Open your eyes (Part 3)

“Anette, wait up!”

Surprised, Anette turned around and saw Malin’s red and sweaty face. The girl stopped running and tried catching her breath before she spoke up.

“Hey!” Malin said smiling after a while.

All the alarm signals in Anette’s head started to go off. What if the rest of the girls waited around the corner?

“What are you doing here? You live quite far away from here.”

“Yes I know, I just wanted to…maybe talk a bit.”

Still a bit unsure, Anette nodded and they both continued walking.

Malin remained quiet and Anette started to feel more and more uncomfortable.

“I am so sorry for everything!” Malin said rapidly after a while.

Anette let the girls words sink in. Now when she thought about it, Malin had never bullied her like the others had. She was mostly a bystander and often smiled at Anette and had smalltalks with her.

“You did not do everything wrong”

“Of course I did, I just stood there and let the others bully you!”

Anette could feel how her heart started to race.

“So, where are the others? Do you not follow each other to school?”

Malin stopped dead in her tracks. She scratched the back of her head and sighed heavily.

“Yesterday, we had a big fight. Right before the history lesson. I told them to stop with the bullying and that I did not want to be a part of it anymore. And they… they told me to fuck off basically.”

A knife of sympathy pierced through Anette’s heart.

I cannot believe that she stood up for me.

When they entered the classroom, Anette could see that Malin had spoken the truth. On Malin’s usual seat, the other girls had placed their own books and bags.

Anette led Malin to her own little spot. Kristian looked up and saw them coming towards him. Without any protests, he got up from his seat and placed himself on Malin’s previous one.

Anette smiled brightly and whispered a thank you to him. Malin sat down a bit confused, but started focusing again when the teacher spoke up and signaling that the lesson had begun.

During the recess and lunch, Malin and Anette started to get to know each other. They laughed and talked about all different kind of things.

“You know that, they are only bullying you because they are jealous. You always seem to have the guys wrapped around your little finger.” Malin said laughing.

Of course Anette knew about this, but she only saw the guys as her friends and nothing more. They were still too childish for her.

Anette saw Annika and the others, standing some meters away from them. From time to time, they looked over their shoulders and glanced at the two outcasts, with mischief in their eyes.

“It is a bit weird, do you not think? Skipping the last class for the day?”

“Yeah it is, I hope Annika and the rest get into a lot of trouble because of it.”

Malin and Anette were on their way home. This had been one of the greatest school days Anette had had in weeks.

Suddenly, the hairs on Anette’s neck stood up. The familiar feeling of being watched crawled on her skin.

“What is it?” Malin asked.

All of a sudden, familiar faces started to appear out of the bushes, surrounding the narrow road.

They had stones in their hands, some of them big enough to cover almost a whole palm of the hand.

Anette stood frozen to the ground. Malin grabbed her arm and tried to move her.

“You think that you are better than all of us, do you not? Let me tell you, you are nothing but a piece of shit! Get out of my sight!”

Annika and the other girls raised their hands and readied themselves to throw the objects they had in their hands.

Something snapped inside of Anette and she started to run. In the corner of her eye, she saw how they managed to capture Malin. The girl screamed before something came down on her eye and made her shut up.

Anette continued to run and heard several steps behind her. The first stone hit her on the thigh. The second one on her shoulder.

When Anette turned around to see how far behind her bullies were, another stone hit her on the cheek. The pain stung worse than she could have imagined, but she still would not stop.

Several more stones hit her back and calves.

With just a few meters left to her house, she heard how the steps behind her suddenly stopped.  

One more stone came down, this time on Anette’s head. She could feel how she blacked out for a moment and ended up on the lawn of her house. Quickly, she got up and opened the door. Tears were streaming down Anette’s face while she ran into the bathroom and slammed the door shut. Her trembling hands found the lock and turned the key.

 Anette screamed until her lungs hurt and then slumped down to the ground. She started hugging her knees and rocked herself back and forth.

She looked up after a while and noticed the cupboard, containing the sleeping pills. Anette rose from the ground and grabbed the jar.

Just a few pills, then all the pain would stop. I would disappear, just like they want me to do.

Anette opened the lid and poured out the nearly twenty pills. She picked up a handful of them, but when she was about to swallow them, she stopped in mid-air.

Mom…my sister…my brother...

Anette lowered her hand.

What about my dream? I cannot stop now. I will make it, I am strong.

Anette took all the pills and flushed them down in the toilet.

I will not let them destroy my life!

When she had calmed down a bit, Anette lay down on the bathroom floor. She gritted her teeth when the adrenaline wore off and the pain from her injuries started to emerge.

Then a knock came on the door.

“Anette, are you in there?”

Anette was not sure how her voice would sound, so she used a very low tone.

“Yes I am, but I do not feel very well, so I maybe have to stay here all night.”

A long pause followed Anette’s words.

“Okay, can I come in?”

No, no, no, no

“No, I do not want you to be sick too”

Another long pause followed.

“Yell if you need me, sweetie.”

“Okay!”

Anette stayed in the bathroom the whole evening and cleaned all the wounds she had received. She did not want to come out and face her mother. Not tonight.

Anette gathered some towels and used them as a pillow and a cover.

As the night progressed, Anette had a hard time falling asleep. Her body ached and her mind was in a rollercoaster of emotions.

While the dawn emerged outside, Anette knew what she had to do. She could not carry this burden anymore.

Silently, she unlocked the door and almost stepped on her mother. Maivor had been sleeping outside the door the entire night. Anette smiled, and sneaked past her.

She went to the kitchen and shoved some bread into her mouth. She forced the dry slices down with some juice she found in the fridge.

It was almost eight o’clock in the morning and the first class for the day would soon start.

With her mind set, Anette stepped out in the hallway and checked herself in the mirror next to hat rack. Her whole cheek was swollen and had a big bruise on it. Anette’s eyes were still red from all the crying, and her blonde hair had dried bloodstains in it.

Not even bothering about how she looked, Anette jerked open the door and slammed it. Her feet took her away, to the place everything began.

Suddenly she stood there; she did not remember how she got there. Everyone stared at her with shock written all over their faces. Anette clenched her fists and opened her mouth.

“Two years have passed. Two years of agony. My stomach ached every time I came to this place. I cried myself to sleep every night. You may think that you have managed to break me down, but you are wrong. I WILL NOT LET YOU CONTROL MY LIFE! THIS STOPS TODAY!”

It was quiet, very quiet. Anette breathed in and felt how her whole body started to shake. Anette walked out of the classroom with tears streaming down her eyes. Her feet took her home. Behind her came footsteps. Anette turned around and saw Malin running up to her. The girls left eye was bandaged. She fell into Anette’s arms and they stood there, crying and comforting each other.

Some minutes past and soon, Anette was in her room. Malin and she decided to meet each other later, when Anette had calmed down.

Anette looked in the mirror. Her clothes were dirty, her cheek was blue and she shook all over.

But s smile, brighter than all other she had ever had on her lips, shone through.

“Thank you, thank you so much!”

Anette bowed down to the audience and sighed heavily.

I will fulfill my dream…

“Publish”

Anette leaned back on her chair and dried the tears on her cheek. The comments waiting to be approved had to wait a little bit longer.   

She hated to relive all the memories, but all the articles she had read in the newspapers and online about bullying brought it all back. And reading all the comments her followers wrote about them being bullied also brought tears to her eyes.

After her outburst in school, one of the teachers had called Anette’s mother, and the police to begin an investigation. But both Anette and Malin decided not to proceed with it further. They just wanted to get back to normal as soon as possible.

A week after the stone throwing, Anette and Malin returned to school. Almost all of their classmates greeted them kindly and said, especially to Anette, how sorry they were and that they would never bully anyone again. And that was a promise they kept.

“Mommy, I am hungry.”

Nemo’s sweet voice and bright, blue eyes tore her out of her dark memories. She picked him up and went to the kitchen. Along the hallway, awards, and platinum-and gold records hung.

She had been performing on the world’s biggest stages, bowing down to thousands of people and hearing them screaming her name.

“Now I’ve fulfilled my dream…”