𝐓𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐫 ~ 𝐑𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐧

18. The Talk

Your first class of the day is finally over, and all you can do is sigh in relief. With your books held against your chest and bag over your shoulder, you are out of the classroom before you can even think twice.

The air in the hallways is better. And due to how quick you were, you were able to not catch the chaotic crowd that eventually walks these hallways between classes. Unfortunately, you still need to go to your locker before the next class, so it isn't like you have much time to do quite literally anything.

Alone, you walk yourself through the hallways of the school you will soon say goodbye to, and after squeezing through somewhat crowded areas, you finally get to your locker.

You open the metal box with a small combination of numbers and do it quickly so you can rid yourself of the weight of the books in your hands. After that, you organize it a little better before reaching for the books for the next class, and all of a sudden, you see someone standing beside you.

You jump, absolutely startled by the sudden appearance of said someone and look over at the person, finding Kristy. Your hand is over your chest in a physical attempt to calm down your heart after getting scared due to her proximity, but that is when you notice the look on her face.

The one she has when she needs to talk to you.

It has been, possibly, three weeks since you have grown distant from your friends. Maybe it has to do with the fact that school is almost over, and you will all soon pack things up and go to college. But, except for the first days, you have yet to feel the longing for their disappearing friendship.

You cannot say you don't miss having fun with your friends. Of course, you do. All of you were friends for the entirety of high school, and Kristy has been your best friend for what feels like so much more time. And, maybe, it had to do with how it happened: from how normal days, when you talked all day through school, turned into days when you practically never see them (nor wish to after a specific lunch).

You swear you can still feel their gazes from that day. Looking at you sideways as if you had infiltrated yourself into their table and were ready to listen to all their secrets and expose them to the world. When, in reality, you were only sitting with your friends. Or who you thought were your friends.

You blamed yourself for the entirety of the first week for what happened since you could've done something and forgotten it. Maybe you hurt one of the girls' feelings once in a conversation and missed how much that one joke could've hurt them. Maybe it was your tone or the content of the joke. Or maybe it just got taken too far.

Whatever it was, you let go of your worry by the time the silence reached a week. You blame that part on your boyfriend and his friends, as the time you once had with your friends outside of school is now spent with him or them. You're not sure if Rafe did it on purpose, but he had picked you up from that first day of the silence onwards. He listened to you, and maybe that was what made him want to spend more time with you. He didn't want you alone.

Right now, the mentality you have towards all of this is simple: if they have something against you and want you to acknowledge it, they need to speak with you.

You were done with the guessing games of what you could've possibly done wrong. Even if the possibility of them finding out about Rafe still hunted you.

Yes, in a way, it doesn't really matter anymore because they do not seem to be your friends or wish to be so. But you know that any reaction that could come with that would not be positive, and it surely would hurt to hear what they would have to say about that.

After so many warnings regarding Rafe's antics, you have grown to know if they were true or false or how they ranged from ridiculous to absolutely spot-on, even if you don't want to remember them. And you won't. Rafe has been doing his best, so you will do the same.