9 Anxiousness.

Jade.

"Who the hell is that?!" Mom screamed in my face as I made to move past her and the two security men flanking her sides.

I just wanted to get inside for fucks sake.

"A friend," I crossed my arms across my chest and said, purposely to annoy her even further. "You know, one of those things you forbid me from ever having?"

Her eyes grew wide at my words, and a smug smirk found residence on my lips because I'd predicted her reaction.

Vasilis was not a friend. He was barely an acquaintance even. Hell! He was just a nice kid who had offered to show me the way home because I was lost, and he also happened to go to the same school as the one I was freshly enrolled in.

But it felt nice to say that he was my friend, just to see Mom lose her mind like she was doing.

"A friend?!" She shrieked as her eyes bulged. "You're going about talking to people and making friends? What if...what if he was sent to hurt you? And you foolishly let him follow you home?! What were you thinking!"

I let out a tired sigh and massaged a spot in my temple. I could feel a headache already starting to assault my brain from all the shrieking and yelling my mother was doing.

"Relax, Mom. He's just a harmless teenager." I sighed again. "Besides, the world doesn't revolve around me. Not everyone is out to get me,"

"Oh yes they are, Jade! Believe me, everyone is out to get you!"

I released a long, irritated sigh and resisted the urge to roll my eyes at my mother's disgusting narcissism and paranoia.

The headache was getting worse. I was beginning to feel slightly dizzy.

"Well, as I said, he's just a harmless teenager and he also goes to Bloodstone Academy," I squinted up at her because it was getting too painful to fully open my eyes under the sun.

"Does that ease your fears that he was sent to kill me?" I spread my arms apart, and watched as a few tensed muscles in my mom's face relaxed slightly.

She remained silent for a while as she contemplated. She was probably thinking of sending people to follow the poor boy, or run a background check on him or something.

Whatever. I was exhausted and my head was pounding with a ruthless headache. I just wanted to lay down and...

The world was starting to wobble in my vision.

"Well, if he's a student at that school then I suppose it's okay to—"

I didn't hear the rest of my mother's words. I lost control of my limbs and only felt my body toppling, headed for the floor as I blacked out.

•

•

When I regained consciousness, I was back in the...my room, buried underneath layers of thick blankets and duvets.

I let out a sigh and looked out the windows. Someone had left the blinds open—probably Mom—and the sun was just beginning to set.

Its deep, golden orange rays cast shadows over my face and several parts of the room. I wanted to get up, but I knew I'd probably wobble on my feet and black out again if I did.

The dizziness hadn't completely worn off yet, and I had to sleep for a few hours more before I was back to normal again.

I have an autoimmune condition called ITP. Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. It's a thin blood condition that causes me to have low levels of platelets in my blood, thereby making my blood thinner than normal, and causing symptoms like nausea, fainting spells, easy bruising, random nose bleeds, heavy periods and petechiae—a bleeding in my skin, caused by broken capillaries that comes out looking like a purplish-red rash.

I promise, it's not as crazy as it sounds, but it definitely is extremely inconvenient because my autoimmune system can be thrown into a state of havoc by so many mundane things.

It's quite ridiculous actually. I've had so many fainting spells over the course of my life, that fainting became as familiar as breathing at some point.

But I've had ITP from birth, which means we've had a lot of time to bring in doctors and specialists, and eventually get a diagnosis. Which of course, meant knowing better ways to manage it.

There still isn't any known permanent cure for ITP, but that's not alarming since it's not so severe that I can't live with it. But then again, I can only say that because I'm quite low on the spectrum. For some people diagnosed higher on the spectrum, it could be so much worse. It could be cancerous.

I've had several corticosteroids prescribed, and a strict diet regimen curated and oversaw by a professional dietician.

I didn't know what exactly had triggered my fainting spell earlier, but my best guess was stress.

The moving stress, being jet lagged and having my blood pressure significantly spiked because of my aerophobia, having to endure my mother's excessive nagging and shrieking.

And on top of all that, I'd spent half an hour walking home. Plus, I'd left my water bottle in the car when I stormed off, so I had been significantly dehydrated.

Essentially, I brought this upon myself.

I let out another sigh as I ran a hand over the petechiae rashes that had erupted all over my arms. They weren't itchy or painful and would clear away soon, but I was still irritated at myself and at the realization that my argument with my Mom about walking to school had been foolish, and thoughtless on my part.

I couldn't walk that kind of distance. Not even if I was allowed to. Not only had it been dangerous for me to storm out of the car in the middle of nowhere, and convince myself that I could make it home safely, but it had also been acutely foolish.

Mom was right. Anything could have happened. Even if my family wasn't so fucked up, and had enemies we had to hide from. I could have passed out in the woods, or a dangerous person could have been lying in wake in there, and I would have ran straight into their hands.

But thankfully, I'd run into Vasilis instead.

Vasilis.

His name was so unusual. I'd never heard another person named Vasilis before.

My annoyance at myself soon became secondary as thoughts of the dark-haired stranger I'd let walk me home filled my head.

I watched the sun go down, several seeds of curiosity blooming in my mind.

I wondered what kind of music he listened to, what kind of hobbies he had, what kind of life he lived. What he was like as a student. Smart? Funny? Popular? Who his friends were...

Until I eventually fell asleep again.

Somewhere in the middle of my slumber, someone had brought me a cup of juiced, leafy greens that probably consisted of kale, parsley, spinach, cauliflower and celery.

It tasted like shit, but I downed it one go because I had grown accustomed to the grassy taste of the leafy greens. And I also knew it worked like a charm. It was one of the things my dietician had put on my regimen for fast recovery from a fainting spell caused by my ITP.

I dazed in and out of sleep. I even dreamt about Vasilis appearing on the balcony at some point. He had stood there, watching me for a while through the glass, and then he'd disappeared.

I woke up the next morning and thankfully didn't remember the dream, and after dragging myself in and out of the shower, I put my hair up with two thick bands and let the curls rain down in all their massive beautiful glory. I grabbed some gel to slick down my edges stylishly, and then finished up my skincare routine.

In a few minutes, I was all dressed and ready to go, with my water bottle, and my headphones hanging around my neck. I carried a bag pack on one arm. It felt so weird. I'd never really carried a bag pack around before. I was mostly a tote bag kinda girl.

The bag pack was ruining my aesthetic, not gonna lie. But it was the appropriate and sensible option for school, since I'd probably have to carry quite a few books around that would be too heavy for a tote bag.

I apologized to Mr. Leadsey for yesterday as I settled in the car.

I had skipped breakfast and brought a sandwich and some sliced apples with me instead, because I didn't want to sit at the table with my parents and pretend everything was fine.

I was so annoyed, I couldn't stand to look at their faces.

Mr. Leadsey gave me a smile and said he understood and wasn't holding any grudges, and I put my headphones on as we headed off.

I hadn't felt anxious the previous day when Mom and I had gone to check out the dorms. I hadn't even felt anxious walking down the halls with mom and the principal, and having half the student body staring me down.

But now, my heart was doing that weird thing it did yesterday when I'd run into Vasilis, and my palms were getting sweaty at the thought of seeing him again.

I guessed he was a senior, but I didn't know for sure. But if he was, then it would mean that we'd possibly have a good number of classes together.

My stomach knotted at the thought, and it knotted even tighter as the car now approached the looming, ornate wrought iron gates of Bloodstone Academy.