Taylor let herself rest for a few moments, her spine unclenching, the knots in her back giving just a bit, just enough to return feeling to her hips and ribs. A breath that was more wheeze than sigh escaped her unwillingly, her shoulders relaxing as taut legs loosened, her arms suddenly feeling so weak, so much like a pair of noodles when just moments before they had more than enough energy to fidget and pick at her body. ![]() Pulling the strap free from her nape, Taylor dropped her bag down into the seat next to the one she was picking-having opted for the chair closest to the corner, bracketed by two walls and giving her a little comfort, causing the early whispers of her paranoia to wane. Keeping her head ducked, shoulders hunched, Taylor crept past the other students, little bundles of conversation and noise that made her vision swim, plucking at oversensitive strings that had already been rubbed raw over the past week. It was just that the one she was after was the one with the least amount of people around it, and it just so happened to be shoved into the dim corner of the rectangular space, the table missing a few accompanying chairs that it might’ve needed for a full group. It took a few seconds to find an unoccupied table, not that there weren’t any available. It was a big space, about as big as her last school’s gymnasium, maybe even a little larger and she thanked whoever decided to blow the budget on the cafeteria in her head, a quiet murmur of appreciation that didn’t really hold any importance in the grand scheme of things, but felt important to her nevertheless. Her skin crawled for just a moment, prickly and oversensitive, but the feeling faded the further she got from the crowd, the more she retreated into the less occupied parts of the cafeteria. She exhaled breathily, too loudly if the curious looks she was getting were any indication, the pileup now behind her. One foot in front of the other, that’s all she needed to do it wasn’t complicated, she just had to walk, had to slip through the gaps in the crowd, hold her breath at the proximity, at the flash of ash behind her eyes, the telltale creak of panic in her chest, pulse rattling uselessly into the space below her palm, just beneath her jaw. ![]() She took a careful step forward, sliding away from incoming bodies and doing her best to avoid the lunch-rush press that congested near the right side of the cafeteria’s archway. She let her other hand fidget, pushed away the impulse to restrain herself, tracing the pads of her fingers over the denim of her pants, soothing her hip with one bony thumb, trying anything that might banish the pressure in her head. She swallowed once, twice, tightened her fingers even harder down against the strap of her bag, her knuckles whitening beneath the unyielding press. Arcadia’s cafeteria loomed in the distance, an unmoving, unwelcoming maw students and teachers filtering in and out in groups, the sight of bodies mashing and eddying making Taylor’s skin itch.
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