Bruised

20.

Natalie didn't seen Leon for a week.

It was mostly her fault. She stopped going to Sierra Grammar after school and she left school early every day just in case he was waiting for her at the gates.

When her mum asked what had changed, she told her she had to study for exams. Whether she believed her or not, she didn't care. She couldn't bear to see Leon now.

What would she say to him? All she could think about was Veronica. How was she supposed to pretend she didn't care?

Besides, it wasn't like they were together or anything. Leon was allowed to talk to as many girls as he wanted. She didn't have any right to be so distraught.

She just wished he only wanted to talk to her.

There had to be a way to bring it up casually, without sounding obsessed. And until she figured it out, she was avoiding him.

But she'd gotten so used to his company that she'd forgotten how to return to a life before Leon. Everything seemed grey now.

And what made things worse, even though she put in every effort to avoid him, he hadn't found a way to see her.

Okay, she knew she was being unrealistic, but self-awareness never stopped her from fantasising. He probably didn't even realise she was upset. They'd gone weeks without seeing each other before, right?

She didn't know what she expected. Him crawling through her bedroom window? Knocking on her front door? Begging to see her?

God, she was hopeless.

She didn't want to see him, and yet every part of herself craved him.

"Natalie," her teacher said. She looked up to find Mr G standing above her, paper in hand. "Good effort."

He placed the paper on her desk, facedown. That was never a good sign.

Glancing around to make sure no one was looking; she flipped the test paper. Her eyes immediately darted to the top corner where the number 78 was written in red.

Her heart sank into her stomach, lodging there like a heavy brick.

She'd never gotten below an 80 before, and now here was physical evidence that, not only had she scored below an 80, she'd scored two points below an 80.

"Well done, everyone," Mr G said from the front of the classroom. His words seemed to fly right over her head. He continued talking about the class average before starting to go through some of the questions people got wrong on the board.

Natalie couldn't focus.

Her ears felt fuzzy. Everything felt fuzzy. A 78. That was almost a 70, which was almost a 60, which was almost a fail. She couldn't believe it.

Well, she kind believed it.

This exam had been based on a kidney dissection they completed weeks ago.

She tried to stomach it. She really did. When the kidneys were placed on the benchtops in front of them, she held her breath and steeled herself. But when her lab partner picked up the scalpel and began cutting away, she saw the slicing of tissue and, worse, she could smell it.

Bile rose in her throat. She barely had time to mutter the words "Excuse me" before she was out the door, emptying the contents of her stomach and breathing in the cold air.

She spent the rest of the hour trying to erase the stench from her memory.

What she didn't expect was for specific questions from the lab that day to be included in the exam.