Love But It's Always 5cm Away

𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 4.

"Thump!" I hit the volleyball back fair and square over the net after team red's attempt to spike. My hair was a golden mess with most of the hairy strands sticking to my sweating neck like hot glue. Both my hands were on my knees that should have knee pads on, while my lungs seem to gobble in huge gulps of air. My face was flushed with sweating trickling down. The back of my blue-white jersey, with a number 6 printed in a fat bold letter, was wet while the radiating heat was trapped inside.

We had 24 points while our opponent had 23. One more point to go. My teammates are mostly freshmen, including dear Xena, were with me, against the sophomores. I saw them return the ball, while a carrot haired setter propped the ball high up into the air toward my direction while she locked eyes with me.

It was my sign to spike. To smash the ball into their territory, praying it never flies back, to see it land hopelessly on the ground. However, to the peripheral of my view, there was another person to my right running towards the ball...

Xena?!

I was in motion, my feet not listening to the one emergency command I keep sending to my body.

STOP RUNNING.

I saw Xena traveling at high speed towards me, like a train bumping into an innocent person on the rails. We jumped simultaneously, our bodies in sync, both wanting to make contact with the ball lingering in the air. As I swung my right hand to make the final death blow, I could feel someone elbowing me, pushing me out of the court and down towards the hard, shiny surface of the gymnasium.

THUMP THUMP THUMP...! The sound of the ball landing on our side of the field echoed through my ears. Whoever was gonna hit the ball never got it over.

Down, down, down I go... For a brief second, I looked up frantically to see who could've done that. Through the blinding lights blazing upon me, a figure started to appear as my eyes adjusted.

It was my best friend, Xena Hart.

She had a look on her face I never saw before. Her eyes were wide, with the red veins showing beneath the white, while her pupils seemed to send ghastly goosebumps though my body, deep into my soul. She looked nothing like the Xena I know, but instead, like...

A monster.

CRACK!

I landed on my left leg. That crack was the crunch of my bones underneath me.

I couldn't hear anything and the world was disturbingly silent. Soon enough, the pain started to unfurl across my legs, like a raging fire inside me. I saw our volleyball coach, Mr. Jackson, and my teammates rush towards me, before my vision starts to turn into blurry colors, then ever so slowly, darkness wrapped around me and gently took me away.

- Flashback -

The chilly breeze accompanied with falling auburn leaves and the rare flecks of snow signals November. Time flies by, quick yet invisible. It's been three months of tutoring Hady now and I find myself getting used (and sometimes even looking forward) to seeing his pretty face everyday. Since when am I so disgusting? Ugh. Good thing is, Hayden's mom, Ms. Acker, a friendly and cheerful woman with a hint of white hair, insisted on paying me since Hayden's grades did improve. Yay!

After school clubs have started a while ago too, and of course, I've joined the only sports I'm decent at. Volleyball! I've watched Haikyuu and got so inspired to start playing volleyball. God, I miss that anime. Sometimes it's a great source for your motivations. However, I'm still hoping for a season four, but who knows.

I miss Xena's company in class, but Hazel was there for me. We talk about Genshin almost everyday, and anime. You don't know how happy I am when I'm around Hazel. I don't think I've ever had this feeling when Xena's around. Having a friend that shares almost all my interests is amazing, except that we do like different sports. Hazel's more of a basketball person which I find SO COOL. She's open and pretty popular too, but she prefers hanging with me. I don't understand why, but this small thought brings a smile to my face. Not only that, I've been enjoying my school days more, so one day I decided to gather up my courage to ask Hazel about my scar.

"Hey Haze, quick question, what do you think about my scar? I was too afraid to ask you when we first met..." My voice trailed off. Despite Hazel and I being best friends, I still get turned up on any sort of discussion relating to my scar.

Hazel put a reassuring hand on my shoulder and turned my face towards her, forcing me to glance into her every so sparkly viridescent eyes. "Mai, are you serious? This scar of yours is the coolest thing about you, no, I mean, you're awesome and everything, don't get me wrong, but this scar makes you unique and I love that. GURL, Don't ever question your scar again!" were the words that tumbled out of Hazel's mouth.

My eyes lit up. Really? She thought my scar was cool all along? I shouldn't have doubted myself or even cared about what toxic things people say. Why bother myself with that?

"You know...the cool one here, " I kicked off my sentence,

"Hmm?" Hazel tilted her head with an expectant gaze.

"IS YOU HAZEEE!!" I squealed and gave her a warm bear hug.

"MAI, YOU ARE SUCH A DORK, YOU'D BE GREAT AT FLIRTING." Hazel giggled and hugged me back.

Things were looking up, just as I was starting to overcome my fears, starting to climb towards the peak of my high school years, my life fell into a deep precipice again, an infinite black hole...

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Thank you for reading! I hope you'll drop a vote and look forward to future chapters :) Any suggestions are always welcome! Sry this chapter is kinda short and I didn't much time to edit so it may be bad :/