Chapter 2

To pinpoint my exact location, it would be the far end stall in the girls' bathroom and although I was unsure as to how long I had been there, I knew it still wasn't long enough to get over the shock of what had just happened.

I'd barely given it a second before I ran straight out of the cafeteria, not having even looked into the eyes of the person I'd never been that close to before.

The proximity lingered against my skin as chills ran up and down my arms at the mere thought of what was going through Josh's head right now. He hadn't said a word after it had happened, although I'm not sure I had given him much chance to.

I was unable to gauge the reaction of everyone else around me, including my friends, but then I'm sure I would rather not know what had happened after I left the room.

Everyone in the halls had turned to the strange girl running into the bathroom, oblivious to the fact that I was running for my life.

"Savannah?" Valentina's voice echoed off the walls of the bathroom, bringing me a small comfort that was swiftly replaced with the heavy feeling of regret. She stepped up to the only closed stall at the end, her shoes being visible from beneath the door.

"Come out, Savannah?" She posed as a question as I pulled my knees up tightly to my chest, squeezing my body tight in the hopes that I would just simply disappear into the wall behind me.

"I'm not coming out until I graduate," I exaggerated before watching her heeled boot tapping hard against the floor, signalling her ever-growing impatience.

"You're making a much bigger deal out of this than it is. Hardly anyone even noticed."

"It was Josh, Val," I stated, securing my arms in front of my chest, despite Valentina not being able to see. She didn't experience the same anxious feeling as I did when it came to him. If I couldn't even be near him then how does she expect me to react when I do something like this.

"He didn't even seem that angry," she argued with an uncertainty in her voice. If I hadn't known her for long, I wouldn't have known she was lying, but it was too obvious to ignore, "please just come out."

I'd imagine I was suddenly no longer under-the-radar as I had been before, bringing my name all the way up to number one on Josh's never-ending hit list. Good job Savannah.

A long silence drew in on us and if I was unable to see her shoes, I would've assumed Valentina had left, allowing me to wallow in the pity I had gathered for myself.

However, she simply took a deep breath, something I had also grown to fear. "If you do not open this door right now, I will bring Josh in here myself and I cannot promise what he will do."

I had already opened the door mid-sentence, fearing what she probably would do rather than the threat alone. But as soon as I stepped towards her, the realisation of the event caused me to spin back round and attempt to pull the door closed.

Valentina grasped onto my upper arm, pulling me out before I could event attempt the escape. "You have all three of us," She told me, referring to herself, April and Henry, "we won't let him come near you."

I nodded with precaution, knowing truly that the three of them were not a difficult match for Josh and his terrifying knife.

Before I was able to think about it again, Valentina pulled me up against her, securing me into a tight embrace, one I hadn't realised I needed until now. "Thank you," I whispered and wrapped my arms around her small frame, bringing the comfort I so desperately needed.

However, our embrace was soon interrupted by April running through the door, struggling to catch her breath as she leaned down and held her knees. "Josh is looking for you everywhere, and he does not look happy."

That was all I needed to know as I ran into the stall again and emptied the contents of my stomach into the toilet.

"Well done April," Valentina shouted back and walked over to hold my hair back and rub circles against my back, like I had done for her many times before after her coming back to stay with me after a party.

"Shit, sorry Savannah."

I nodded into the toilet, somewhat accepting April's sincere apology.

After a long few minutes of ensuring that everything was up, I stood back up and hastily wiped my mouth with a tissue. I had never thought that my anxiety would literally cause for me to vomit over something as stupid as this.

"I had never realised you were this scared of him," Valentina held out a scrunchie for me to tie my hair up into a bun, away from my face.

"I'm not sure I'd realised it either," I looked over at my reflection in defeat before, splashing water over my face, eliminating the dreadful, tired look in my eyes.

I managed to spray myself head to toe with a bottle April had handed me before I drew up some courage to leave the bathroom. "Henry was speaking to him last, and he seemed to be calming him down."

April's reassurance helped as Valentina wrapped an arm round my shoulder, reminding me of why these two girls were my best friends. "I have a free period last so I'll take you home."

"And I'll make sure you're on a sick note from Biology," April added, smiling lightly as if I was too delicate to touch.

"Thank you so much," they both brought me in for a tight hug, unbothered that I'd just been sick due to a stupid situation that I was struggling to get over. We soon stepped out of the bathroom, eyeing the halls as best we could to avoid Josh at all costs.

"All clear!" April announced as a whisper and gave me a quick side hug before skipping off in the opposite direction whilst Valentina and I made a quick retreat for the exit of the school, managing to avoid both Josh and teachers alike.

The both of us climbed into Valentina's car with the stealth of James Bond before she hurriedly sped off out of the parking lot, instinctively heading for our favourite ice-cream parlour.

The three of us had spent our very first playdate at Dean's Ice Cream Hut, a memory that would stay implanted into my mind for the rest of my life. We would run around without a care in the world, eating as much ice cream as we could cram in.

The place was still surrounded by a higher percentage of children, but that had never stopped the three of us from spending our time here when we weren't at school.

As soon as we stepped up to order, I had settled on the vanilla ice cream with Nutella, M&Ms and a stupidly large amount of whipped cream, whereas Valentina had ordered the mint chocolate ice cream, combining it with jelly beans and strawberry sauce, reinforcing her odd choice of flavours whenever we came.

Who in their right mind orders mint chocolate with jelly beans and strawberry sauce?

We sat down at a small table and indulged in the childhood memories of being here every Saturday. Children scurried past our table, buzzing with the sugar high of one simple scoop of ice cream.

"I hate to bring it back up again, but I'm sure everything will be fine with Josh. You know how good Henry is at talking people down," I nodded with a familiar uncertainty, "there will be another scandal by tomorrow morning."

I held the spoon in my mouth, clenching onto it hard with my teeth in a way to let off some of the steam that I didn't realise I had. "I hope so," Valentina nodded with conviction and lifted another discoloured scoop into her mouth.

"Plus, it might've hopefully given him the balls to get a different coloured shirt," despite how today had played out, Valentina had still managed to make me laugh about it. And honestly, Josh really did need to shift his colour scheme once in a while.

"He might have too many white shirts already. No need to replace it when you've got a hundred more in your closet," we both laughed as I suddenly imagined saying any of this to Josh's face. Not a chance in hell.

After we'd finished our ice creams, Valentina dropped me back at my house, not before embracing me into one last hug before she left. "Henry will have sorted it. You know him," I nodded and smiled before climbing out of the car.

"Thanks again for today," I replied sincerely through the window and blew her a quick kiss as she drove off down the street.

I'd imagine that I could walk into school tomorrow and everything would be back to normal, as if what I had done today, hadn't happened. But like myself, everyone knew that I couldn't kid myself and pretend that there would be no single repercussion for what I had done.

Maybe I could just drop out of high school and get a job at the ice cream parlour instead.