Divine Blue [Book One]

Chapter Twenty-Three

Taylor had finished up her lunch with Grant and Rhiannon feeling a little more at peace and had just made it through her fourth period class. She walked outside of Mrs. Benton's literature class and down the front hall to fifth period physics, a class she shared with Adrienne. Lit class had provided Taylor a buffer in order to prepare herself, but she was still teeming with anxiety.

She drew in another deep breath, one of many she had made throughout the day, and walked in through Mr. Ames's open door. Taylor's front seat was still available for her, but another student was seated in the desk that was directly behind her instead of Adrienne. Taylor saw Adrienne at the very back of the row, messing with her phone. Taylor felt butterflies fill her stomach, her body trembling. Flashes of Adrienne's face close to hers, the taste of her lips, the smell of her hair overtook Taylor as she stood motionless at the doorway to the classroom. She finally moved towards the desk and sat down.

Mr. Ames sauntered in through the door and closed it behind him. The bell toned throughout the building.

"Man, my timing is impeccable, isn't it?" he joked, glancing at his class while he took some papers from his desk and set it on the podium at the head of the room. "Miss Peters, returning to the depths of the back of the classroom again, are you?"

There was a pause, and students around Taylor began looking at the back where Adrienne was seated. Taylor decided not to join them.

"Um... Yeah, just needed a change in scenery, Mr. A," Taylor heard Adrienne say.

"Was the scenery at the front not good enough for you?"

"I can appreciate it a lot more from back here," Adrienne said lightly, while some of the other students chuckled.

"Very well, then," Mr. Ames said, as he turned on the projector and began his lesson for the day.

As the bell sounded for the closure of fifth period, Taylor filed her books away into her backpack and was reeled back into the world around her. She had spent the class mindlessly replicating Mr. Ames's message onto her computer while her brain worked tirelessly to taunt her with memories of Adrienne. The fact that Adrienne was in the same room was not lost on her, either.

Taylor decided she didn't want to make Adrienne anymore uncomfortable than she already was and quickly packed up her stuff and left the classroom to travel down the back hall to her last class of the day. As she walked into her last period Algebra class, she felt her bag vibrate. She sat down at her desk and pulled her phone out.

It was a message from Adrienne.

[Adrienne]: this is stupid and i feel even more terrible than I did before

[Taylor]: did I do something in class that upset you?

[Adrienne]: not at all. i just feel bad like i'm doing something really cruel to you

[Taylor]: it's not cruel. it's natural. you're hurt & i can't make it better.

[Adrienne]: i want to be so angry with you. and i was. but i know you

Taylor didn't know if this was some sort of olive branch, but she truly hoped that it was. She hoped that even if she couldn't resolve the issue of her and Adrienne, for now, she could continue being a part of her life. Before she could respond, she felt her phone vibrate again with another text from Adrienne.

[Adrienne]: can i text you when i get home? class is about to start

[Taylor]: yeah just text me. mine's starting, too.

Taylor put her phone away as Mr. Cooper, her algebra teacher, marched into the room.

***

Taylor opened the front door to her house at the end of one of the longest days of school she had ever had. She sat her bag in the foyer and grabbed her phone from its front pocket. She strolled into the kitchen where Sandra was sitting drinking a mug of hot tea.