it all ends with us: ruins

038

Chapter Thirty-Eight:

"Life is infinite. So infinitely finite."

The day had started off normally. It was a Sunday evening and Atlas spent the whole day avoiding Draco and tiptoeing around the fact that he had confessed feelings for her a couple of nights ago. Ren had tried to bring it up a couple of times but Atlas was the master of avoidance and managed to get away with not talking about what had happened.

The common room was quiet due to the amount of students just doing work. The boys had gone off to a Slytherin quidditch practice leaving Atlas, Pansy, Ren and Kiera to catch up on their school work. They worked quietly occasionally giggling at stories that they whispered to each other. Times like this allowed Atlas to be alone while still with other people. It was relaxing being able to have reflection time but not be drowned with the feeling of loneliness. Atlas couldn't get the sick feeling out of her stomach all day, instead she focused on other things trying to distract herself from it.

"I have something to tell you." Pansy sighs after a while.

"What is it?" Ren asks.

"Me and Rory have made it official." Pansy reveals which causes all the girls to squeal.

They get death glares from across the rooms and they all send out an awkward apologetic smile before quieting down. The girls fuss over Pansy now being in a relationship. Ren complains about being single before turning the attention onto Atlas. She coyly brings up the fact that Draco has a crush on her which makes Atlas cover her face in a pillow.

"Two of the hottest guys ever both like you and you have nothing to say?" Pansy questions.

"No because he doesn't like me like that." Atlas denies.

"Liar, he admitted it. You don't need to dance around the topic." Kiera adds.

"It's weird. I don't want to accept it because then I would have to deal with it and I definitely don't want to deal with it. Besides, I really like Theo and I don't want to ruin what we have." Atlas explains.

"What did you say to him on Friday?" Ren sits up from her slouched position to get a better look at her friend.

"A lot, most of it I regret." Lennon admits.

"Why?" Pansy pipes up.

"I was mean and I hurt his feelings." She informs them.

"He's tough, he'll get through it." Ren laughs.

"I feel guilty about it though; he doesn't deserve people walking away from him." Atlas adds.

"It's fine, reparations for him treating you horribly when you first started right?" Kiera jokes.

Atlas laughs the situation off and brushes off the nervous feeling in her gut to be guilt. The subject changes again and now they were talking about how they wanted the celestial ball to come sooner. The girls informed Atlas about Hogwarts' yearly Christmas celebration until they were interrupted by a big bang.

"What the hell was that?" Pansy shouts over the screams of the first years.

The group was quick on their feet to look around. Kiera and Ren gathered the first years that were scared around the Slytherin common room as Atlas and Pansy went to check out where the noise was coming from. It wasn't until Professor Snape came running in telling everyone to get to the great hall that the fear really sunk in.

The four stayed behind clearing out every dorm while they made sure each student was accounted for. They had the older students escorting the younger ones out of harm's way. Snape never explained why they were evacuating, so they were all left clueless and terrified. It took ten minutes to clear out the Slytherin common rooms and dorms before the group left.