Chapter 12: Numb

Suki sprinted through the front doors of her dorm building and headed straight for the internal fire escape. Leaping up as many as she could at a time, she tripped and bashed her knee on the rough concrete. But she felt no pain. Blood was instantly streaming down her leg but she was indifferent to anything and everything right now that wasn’t getting to her computer. Seeing Mihara still waiting by her door, she made the final bolt as her friend held up her phone.

“Fuck Babe, are you ok? You’re bleeding everywhere!”

“Yeah fine,” Suki dismissed, snatching the phone from her friend’s hand and gawking at it with bewilderment at her Facebook page.

“It’s only been up for half an hour. Ok, hopefully not many people will have seen it if I just delete it now.” She thought frantically as she stormed into her room with Mihara following close behind.

This was a pretty fucked up situation and she really felt for her Suki, but she also had a story of her own to tell - if the time seemed right. Truth be told, she’d been walking to her friend’s building to divulge her and Theodore’s afternoon escapades when she stumbled on the facebook post.

Not bothering to turn the light on, Suki grabbed her laptop from her bedside table before kneeling by the side of her bed and leaning her chin in the edge. No agony or discomfort was felt in her knee when she slumped onto the floor. No second thought about cleaning herself up. The injury may as well have not existed. Her arms reached up over the mattress as she willed the laptop to start up faster. The thought had crossed her to just download the app on her new phone, but despite the wait, her computer was still the quickest option.

“Why the fuck did I have to shut it down?” She mumbled under her breath, wrapping her fingers impatiently on the keyboard.

“Do you really think Rylan would do something like that?” Mihara asked as she sat down on the floor next to her best friend. She hoped it actually was him because the implications of it being someone else were simply too much to fathom.

“I don’t know. All I do know is I’m changing my password and taking that goddamn picture down as soon as this slow-arse piece of shit connects to the WIFI!”

“At least you looked hot in it,” Mihara shrugged, attempting to find the bright side of this whole messed up circumstance. “Any guys who saw it would be adding it to their spank bank.”

“Oh fuck, Mi! What if someone took a screen-shot? This might never go away!”

Mihara turned her head away from Suki and mouthed the word ‘fuck’ with great emphasis. Suki’s breathing was speeding up and it looked to her friend like she was about to have a full blown anxiety attack. “Just great, I’ve made it a whole lot worse now!”

The laptop was finally ready, and faster than lighting, Suki had changed her password and removed the image. She toyed with whether to add a post explaining that her page had been hacked, but decided to let it be in the hopes that not making a huge deal about it would make it just go away.

Turning around so her back was also propped against the side of her bed, Suki leaned on Mihara’s shoulder. So much adrenaline had been coursing through her veins that she never even entertained the thought of crying. And still now, she was strangely emotionless, just staring blankly across the room, her eyes not focusing on anything. No awareness of the sensation of blood that had begun trickling to the underside of her calf from the release of pressure placed on it by kneeling.

Mihara noted how she’d never seen Suki like this. She was always feisty and outspoken. There was rarely a time when she didn’t know what she was thinking. But since the breakup she seemed changed. Their friendship had always been one with bickering and little quarrels. But they were close, and just like sisters, you always fight with those you care about the most. It seemed as though she’d internalised the pain from her breakup, because aside from letting her know it happened, they hadn’t discussed it further. Mihara just hoped that as time continued to pass, her spunky BFF would be back in full force.

Despite outwardly appearing to still be in shock, Suki’s brain was running a mile a minute. She wanted to hurt someone, to punish whoever it was that posted that picture and make them feel the way she did. The more she thought about it the more she believed that it had to be Rylan. He was the only logical culprit and after having his ego bruised by her right hook, he had all the ammunition he needed. But did she confront him about it, or would that only make matters worse? He would have done it to hurt and embarrass her, so by starting a fight she was only giving him what he wanted. And besides, she’d changed her password to something he’d never guess and blocked his account so she should be safe from any further hackings.

“So, do you wanna come have some dinner? I’ll make us mac and cheese, can’t really be bothered with anything else,” Mihara offered, hoping it would get her friend out of the room and - in case anyone they lived with did see the post - having her behaving unphased like it didn’t bother her would be the best action to take.