Arcadian

The detention

"Shit," Lucian mumbles under his breath as the police officer eyes us from out of his window.

"Lucian Cruz?" The officer asks, shining his torch at us. "I thought we came to an agreement young man," The officer tuts.

"I know, I know," Lucian sighs.

"I said the next time I find you outside the school when you're not supposed to I'll have to report you myself," He says sternly. "Both of you get in," He orders us whilst pressing a button to unlock the back doors.

We silently climb in, sitting as far away from each other as humanly possible.

"You two kids couldn't wait for a more appropriate time to make out in the forest?" The office questions while driving down the dark road.

"Oh- no we weren't- we didn't," I try defending myself but my words just come out in a jumbled mess, my face burning red.

"But seriously though it's almost winter, you two must be freezing," He scolds, switching on the heating.

I actually enjoyed the toasty trip back to the academy but it ended quickly. Me and Lucian climb out, heading towards our dorm.

"Where do you two think you're going," The officer calls to us. Lucian sighs heavily and walks back to him, seemingly excepting his fate. I follow him as the officer escorts us to the principles office.

A serge of panic courses through me as I realise that we're going to get into serious trouble because of me and my inability to let go of the past.

"Come in," An unfamiliar voice rings from behind the dark oak door that towers above us. We enter into an old looking office with numerous renaissance style painting adorning the walls. "To what do I owe this pleasure so early in the morning," The woman behind the desk questions.

"Found these two comin' out the woods along Brinkloe road, thought I'd return them to you," The officer completely rats us out before excusing himself.

"Lucian your behaviour has been improving lately, I'm very disappointed in this set back." She says, shaking her head. Lucian really doesn't seem to care though.

"And you young lady, what's your name," She asks, turning to face me. "Harper Flores," I reply nervously.

"Well Harper you really shouldn't let Lucian drag you down with his bad behaviour," She tells me.

"Oh no that's not what happened, I was the reason we were out there it's not Lucian's fault," I defend him honestly.

"Miss Flores don't feel the need to defend his actions, he pulls girls into his reckless activities all the time," She rolls her eyes. "You will both have an after school detention today and you both lose your leaving campus privileges for a week," She concludes.

"But-" Lucian goes to argue but is immediately cut off. "My decision is final, please close the door on your way out," She says bluntly, shooing us out.

Lucian storms out and I follow behind him. "For fucks sake Harper!" He shouts at me before stomping off down the hall. "I'm so sorry Lucian I didn't mean to-" I say whilst jogging to catch up with him.

"You didn't mean to what? To endanger yourself everyday over a stupid necklace or to drag me into your shit?" He says grudgingly. "I had a fucking party I wanted to go to tomorrow and now I can't just because you can't use your head!" He rants whilst walking quicker.

"I'm sorry," I sniffle. I can't help it, whenever someone yells at me I start crying no matter how hard I try to prevent it.

"See you're nothing but a child," He chuckles, waving his hand in the direction of my tear stricken face.

"Do us all a favour and transfer rooms so we don't have to deal with your shit," He grunts before taking off down the turf.

My mind drifts elsewhere as his words echo in my mind and are replaced with my mother's voice.

'Why can't you just be normal Harper no one wants to deal with your shit. They would be so disappointed to see how you've turned out' Her seething words rattle in my brain as I rush back to the dorms, tears dripping down my face.

Lucian and my mum are right, I ruin everything I touch.

How can I expect people to like me when I have no likeable qualities? I'm needy, pathetic and useless.

I think I've been trying too hard to be perfect when in reality no amount of starving myself can fix me. I'm going to be ugly forever, inside and out.

I make it all the way back to the dorms but I don't go in, standing still for a moment before turning around on my heels and heading back in the direction I came from.

I pace around until the double doors of the canteen are finally pushed open and an older lunch lady greets me.

A couple people file in as I make it to the front of the line, ordering two toasties, some bacon, eggs and five syrup covered pancakes before heading to the snacks and grabbing a couple bags of crisps and some chocolate.

I shift uncomfortably while the lunch lady dishes up my food, hoping no one notices how much I'm ordering.

"Your friends being lazy and making you come down and get their food for them?" The lady laughs while putting my food in a paper bag.

"Yeah," I chuckle, knowing I have no intention of sharing this with anyone.

I head out of the canteen before too many people come in and head back to the dorm. I see the rest of the boys minus Lucian coming my way so I quickly dart in a different direction, hoping they didn't see me.

I make it back to my room after pushing through the numerous boys that harass me in the halls daily and kick off my shoes.

I sigh in relief seeing that Lucian isn't here and throw myself onto my bunk, laying all the food out in front of me.

Powered by the hunger from not eating for the entire week I shamelessly devour all the food in the span of an hour, effectively missing first period.

Not only until I eat the last pancake, wiping off the crumbs from my face do I realise what I've done. Tears brim in my eyes as I stare down at the numerous wrappers and containers that lay scattered over my covers.

I quickly get up, rushing to the bathroom and heaving over the toilet with two fingers down my throat. My eyes water as all the food I ate comes back up again, burning my throat.

"What the fuck are you doing?"