Lie To Me

The New Year's Ball

Notes:
This chapter took me a while because it is another 2,5k words. I mostly struggled to find a title for this chapter tho. Took me forever lol.

As always, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Let me know your thoughts and don't forget to leave a vote, a sub or a nice comment! I appreciate all of you for reading my story! 💕
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It's been days since Nellie and I had the fight, and she hasn't talked to me since. She tries to avoid me as much as possible. When I get up in the morning, she's already downstairs. She no longer sits with me during mealtimes but with Sallow and Ominis or the other girls, Jane and Cressida. She doesn't talk to me during class or even acknowledge my presence, even though we sit next to each other in almost every subject.

The other girls in our dorm also noticed that Nellie and I are now going our separate ways and are constantly asking about the details of our fight, but I won't give them away.

Most nights I try to avoid our dorm room and stay in the common room as long as possible because the dorm, which was once filled with shared laughter and secrets, is now thick with silence and resentment.

That often led to me spending time with Garreth and his friends, who very kindly welcomed me into their circle of friends.

It was easy to talk to everyone, and Garreth always made sure to include me in the conversations. He understands how much I miss Nellie, and it seemed like he made it his mission to make me laugh constantly to make me forget about the argument.

Last Wednesday night, he even brought biscuits into the common room and insisted on having a chat about our classes and upcoming exams.

Whenever he's near me, I still feel a strange feeling in my stomach. His mere presence seems to make me nervous, and maintaining eye contact has become almost torture.

However, I try to push these strange feelings and their meaning out of my consciousness and attribute the cause to the loneliness that Nellie has left behind.

Garreth is also the one who encourages me to talk to Nel every day. But I don't know what to say. I understand that she is jealous, but I never intended to hurt her. I'm not sure she would even listen to me. Sometimes in class, I look over at her briefly, and everything in me screams to apologise, but I just haven't been able to bring myself to do it.

There are only two more days left until the annual ball, and the loud chatter in the common room makes it nearly impossible to concentrate on my studies while I hear people gushing about their dates and dresses.

My thoughts wander, and I wonder if Nellie even wants to come to the ball now. I haven't heard anything from Sallow either. Maybe he talked to Nellie, and she just isn't telling me?

I sigh, unable to concentrate on my studies anymore, so I gather my books and head to the library, hoping for a quieter environment.

I walk through the halls in silence, feeling loneliness rising within me as the sadness of a lost friendship fills my heart. I wipe the single tear from my cheeks that had the audacity to escape my eyes as I take a deep breath, pushing my sadness back into my subconscious.

When I open the door to the library, I am immediately greeted by the smell of parchment and leather. The familiarity is almost comforting. I look around and realise that it's empty, and the feeling of loneliness briefly creeps up on me again, but I shake it off before sitting down at one of the empty tables.

Once again that evening, I spread my books, parchment, and quill on the table in hopes that at least a few little things would stick in my memory. I need some time to concentrate on my tasks again, but soon I'm so engrossed in my homework that I don't even notice someone sitting down at my table.