Fall

Chapter 5: The Night of the Comet

I finally make it out to the night of the comet thing that Elena, Bonnie, and Caroline have been planning. I had to rush home, take a shower, and change before getting here. It feels like every muscle in my arms ache, with the amount of workouts Ms. Skuld had me do. She even had me work on refreshing some of my gymnastics, which I was not expecting to do in a lace skirt.

I hug my jacket to my body, cold and tired. The girls are up ahead of me, already holding lit candles. I get over to them and nod at Caroline, who greets me with a smile. "I got you a candle!" She hands me the extra one she's holding and I smile at her gratefully, feeling too tired to even really talk. I had had two asthma attacks during the workout, leaving me more drained than I already was. I just want to crawl into bed and never come out again. I feel like I could fall asleep standing up. My eyelids feel heavy, and I struggle to keep them open as I shift my weight. Sleep could not come soon enough tonight.

"You doing ok?" Bonnie asks me, rubbing her hand on my arm. I sigh and nod, hyper aware of my breathing after earlier. I clutch my inhaler in my pocket for good measure, hand shaking a bit from how many puffs of the steroid medication I had to take today.

"Yeah, I had the workout of my life. Ended up wheezing really badly twice. I might call it a day as soon as I can, if that's ok." My chest is still tight as I talk, and I force myself to count how long I can stretch my breath. In: one, two, three, four, five, six. Hold: one, two. Out: one, two, three, four, five, six. Yep, still tight. I focus on it and try to stretch my breath out to seven, working to get my breathing under control.

"Of course! Let us know if anything gets bad, we'll drive you home right away so you can take your nebulizer." Caroline briefly puts her head on my shoulder before going to talk to Sarah. Bonnie sends me a quick smile before leaving as well, going to talk to Aimee Bradley. I stand alone in the grass with the lit candle, looking up into the sky before I feel eyes on me. I bring my head back down to look and see some very familiar, very heartbroken brown eyes. Josh.

He shuffles up to me, a frown on his face. "Why, why did you break up with me?" He doesn't stop looking at me, a gaze that was once endearing now a stare that makes me uncomfortable. I cross my arms, careful not to set anything on fire with my candle. I thought I had been sufficiently rude enough so that he wouldn't approach me again.

"I don't know Josh, how about the fact that you hurt me on bonfire night? You physically put your hands on me and hurt me, you called me hurtful things. Any of that ringing a bell, or were you too drunk to remember?" I do my best to appear apathetic as I bring a hand to rest at the base of my neck, feeling my pulse and using the speed of it to try and help gauge what's going on with my lungs. In: one, two, three, four, five. Hold: one, two. Out: one, two, three, four, five. It's getting worse, why is it getting worse?

"Come on, you can't hold me to those things. I was drunk. Besides, you have been a frigid bitch. You never even had sex with me!" He throws his arms up in the air, getting a bit louder. It garners some attention, and I whirl around on him as I feel anger well up inside of me like a storm.

"Ok Josh, I'm going to be completely straight with you. One: I absolutely can hold you to those things, because you still did them. Two: you know exactly why I was holding off on that. Three: you approached me, did not hold up your end of the bargain, so I'm going to tell people now what you did to me. Good luck getting a date after that." I can feel my chest tightening more, hear the whistle when I breathe. Why is it getting so bad right now? I turn away from him, heading to my car. I need to get to my nebulizer, if it's this bad that I'm having three in a day I should just use that instead of my inhaler.

I feel his hand on my arm, pulling me back. I try to shove him off of me, but it doesn't do much good. He fights me, trying to pull me closer with his strength. I did my feet in to the ground, my breaths getting shorter and shorter as I try to twist my wrist out of his grip. "Let her go." Stefan surprises us both by coming up behind me and stepping in between us, staring Josh down. I keep yanking my wrist out of his hands, or at least try to, but Josh doesn't budge. Stefan steps even closer to him, his voice lowering an octave.