What Couldn't Be Avoided

8 June

I hate my family. I hate my mother and aunts and uncles and cousins.

I hate my best friend, Tallara. I hate that she's in Morocco and hasn't contacted me since the last day of school. I hate how she's still not back and how nobody knows when she'll be back. I hate not knowing about her.

I hate that I have no other friends because it's awkward to sit alone during classes and lunch break.

I hate that my first day as the Wretchen House Captain was wretched. I hate how nobody told me about the swearing-in ceremony and how I had to sit through a two-hour after-school detention where the cultural co-ordinator yelled at me for no fault of mine.

I hate how the seniors, who had come to collect their passing certificates, ogled at my chest. I hate how my eyes kept searching the crowd for Gordon Ellis.

I hate how Michael Koller tripped me in the hallway, laughed, apologised half-heartedly when I glared at him, and proceeded to post a video of my embarrassing fall on his Facebook profile. I hate how he has 2,031 friends and that hundreds of them liked the video. I hate how they posted hurtful comments.

I hate how Mrs. Boscobel hit me when I stood with my arms crossed over my chest during the afternoon assembly. I hate how Gordon Ellis happened to arrive at that very moment. I hate how he witnessed the entire incident, and laughed when Mrs. Boscobel glared at me and mouthed a few colourful curses.

I guess I'm in a hateful mood today, or maybe my day was hate-worthy. Hell, is that even a word? I'm going to go to the dictionary and check.

Marley

The girl looked around the room. There was nobody at the door but she could feel someone watching her from the window.

She placed the journal back in its hiding place and sauntered to the window. The rusty rod creaked as she pulled the curtains and blocked two things from entering her room: the sunlight, and the view of whoever was watching over her.

It's an odd feeling - to feel that someone has been watching you ever since a certain popular boy left the town. It gets in(edit: change it to "to")your nerves and makes you question your sanity. It leads you to Google the symptoms of madness, searching for the ones you satisfy.

It is even more unsettling when you satisfy none of those symptoms, and yet know that something is wrong. It leads you to Google several more diseases.

Until you find one which leaves you shocked, you don't stop.

Today, on the 8th of June, Marley Linton discovered that she is suffering from clinical depression.