My legs were trembling as I made my way down the stairs, I could feel my heart pounding within my chest as I navigated my way towards the kitchen. I could hear the flow of my blood pulsing in my ears; my breathing came in fast, shallow intakes. The thermometer on the kitchen wall read eighty degrees Fahrenheit, but to me, the room felt as if its temperature was drawing nearer to absolute zero every second.

I leaned against the refrigerator for support as I slowly opened the door to the pantry, but just looking at the array of food boxes stored on the shelves was enough to make me feel nauseous. I eased the pantry door shut as I held my mouth clamped shut, praying that I wouldn’t vomit all over my mother’s gleaming kitchen floor. I honestly couldn’t remember ever being this anxious about anything ever before in my life. But at the same time, I couldn’t exactly put my finger on what I was nervous about either. It was just something about today, some kind of subconscious prediction of what would happen today, that scared me all the way down to the inner depths of my being. Looking back, part of me thinks that half the reason I was so terrified, was the fact that I just woke up on edge; not knowing why I was so afraid was what scared me the most. But nothing I told myself, nothing I tried to distract myself, could ease my mind from this sixth sense that something was wrong.

My fingers refused to stop shaking as I tried to squeeze the last bit of toothpaste onto my toothbrush. Part of me didn’t know why I was even bothering with attempting the task, I hadn’t eaten anything since the previous afternoon, skipping dinner over a similar uneasiness that I was feeling on that morning. But not allowing myself to leave the house without doing so, I finally managed to get my toothpaste to stay on my brush after four tries. But even as I was brushing my teeth, every part of me was hypersensitive to the world around me, The slightest sound forced me to freeze and listen until I was absolutely sure that the noise was a familiar one. It was this paranoia that had sent me into a choking fit when the doorbell rang and I swallowed too soon.

My eyes were watering as the coughs kept coming, I was desperately gasping for what little air I could take in, in between coughs, though only getting enough to barely survive. I was leaning against the sink for support as my vision started to blur and my head began spinning faster than it already was. I hadn’t even realized that someone had entered the bathroom until I felt two swift, hard blows being delivered to my back. The effect was immediate, I coughed violently twice more before the fit finally subsided and my desperate gasps were bringing in more air. The room around me slowly began to stop spinning, and my heart rate slowly began to march to its normal beat.

“You alright, Midget?” I slowly turned around to see my savior leaning against the bathroom wall with his arms crossed and a glisten in his eye, a glisten that resembled laughter, almost, whether a mocking laughter or not was impossible to tell.

“D*** you, Adam!” If there’s one thing I hate more than being without chocolate, it’s being saved by anyone other than myself. I attempted to maintain a straight face as I looked up into Adam’s azure eyes, but the way they sparkled, the satisfied grin on his face, made me bite my lip to keep from letting an embarrassed smile slip across my face.

“Hey, watch your language!” Adam teased, tapping my leg with his foot, “besides, without me around, you’d be lying on the floor dead right now.”

“I would not be dead,” I argued, rolling my eyes as I tightened my ponytail, trying yet again to save it from falling out completely. “Just maybe passed out on the floor until someone came in and found me.”

“Which by then you’d be dead,” Adam said matter-of-factly, the gleam in his eye only getting brighter as he saw my reaction, I could tell that he was inwardly laughing at me as he began walking outside the bathroom, motioning for me to follow him out. “What could you have possibly done to hurt yourself brushing your teeth anyway?”

“Don’t ring the doorbell next time you get here in the morning, okay?” I didn’t need to look at him to know his reaction to my reply; the way he chuckled and fell back in his stride said it all.

“Oh Raine, you are the most squirrely person I have ever met in my life,” Adam chuckled as he slid past me and made his way to the pantry, casually drawing out a box of Corn Pops from the tiny closet and making his way over to the cabinet and selecting a bowl from the shelf.

“Oh yeah sure, feel free to just take and eat anything you want in here, it’s not like I care that you’re raiding my pantry.” I said sarcastically as I reached across the counter and popped a kernel of cereal into my mouth, but regretting it the second I did so as my stomach rudely reminded me of my feelings of anxiety.

“You say that as if you didn’t come over to my house and do the same thing just yesterday,” he didn’t even hesitate as he reached into the fridge and grabbed for the milk.

“We’re not talking about me right now,” I replied, finally calming down enough to let a quick smile slip across my face. But it only lasted for a split second; and then it was gone.

“I’ve just made it so that we are,” Adam remarked, “and by the way, you’ve got toothpaste on your chin.”

I could feel my eyes widening to black discs as my hand flew up to my face, desperately searching for the slippery texture of a stray droplet of toothpaste. It wasn’t until Adam burst out laughing beside me that I realized his bluff. I couldn’t stop myself from letting out a few choice words before Adam came over to me and placed his index finger over my lips, ultimately silencing me.

“Loosen up, Midget,” Adam’s smile was no longer mocking, but one of subtle concern as he took his hand away from my lips and placed his hands on my shoulders. “What’s making you so tense today?”

I quickly sifted through a list of things that realistically could be bothering me before replying, seeing absolutely no point in admitting that I honestly didn’t know what was wrong, “I just didn’t sleep well last night, I couldn’t stop thinking about the test in Landcaster’s class.”

Adam tilted his head in momentary confusion as he considered this, “That test was today?”

“Yeah,” I nodded, biting my lip as I realized that Adam wasn’t the only one that forgot to study for the geometry test last night. It was Adam’s turn to utilize a few of his choice interjections before he finally made a reply for real.

“Well I guess there’s always a retake,” Adam brushed the matter off with a flick of his hand and a shrug of his shoulders as he stepped away.

“Is there a test you haven’t retaken this year?” I asked pointedly, though the majority of my thoughts were contemplating whether the only reason I was nervous was because of the geometry test I’d forgotten about.

Adam raised his eyebrows and looked up at the ceiling as if mentally calculating the number of tests he’d taken versus the number of tests he’d retaken, he didn’t look down from the ceiling as he slowly shook his head, “No, I’ve only retaken the last two geometry tests,” he remarked, shrugging once more before looking back down. “I dunno why you always freak out about these things, you don’t even need to study on half the tests to do fine.”

“It just makes me feel better,” I replied with a shrug as I turned my head to read the clock on the kitchen stove, realizing with horror that we had to be at school within ten minutes. I didn’t waste time speaking as I took off running down the hall and up the stairs.

“What do you think you’re doing, Midget?” I only had time enough to see Adam leaning over the railing as he hollered up the stairs.

“There’s no way we’re making it to school on time.” I replied irritably, hearing Adam’s reply though not actually interoperating what it meant as I slammed the door shut behind me, grabbing the first shirt and pair of shorts I saw to clothe myself for the day.