Written in the Stars

Chapter 15

Hi! Fifteen chapters already! It feels like I just wrote the first chapter yesterday! Okay enough of this writing in bold! This is going to be in Jack's perspective. Once again if you skip this writing Ima just write it down there. On with the story!

Jack's POV

It's been two days. Two days since Diana has been ignoring me. Again. Was it something I said? Was this part of some sick plan she had to befriend me and then leave again? She had been cancelling tutoring sessions, she asked to switch seats, she stopped using the language and whenever we were paired together in a subject, she would convince the teacher to switch her. She seemed to be doing everything in her power to stay away from me.

Rachel was more upbeat and clingy than ever. She clung to my arm throughout lunch and ate very little and called me every few minutes. She was breathing down my neck at soccer practice. She was peering over my shoulder while I did homework. She called me one time at two in the morning to tell me she couldn't find her favorite pair of shoes (I think she was talking about shoes. I was half asleep...) She selected my clothes for the morning. She was in my house for breakfast and dinner. She was there when I hung out with my friends. She would never leave me alone.

She seemed to have an unfamiliar glint in her eye and she smiled much more than she ever has before. Then one day she stopped. She just stopped. I don't know why. I woke up one morning and my clothes weren't laid out on my desk like they usually were. I checked my phone and I had no incoming messages or calls or voicemails or emails. My mom made breakfast instead of her. I didn't see her at school. Maybe she felt sick? I should probably go check on her later.

I had two more classes before lunch. I checked the schedule, math. Great! That's a class I can nap in. I take out the books and slam the locker door shut just as the late bell rang. Doesn't matter. I'm always late to math. With good reason. Just as I turned, I slammed into something which sent me stumbling back.

I grabbed onto the closest thing I could find in attempt to regain my balance. In this case, I grabbed a pair of arms. Steadying both of us, I got a chance to see who I ran into. "Jack?" a familiar voice said. "Great, now I'm going to be even more late to history class." She stared at the floor which was strewn with scattered papers, a notebook and all of her pencils which had come flying out of her pencil case. She bent down to pick them up.

"Here let me help." I offered as I bent down to get her notebook. But she had already recollected her things by the time I had reached for it and snatched it away before I could grab it. "Diana!" I called after her as she scurried down the hallway. "History is the other way!" She spun around mid-step and started walking in the opposite direction brushing past me.

"Will you at least talk to me?" I yelled after her. It seemed to have no effect because she kept walking. "Diana!" she disappeared around the corner. I sighed in frustration. I looked down the empty hallway once more before turning away and heading to math.

***

Rachel found me at lunch, squealing in her usual high pitched tone once she saw me. "Where were you?" I asked. She pouted. "No hello! No I missed you! No hello kiss! What's wrong with you?" Before I could respond she slammed her lips onto mine. Well... there goes my appetite. "Now if you really want to know why I haven't been in class, then you'll buy me lunch." She slapped a hundred dollar bill in my hand. "You can keep the change. Let's go!" She wrapped her arm around mine and walked to the front of the line cutting like she usually did.

"You could at least say sorry for cutting." Rachel wrinkled her nose in distaste. "No way. One person isn't going to do any harm." She ordered her food as I paid for it. The lunch lady gave me a sympathetic look as we walked away. I muttered a quick sorry to the other people in line as they stared at us. Rachel yanked me towards the table and sat down.

"Okay, so I didn't want to go to biology this morning because I don't like biology. That should be obvious. But then my top hairstylist took off! Can you believe it? He picked up his stuff and said he was getting a 'well deserved vaction.' Can you believe some people? He didn't even earn a vacation. So because of that, I had a fight with daddy and he gave me another hair stylist who smiled waaaay too much. And she took twice as long as my usual hairstylist. And see, it looks different." I looked at her hair. It didn't look different... Was it supposed to look different?

"Uhh" I was cut off just as Rachel said, "The volume is much better. But honestly, she could've gone faster. I mean, how hard can it be to blow dry and flat iron and curl and do this hair?" She picked up her fork and ate a piece of her salad. "Well, there was this thing at soccer-" I was cut off by Rachel yet again. "Well that was morning. I actually got here a while ago but I realized how close you were getting with Diana and I decided, it's time to put the past behind us. So I went up to her and recorded my apology to her as I spoke with her as proof to you that we really are friends."

She took out her phone and showed me the voice memo. "But I realized that I probably shouldn't have apologized. You should have seen the way she was acting. It's like she hates you. I immediately walked away and I remembered what you told me about temper. So I just walked away and she scoffed and called me a 'b' word!" She made me listen to the voice memo.

Diana's voice rang through my ears first. My first thought was, what could she have possibly said that made Rachel turn away? When the recording finished, Rachel was giving a pity look. "I'm sorry Jack. I just thought you wanted the truth." She rubbed my arm. How could Diana say that? Suddenly, all of my sadness was turned to rage. If anything, Diana was the bad friend. She's the one who turned away. I slung my arm around Rachel's shoulder and kissed her temple.

"It's okay. We don't need her." Rachel smiled at me and leaned her head against my shoulder. "That's all I needed to hear." she said in barely above a whisper. The thoughts that were once sad, the memories we shared, meant nothing. I realized she never really cared. At one point we were best friends. That could have been fake too. At one point I didn't want Diana to ignore me. And now I was glad.

Well... that was an interesting chapter. Unlike other writers who feel crushed to write these parts and say they cry at the sad parts, I actually like writing them. And not because I'm a crude person. I like writing it because that's what develops the story. This is what I like to call the "test" in a story. This is what puts the characters on edge. I like writing it because when you guys feel it, it makes me feel like I did a good job with this story. And I love the problem because that's what really makes a story a story. Wow I'm repetitive with the word story. And there I go again. UGH! Anyways, enough of my rambling. See you next chapter!