in me to build a friendship off of lies.
Maybe, when all of this is over, I can start living a normal teenager life. I can start making friends and worry over normal teenager problems.
I halted my wandering mind when I reached the bustling food court. It was a small area full of different stalls. I took my time in looking around. I haven't been here since I enrolled. I slowly walked up to the sushi corner and faced the guy behind the counter.
“Hey, what can I help you with?” He flashed me a pearly white smile and I gave him a brief small one before placing my orders.
After I gave him some notes to pay for my food, he handed me my sushi in a clear plastic container, some tissues and chopsticks and my change.
“Enjoy!” He gave me one last smile and winked at me. I tried not to grimace at how flirty he was being.
Have I ever mentioned how bad I was at handling flirts?
I sat down at one of the empty tables and opened up the plastic container. I opened up the small bottle of soy sauce inside and poured some on top of the sushi.
I was about to wipe my soy sauce stained fingers with the tissue when I caught the numbers scribbled on it.
I could feel my eyebrows furrowing at the sight. I didn’t see him picking up a pen and scribble anything. He was picking out the sushi I wanted and putting them into the container the entire time.
How the hell did he manage to scribble his number on the tissue paper then? Did he keep a stash of tissue papers that has his number scribbled on them?
‘Now that’s not desperate at all,’ my conscience sarcastically stated and I rolled my eyes along.
I wiped my fingers on the other side of the tissue and picked up my chopsticks. I broke the chopsticks in half and started eating my sushi while considering saving the guy’s number.
I mean sure, it looked pretty desperate but he might turn out to be a nice guy with charming qualities. Nice enough to give out free sushi on a date?
I almost laughed at myself. Who was I kidding. I shuddered lightly when I realized how much I sounded like a manipulative bitch. The thought of manipulative bitches reminded me of Sonia; ol’ good queen bitch Sonia who loved making my high school life a living hell.
I gobbled down the sushi, lost in my thoughts as I reminisced my high school experiences. High school wasn’t that bad after Adam came along. I started having fun after he popped into my life.
When I finished all my sushi, I threw away all my trash and braced myself for the ruthless current of students I’d have to fight against to get to class. Not to mention the excruciatingly painful looking stairs.
I sighed to myself.
Come on, Case. You’ve been through worse, this should be a cakewalk.
I mentally patted myself on the back for the pep talk and started my walk back to the building where my next class was at.
After what felt like a decade later, I was finally at the base of the stairs. I was going to be late if I didn’t get on with it. So, I took one last deep breath to prepared myself and gripped on the stairs’ handrail.
I pulled myself onto the first step of the stairs using the handrail and kept doing so until I was almost ten steps up the stairs.
I was about to take another step when someone tapped my shoulder. I turned around only to come face-to-face with a redheaded girl.
“Hey, are you okay?” She asked me.
I gave her a tight smile and nodded my head. The truth was that my body was straining to keep going. All of my sore limbs were flaring up in pain with every step I took.
“Let me help you, you look like you’re struggling.” She offered, a worried look on her face.
She had a fairly medium build and I had no doubt that she was strong enough to help me up these stairs. But still, I hesitated, doubts and fears clouding up my mind.
What if she started asking questions? I really didn’t want to lie to a potential friend. Or worse, what if she was one of the bad guys?
“Come on, if we don’t get moving, we’re both going to be late.” She smiled, offering her arm.
I finally caved in, dismissing my thoughts and letting her lift my arm to wrap it around her shoulder. Her arm wrapped itself around my waist and I bit in the hiss of pain on the tip of my tongue when she applied slight pressure on my side to hold me up.
I let her bear some of my weight as we climbed the remaining steps of the stairs.
When we finally reached the top of the stairs, we let each other go and I blew out a relieved breath. I hoped going down wouldn't be as hard as climbing up.
I only had three classes for today and I hoped that my body would feeling better the next day.
“Thank you for helping me,” I said to her, making my voice as sincere and gratifying as I could. She turned to me with a smile, “No problem.”
“I’m Raven,” she offered her hand out and I took it. “Cassandra.”
“Well, I’ll see you when I see you, Cassandra.” Raven said, glancing at the watch around her wrist.
“Right, better get to class. Thanks again for helping me,” I told her, waving as we parted ways.
As I walked down the halls, I smiled to myself in relief when I realized I didn’t have to lie to her.
The fighting will end soon and I might already have someone to befriend when it’s all over.