A Little Death ; 5sos

three

It's been a week since the therapy group and Elaine has yet to see Luke again. She hoped she would see him again tonight so she could talk with him.

However, much to Elaine's disappointment, it was time to go to school at the moment.

She rolled out of bed (literally), threw on some random clothes, then went off on her way. Elaine never usually ate breakfast so she easily sauntered by the empty kitchen and went out the front door.

She skipped down the sidewalk (not literally) admiring the lovely flowers popping out of the earth until she drew near her high school. She heeded how the light floated through the swaying leaves in the trees above, creating a lace-like design on the sidewalk before her.

Elaine wandered into the building, not really caring about anything; her mind was too busy thinking about Luke.

Suddenly, a strong chest hit her face. Or, more realistically, her face hit a strong chest.

When she looked up, she realized she had run into Calum Hood, the school's soccer star. His face was contorted into a menacing glare.

The muscular boy was extremely tall compared to Elaine, which doesn't happen that often. She was about five-foot seven, so it was a big feat if you were able to tower over her.

Elaine continued to observe the boy she had bumped into. She noticed a couple tattoos spread across his arm that were slightly hidden by the soccer jersey he was wearing, his dark hair matched his equal dark eyes.

Wow, there were a lot of good-looking boys in this town.

"Watch where you're going, freak." Calum spat out.

So it begins

Elaine rolled her eyes and walked away. She was used to it, but this school was the quickest to start with bullying and name-calling.

Throughout the day, it had gotten worse. The insults were thrown around more frequently. Things like "slut" and "pig" were shot at her along with belittling stares. All for no reason except to torment the new girl.

She obviously didn't listen to the harsh comments though. Elaine was fine with the way she looked, and she was a virgin, so "slut" was a pretty useless insult to listen to; it had absolutely no meaning to her.

After school, she reluctantly made her way to therapy. Yes, she was excited to see Luke but it was still therapy.

The first thing she noticed when she walked into the counselling room was the tall boy awkwardly standing in the corner.

Elaine had just walked up to him and was about to whisper something into his ear when the same counselor as last week walked in and sat down in a chair.

"Ok, who would like to talk about their problems first today?" the counselor asked after settling down. It was so obvious that he was very uninterested in the kids' problems.

No one responded to the man, so Elaine thought it might be a good time to talk about her bullying. It may feel relieving to take it off her chest, even if no one would care. Maybe Luke would. Plus, she couldn't bear the awkward silence that had cursed the room.

I have nothing to lose, She shrugged to herself.

Elaine gradually raised her hand and waited for the counselor to nod in her direction, allowing her speak. Luke raised his eyebrow curiously at her; ready to listen to every word she had to say.

"What's been bothering you?" asked the older man. He's pretty good at acting like he cares.

"I recently moved to a new school and I'm already getting picked on." She sighed, "I mean, I expected it, but it started pretty quickly." She admitted while picking on the bottom of her shirt.

"Hmm... I see..." the therapist spoke thoughtfully while rubbing his stubbly chin, "and how does that make you feel?"

"Pretty crappy, sir." Elaine sighed out honestly.

"And what do you think you can do to get them to stop?"

Before she could answer the counselor, Luke abruptly stood up from his chair.

He was very upset. He had to contain himself from throwing his chair across the room, so he settled for furiously pulling at his hair and storming out of the therapy room.

Um ok.

It was a mystery for Elaine as to why he was so angry; she was the one getting bullied, not him. Another thing that was odd was that no one else seemed to care about what had just happened.

It was like the two were invisible.

She raced out of the room as well and chased after him. However, Elaine didn't have to go far to find him for he was leaning against a brick wall just outside of the building.

"Luke, calm down" Elaine consoled, "What happened in there?"

"It's just," Luke started, looking into her eyes.

She had those big, beautiful eyes that with only one glance, you could get lost forever.

"I used to get bullied and I don't want that for you." he shyly continued.

Elaine's heart swelled at his caring words.

"It's fine, really, I'm used to it..." she trailed off, looking down.

Luke's back was still against the brick wall when he tilted Elaine's chin upward, making her look into his aqua eyes.

He was about to speak when his eyes widened slightly as if just remembering something. He reminded Elaine of a puppy.

"Why didn't anyone care back there?" he asked, a hint of unsteadiness in his voice.

Elaine wasn't sure if he was talking about his outburst, or the fact that she was getting bullied.

She brushed off his question and held him in her embrace, calming Luke and making him forget about his question completely.