Red Herring ✔️

24. Downpour

A deluge of water dumped on her, again, when she darted under the overhang and punched her way through the school's front doors. Mazie slumped around the corner to the bathroom, sloshing water on the floor as she went. She frowned intensely, uttering incoherent cursings at the sky like Scrooge himself. 

It rained all day and it happened to be the one day that she had to track out to her car seventeen billion times. The first time occurred when she forgot her cell phone inside on the kitchen counter when she was leaving for school. Once she sprinted back out to her car, she realized she forgot her keys while picking up her cell phone and had to run back inside the house all over again. 

Her entire day digressed from there, undulating down hill like an avalanche of bad circumstances that ended up with her tromping into the girl's restroom in vein attempt to dry herself off to make herself look presentable. Yet, she had already done this once this morning and got stuck doing it again after school. 

All because she was waiting on Amelia to finish up an Advanced English exam that she missed when she was out sick last week. Nearly an hour passed with no word from Amelia. In her head, that was just way too long. So she decided to hunt down Amelia to no avail and ended up drenched. 

Mazie surged into the bathroom and immediately peeled off her jacket which dripped water all over the floor. 

"Demi, stop!" 

The mention of her name sent a chill crashing over her body that cooled her faster than the rainwater trickling down her back and stomach that seeped through her clothes. 

"Demi, please, stop. Listen to me!" 

The voices were heading straight for the bathroom. She could hear the heavy hurried footsteps of impending bodies. 

Mazie grabbed her coat, surged through the bathroom farthest away from the door and locked herself inside. Without thinking twice, Mazie hung her coat on the hook on the back of the door and climbed on top of the toilet so that no one could spy her feet underneath the door. 

The bathroom door flung open, banging against the wall with such force that the entire room shook. Several pairs of feet trampled into the girl's bathroom and stopped suddenly. 

"Demi, I wasn't trying to hurt your feelings."

"You don't listen to me!" Demi cries, anguish painting her voice shades of fiery red. 

"I do listen to you! I do!" Mazie thought she recognized the second person as Ailene. If only she could see. 

Thank goodness she hid. 

"I've told you from the beginning what I think happened to me, and you always look at me like you pity me. You don't believe me even if you do listen. Believing is entirely different from just listening!" Demi punched her words with a force deep from inside her belly where all of her torment lie in wait. 

"Demi..."

"Stop! You're doing it right now! You just want me to calm down and shut up and stop making a big deal of things! I can cry if I want to! I can scream if I want to! I was raped and you don't believe me." 

Save for Demi's crying, utter silence fell over the bathroom. She could hear a pin drop. Mazie held her breath in anticipation, expecting one of the girls to notice she was present along with them. 

Demi's admittance hung in the air like a heavy fog, unable to escape the truth because it was everywhere, all-encompassing, nowhere to hide. A heaviness descended, cloaking all three girls in earth shattering disbelief.