Let Me Go

- Chapter Thirteen - Elora -

"I'm so tired." Erin protested as we left our room to go find our friends. It wasn't often that she didn't want to be social, usually she was the one bounding down the halls to find someone to talk to. But the day had been a big one, the bus trip had taken a lot more energy out of us than we had first expected it to, plus everything with Luca and then the hot tub, it was a lot of interaction in a short space of time.

"Thank you for standing up to Luca for me, you didn't have to do that." she blurted out as we walked and I stopped to look at her, she smiled gently once she spoke.

"You're my friend, Erin. No matter what, you come first." I replied, I was glad I had spoken to him about it. Although I agreed that what she had done wasn't right, she was also my best friend, I didn't want her being spoken to like that.

"Well it worked, he apologised." she said in disbelief, walking again. I turned and joined her.

"When has he ever apologised, shit." I replied, Erin laughing. Luca wasn't the type to apologise, maybe because he wasn't often needing to. A lot of his interactions were thought out, calculated. But I reminded myself he had apologised to me too that day about what he had said. I still had the words in my head. 'You're not the good girl you want everyone to think you are'. Those words haunted me.

"I just don't think Luca and I were ever meant to be.." she started, her face thoughtful. "But that's okay." she quickly added. "I want someone who wants to be with me, the good and the bad, and I just don't think that that was him." she said, she didn't seem upset about that. She had wanted something with Luca for a long time, it had annoyed me that she saw him that way. I was proud of her for seeing her worth more than wanting to be with someone that she thought she needed to be with.

"As good as he looks in skinny jeans.." I added, laughing with her.

"Those damn skinny jeans." she laughed, I was glad she was seeing the funny side of this now.

We rounded a corner and ended up in one of the living spaces, a large fireplace stood between two large windows that overlooked some of the mountain outside, and although it was now night time, the whole outside was lit up by huge lights on the exterior of the building. It had finally began to snow, leaving a white blanket all around the building.

Some of the students had created a circle close to the fire, they were all laughing and shouting. Others sat to the sidelines to watch, cheering on their classmates. There weren't any other guests in this room, maybe they saw all the teenagers and decided it was a good idea to avoid it for the night.

"What is everyone doing?" I asked Harry once I spotted him and stood to join him.

"Truth or dare." he said, looking at me as if to say he wasn't going to be playing.

"Oh yay! I want to play!" Erin yelled, running to join the circle.

Usually I would take Harrys side, I hated these games with a passion. But then I saw Luca standing in the circle. I didn't want to admit that that influenced my choice, but a part of me wanted to stay to see what part he played. Would he chose truth? What would they ask him? Or would they ask him to do a dare? Could I dare him to do something that I knew he would hate? Either way I wanted to find out.

"Let's play.." I said turning to face Harry who looked at me in confusion.

"When have you ever wanted to play a game like that?" he asked and I rolled my eyes.

"Thanks for making it seem like I've never had fun before." I replied and he laughed gently. "Do you not want to play?" I added and he shook his head.

"I've had too much interaction with these people today, I need to lay down." he replied and I shook my head at him in return. "I'll see you in the morning, are you sure you don't want to come?" he asked and I nodded quickly. He had planned to get up early to go hiking. In the snow. Like some kind of maniac.