Let Me Go

- Chapter Twenty-Three - Elora -

Ten days.

Ten days since I had spoken to either of them.

Ten days since I had really seen either of them.

They'd called, texted, come around to my house. But each attempt I ignored. Each time I thought about talking to them, I just didn't know what to say. It was easier to just keep my distance. I'd seen them at school, and maybe I was being obvious but I didn't really care, speeding past them or avoiding them through emergency doors or just straight up spinning and walking in the opposite direction. I knew they could reach me if they really needed to, and I knew they were stopping themselves because they knew I needed space.

I'd spent a lot of the time away from them thinking about all the times in the last few years that they seemed odd. At the time I hadn't thought anything of it, but looking back I now knew that they were hiding their secret from me, it was so freaking obvious now.

But the main thing I thought about, was had they done to me what they had done to my mother. What the man had done to her. She followed their every word, suddenly making her ignore that I was in danger, that I could have been killed. She left me alone with that man because he had told her to. Had they ever done that to me? Had I ever done something that they had made me forget?

"This is exhausting!" Erin said from beside me in class, suddenly erupting out of no where.

I put my pen down, before turning to her in confusion. The students around us were all talking, no one seemed to notice her.

"How is it exhausting? You can still talk to them!" I told her, annoyed. We had had this conversation before. It also didn't help knowing Harry was sat at the back of the class beside Luca, and their freaking bat hearing would be picking up on every word.

"No, I can't." she replied, rolling her eyes before turning to face me. "You're my best friend, and they've obviously done something. I can't forgive them until you do." she responded.

I hadn't told her why I was upset with them, because how would I? She didn't know the things that I knew. She didn't know what had happened to me. I didn't want to expose her to the horrors that had taken place in this school, or the fact that the friends we grew up with had been lying to us. But that also made it so god damn lonely. I couldn't talk to anyone about it, no one else knew. Apart from the boys, who I wasn't currently on speaking terms with.

"What if I never forgive them?" I joked. I had never told her she couldn't speak with them, I wanted her to stay friends with them. I wanted it to be normal, I just wanted some time apart from them personally. But instead it split the group up.

"Oh God." She said, her hand falling into her hands. "Please can you just tell me what it was that they did?" she replied, looking up at me slightly annoyed that I had kept it to myself.

"It isn't my place to say." I replied, picking up my pen and continuing to write in my notebook.

"That is such bullshit, at least tell me why I am ignoring them." she said, I knew she was trying her best not to be too pissed about it.

"Like I said, you don't have to ignore them." I said, before the bell went off above us.

I packed my books, picking them up and walking out of the classroom with everyone else. Erin waved goodbye before walking down the hall, I knew she was upset that I was keeping such a big secret from her. But there was nothing I could do about it.

I stopped walking once I saw Harry and Luca standing in front of me. The other students in the hall all making sure to walk around them, giving them space. They stood tall in the hallway, I was sure everyone knew that they were there, people avoiding looking at them, instead just looking to the ground before they got past them.