ARI.

Thanksgiving break had come and gone faster than I could even welcome it with open arms. The week sped by so quickly and before I knew it, I was waking up at 7:15 in the morning. The weather was finally cooling down and all I wanted to do was roll myself up in my blanket like a spicy taquito, watch movies and drink hot peppermint mocha lattes. But to my dismay, I didn't have that luxury. I got to relish in the wonders of tests, homework and essays. I did have four weeks till Christmas break however, and that was all I could think about.

Rolling out of bed, I sleepily trudged out my room and into the bathroom, scratching my left ass cheek in process. I could smell the coffee brewing downstairs and the aroma of freshly ground coffee beans tingling my nostrils were slowly waking me up. I gazed at my reflection in the mirror, not really surprised with the messy disarray atop my head or the purplish hue beneath my eyes. Whoever marries me, will be waking up to Frankenstein every morning.

In thirty minutes my usual morning routine was completed: shower, singing into the hair dryer or hairbrush, exposing my skin to expensive foundation and eyeliner, and lastly, changing into a pair of skinny jeans and a long sleeved shirt. I skipped down the steps and made my way into the kitchen, my eyes set on the coffee maker. However, as I inched forward, my peripheral vision caught a pink slipper strewn on the floor.

Odd.

But upon noticing the furry house slipper, that's when I also caught glimpse of a sight that ruined my entire Monday morning and would for sure continue to ruin the rest of the week.

"Mom!" I shrieked, dropping my messenger bag and dropping to my knees to aid my mom. She was slumped over against the kitchen island with a broken mug by her hand and puddle of warm coffee pooling around her legs. "Oh my God! Mom wake up!"

I shook her, slapping her cheeks lightly in hopes that her eyelids would flutter open and things would be okay. But things weren't okay; something was very much off.

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God," hastily I stood up and ran over to the house phone. My frantic behavior caused the wireless device to slip out of my fingers and crash onto the floor, its battery compartment shattering across the tiles. "Fùck!"

I bent over, picking up the pieces and with shaky hands I struggled to place the battery back into the phone. Once the cover was snapped into place, my quivering fingers dialed the three numbers that would hopefully save my mom.

"911 what's your emergency?" A woman spoke on the other end.

"It's my mom! She's passed out on the floor of my kitchen!" I wailed into the speaker, running back to my mother whose head was still limp.

"Okay ma'am did you see what happened?" the dispatcher asked.

"No I didn't. I came downstairs and she was already down. Hurry up! Please help me, I don't know what to do!" I cried. I felt my heart thumping against my chest; it was pumping on overdrive and I swear my entire chest cavity was going to explode.

"We have your location traced and we've already sent a team of medics to your home," she assured and I was surprised with the calmness of her voice. "What I need you to do right now is to check if your mother is breathing. Can you do that for me sweetie?"

"I can," I breathed, placing my hand near her nostrils and mouth. "She's breathing," I then placed two fingers on her neck, "her pulse is so slow. How long will it be till--"

The blaring sirens filled my ears and only moments later did I hear boisterous banging against the front door. Then everything started to slow down before my very eyes. The door swung open, its knob slamming against the adjacent wall with a loud bang. Several paramedics rushed into our not-so-quaint home, medical supplies in hand as I pointed them over to the kitchen where my mother was. Paramedics carried my mom onto the gurney, immediately placing a brace onto her neck and supplying her with oxygen.

Everything happened in about three minutes but it felt like hours to me. One minute my mom was on the floor with coffee staining her robe, and the next she was being driven away, the sirens reverberating off of my eardrums till it slowly fizzled into nothingness.

They asked if I wanted to ride along side my mom and any normal person would take the offer. But I wasn't normal, and I couldn't do it. I just spent almost everyday hanging around the hospital for the last two weeks when Luke was admitted, and now I had to do it again? Bullshit. I said it once before and I'll admit it again: I am a lot more sensitive than I let on. My heart is made of glass; fragility was the bane of its blueprint and even though I act tough most of the time, that's all it really is: an act.

"Ate," my voice cracked when I finally found my voice after my sister answered her phone.

(translation: older sister)

"Are you alright Ari? I have class in two minutes," she mentioned and I could hear shuffling papers in the background.

"You need to come home," I bit my lip in hopes I could eschew a breakdown. I screwed my eyes shut and took a deep breath inwards before continuing the conversation, "mom was rushed to the emergency room."

"What the hell happened?" Mia questioned and I could hear that fire in her voice whenever she got riled up about something. "Was it her head? Was she dizzy again?"

"I found her passed out on the--" I halted my words suddenly, letting my mind backup a few seconds. "Why are you asking about her head? What do you mean dizzy again?"

"Nothing, nothing. I, uh, mom was complaining about a headache and some dizziness several days ago, that's all. So I just assumed..." Mia's voice trailed into silence for a moment. "But I'm leaving campus now. I'll be at the hospital soon."

I hung up my cell, stuffing the phone into my back pocket before picking up my messenger bag that was still on the floor. The strap had a partial shoe print on it from one of the paramedics and I gently rubbed it off. After slinging it on my right shoulder, I pulled out my car keys and made my way out the front door, locking it behind me. The car speakers immediately started to play Paramore's Riot album and without having any urge or inclination to sing at the top of my lungs while channeling my inner Haley Williams, I drove to school without singing a single tune.

My mind was telling me to drive to the hospital, but my body had a brain of its own. Instead, my right foot pushed the gas pedal and my arms took two right turns, a left and another right before I was pulling into the campus parking lot. Class had already begun and instead of my usual parking space near the football stadium, I parked my car against the chain linked fence.

I was like a mindless drone the way I stepped out of my car and sauntered through the parking lot and into the school. The empty hallways meant less buffer of sound and the squeaking of my converse against the linoleum floors was all I could hear as my fingers grazed the row of lockers. When I finally arrived to room 250, the creaking of the door made the entire math class turn in their seats. All eyes were on me and it was the worse feeling in the world. Whispers ensued and I could already see Katie McQuaid's icy glare forming on her face.

What was their deal? Had they never seen a late student before?

"Miss Quiroz, do you have a late pass?" Mrs. Hemmings asked.

I shook my head in response, proceeding to my desk at the front of the classroom and took a seat. She could tell something was off kilter about me and I could sense her mother superpowers working in full throttle. Though I couldn't see it, I could feel her eyes trying to pry into me, attempting to decipher my mood and behavior.

"I just woke up late," my voice was barely audible as I pulled out my math notebook and a pencil. Suddenly, a gasp escaped Mrs. Hemmings' lips and her black boots came into view. I lifted my head to meet a worried pair of eyes.

"Ari, are you okay? Your knees are bleeding," Mrs. Hemmings informed. Confused and taken aback by her announcement, I peered down to look at the area. She was right-- both my knees were in fact bleeding and tiny rips adorned the area of my jeans. That was probably why I was receiving weird looks when I walked in, not because of my tardiness.

"I guess I cut myself with some glass mirrors and stuff," I shrugged, not exactly sure what was spewing out of my mouth at the time.

"I'm going to send you to the nurse's office okay sweetheart?" Mrs. Hemmings ran back to her desk, pulling out a pad of official hall passes. She wasn't going to give me her Einstein fairy wand pass of course, as bleeding knees were far more imperative than taking a call in the bathroom.

Mrs. Hemmings handed me the pass and without another word uttered, I gathered my things and was out the classroom door faster than it took me to take a seat. Funny thing was, I couldn't feel the stinging sensation from my knees. I guessed I was still in shock, my veins brimming with so much adrenaline of this morning's events that glass lacerating my skin felt like home.

"Ari?"

I looked up when I heard my name and a familiar Australian accent filled my ears. Luke was sitting on a cushioned chair by the nurse's station with an icepack held to his face.

"Luke, what's going on?" I approached him, noticing a red mark on his jaw.

"Got punched in the face," he answered, pulling away the icepack from his face and winced in pain. A nice shiner adorned the right side of his face and my eyes grew to the size of kumquats.

"What the hell happened?" I took a seat next to him, reaching over to caress my fingers across the purple hues that inked his skin.

"I was getting some problems from the hockey team," he sighed, slumping in the seat and placing the ice pack back onto his face. "But forget about my face. What the hell happening to your knees?"

"Nothing," I think I answered too quickly, making guilt flush across my cheeks.

"Ari, you are the worst liar. Your knees look like it's on their period," Luke observed, giving me quite an ample description.

"I dropped a mug of coffee, slipped and fell in the glass. I was running late and just ran out the door," I didn't know why I couldn't tell Luke the truth. He was my best friend and I was supposed to be able to tell him everything.

"And you just didn't realize that your knees were a murder scene?"

"No, I guessed running to school loosened up the blood flow, I don't know!" I shouldn't have snapped at Luke. It wasn't his fault. "I'm sorry, I just don't want to talk about it anymore. I want to talk about you."

"Me? Why thank you Ari, how very kind of you," Luke joked but I wasn't in the mood.

"Please, will you tell me why hockey players decided to use your face as a punching bag?" I questioned him.

"They were passing around a stupid piece of paper in class. When it got to me, I snapped," he disclosed and I cocked my head to the side.

"What was on that paper?"

Luke exhaled, not answering right away. He was thinking about something, I could tell. So I just waited patiently, waiting till he opened his mouth to tell me something. And then he did.

"It was a copy from a page of my therapy sessions back home in Sydney," Luke revealed and my head quickly snapped to look at him.

If my eyes weren't big enough before, they definitely were in that moment. Luke didn't know what I knew, about that conversation I overheard between Michael and Reese.

"I don't know how they got a hold of them. They're supposed to be private, locked up in a file cabinet on the third floor of the building where Dr. Nimas' office was," Luke continued, wondering out loud. "I think whoever has been texting us may have accessed those files. I just wished I knew who it was."

"Luke, I have something to tell you," I pipped up.

"Finally ready to tell me what really happened to your knees," he gestured for my bloody jeans, raising a brow.

"I think I know who's behind the texts," I disclosed, biting my bottom lip in anxiousness.

"Who?!"

"Michael and Reese," I mumbled, but Luke heard me clear as daylight and I knew this because the ice pack in his hand dropped to the floor.

"Why would you say that?"

"Because I overheard a conversation between the two of them. They got access to your files,"

"And when did you hear this conversation?"

"A couple of weeks ago, when you were first admitted in the hospital," I told him, feeling more guilty the more the conversation went on.

"Why are you now just saying something?" Luke fumed, eyebrows furrowed.

"Calm down... I just don't want to believe it," I breathed.

"I get why you don't want to believe Michael has anything to do with it, but you can't deny Reese. You know he's a shady asshole," Luke declared, and I could sense the anger growing inside of him.

"You don't even know Reese and we can't be sure they're the ones. It's just a possibility," I stated. "That conversation I heard was out of context."

The nurse's door creaked open, cutting off Luke who was just about to speak. When the both of us looked over at the door, Michael sauntered out. He had bandages wrapped around his left arm and when his normally bright eyes looked into mine, my breath hitched. Michael had darkness in his eyes, which looked sunken into his skull. There was a devilish glare painted on his face and staring at him made me shudder in my skin.

"Michael? Are you okay?" I asked him, standing up from my chair.

Michael didn't answer. He just looked at me-- no, he looked right through me. He had this spine tingling smirk on his face like he was possessed by the devil himself. Michael let out a chuckle, making the hair on my arms raise on end and when he walked away completely, I found myself opening my mouth without any control.

"I know you're working with Reese!"

//

Well what a way to start a Monday morning; more stuff about Ari's mom and it seems like Mia knows something. And also, the bullying continues. Plus what is going on with Michael?! If this chapter is confusing, I'm sorry about that and I can clarify things for you if you need.

I HIT 5K votes! OMG! Thank you SO much for that! I'm so happy and super thankful for all this! Thanks for voting! Love you all to Reese's Pieces lol. THANK YOU so much for reading this story, all the wonderful, hilarious comments and for all the votes. I love reading all your theories too. Please continue to vote for my story, I appreicate it a lot. Thank you, thank you, thank you!