I'm Right Here

Chapter 19

"Holy fuck, Ze. Did you pull an all-nighter," James asks as he walks up to his locker. "You look like shit."

"Geez, thanks, Nova," I reply, rolling my eyes.

"He's not joking, man," Eddie says, grabbing my head and making me turn around to face them. "You look like someone smudged charcoal under your eyes."

"As much as I appreciate the concern, I'm fine. I just stayed up a little too late working on a paper for English."

"I told you not to stay up so late," Jordan jumps in, turning to us as he pulls out his textbook for our first class.

"Oh, you're one to talk," I laugh, raising an eyebrow. "Are you coming out as part raccoon or something, Jordan?" Shaking his head, Jordan closes his locker.

"Nah, I was so tired I couldn't sleep right away last night. Then, when I did actually manage to fall asleep, I woke up an hour later and struggled to fall back asleep again."

As the rest of the group start to jump into the conversation, I slowly start to tune them out as I look over my shoulder to see Chilled pulling out his books from his locker and handing them to Smarty. I smile at this, thankful to see that his friends care enough to help him. However, a part of me can't help but feel hurt seeing this. I have several classes with Chilled. I would like to help him carry his things to those classes... just like any boyfriend would...

Shaking my head, I turn back to my group and try to ignore Chilled.

"Before I forget," Jordan says, looking at Kevin. "I'm talking to Gassy about setting something up for you to apologize to Chilled. You better take this seriously."

"I will," Kevin quickly says, forcing a smile.

"Wait, you're making him apologize to Chaos," Eddie asks, scrunching up his nose. "Why?"

"One, I'm not making him do anything. He's decided to do this himself. Two, have you seen Chilled," Jordan growls, motioning towards the Angels.

"I mean, homie deserved it," Eddie groaned just loud enough for us to hear. I grit my teeth and tighten my hold on my books.

"No, he didn't," I growl, glaring at Eddie.

"Oh come on, Ze. I know you feel bad for him and that you two used to be best friends and all that shit-"

"That's enough, Eddie," Kevin interrupts, grabbing Eddie by the back of his collar and pulling him back, almost pulling him out of the group. "It doesn't matter. What I did was wrong, and I need to own up to it." Kevin looked my way for a moment before turning to Jordan. "So, when will I get to apologize to him?"

"I'm not sure yet. I just spoke to Gassy last night and he said he was going to speak to Chilled about it."

"Why don't you just walk over and do it," Eddie asks, rolling his eyes.

"Ah, what an amazing idea, Eddie," Seamus jumps in, shaking his head. "Why don't we send Kevin over to the group of people that already didn't like us, but now hate him for almost killing their friend?"

"You make it sound like you're not proving my point on why he shouldn't do this anyway."

"It sounds more like a reason to wait for Gassy and Chilled to give an answer before doing anything," I reply, glaring at Eddie. "If they say they don't want Kevin anywhere near them, that's fine. It's their right, but at least Kevin would have tried to own up to what he did." Eddie looks me up and down with an unamused expression across his face.

"Right. Question; are you holding Chilled to the same standard?"

"What," I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"Are you expecting Chilled to apologize for what he did? Homie basically sexually assaulted you." I start shaking my head, about to say that he already apologized to me, but I stop when I remember that I can't. Chilled and I aren't meant to talk to each other, and he apologized when no one was around. Saying he did it is only going to make things worse. So, I quickly think for a moment before speaking again.