Private (Private 1)

“Come on! You all saw what happened!” Thomas said. “I just

“Go!” he shouted.

told her to go and she tripped! I didn’t even touch her.”

I stumbled forward, my eyes blurring with tears. And then all of Noelle narrowed her eyes at him. That gaze turned on me would

the sudden the ground was rushing up at me. My knee crashed into have cut me dead. “Dash?” she said.

a sharp rock, and as I grabbed for my leg, I tumbled completely and

“I’m on it,” her boyfriend replied, snapping to. “Dude. We need my temple slammed into the ground. I bit my tongue and tasted

to talk,” he said, wrapping his thick arm around Thomas’s shoulders.

blood as every bone in my body jarred. Taylor gasped and I

He pulled him off toward the trees and my knees almost went out squeezed my eyes shut against a sudden onslaught of dizziness.

from under me. Luckily, Kiran and Taylor were still supporting me.

Through the confusion I felt Thomas kneel next to me. “Oh, my

Supporting. Me.

God. Are you okay?”

Ariana stepped into my line of vision. “Are you all right?” she I flinched away from him and suddenly Noelle was between us.

whispered, tucking my hair behind my ear.

“Back off, Thomas,” she said firmly.

“What just happened?” I heard myself say. I stared at the

They were watching. The Billings Girls. They saw all of it. The ground. At the rocks, the fire, my favorite jeans ripped at the knee.

humiliation was far worse than the pain.

None of it was in focus, none of it made sense.

Thomas stood and staggered back a couple steps. He looked pale

“Get the fuck off me!”

and shocked. “Are you all right?” Taylor asked, crouching next to me.

I flinched and we all turned around to find Thomas throwing

I tried to sit up. Thomas had shoved me to the ground. In front Dash away from him. Dash, about twice Thomas’s size, nearly fell of all these people. In front of Noelle and Ariana and Kiran and into the fire, but caught himself just in time. Thomas turned and Taylor. Why had I come here? What had I been thinking? All I had stormed

off into the woods in the opposite direction from the path.

done was solidify my nonfuture.

For a moment we all just stood there, stunned into silence.

196