Between The Lines

Chapter 123: Storm Brewing

Rebecca's POV (1st Person):

I stormed out of Lane's classroom, my pulse thrumming in my ears, and my hands shaking so bad I had to shove them in my pockets just to steady myself. The second the door shut behind me, I wanted to scream, but I swallowed the frustration, burying it like I'd been doing for weeks. My eyes burned, but there was no way in hell I was going to cry. Not over this. Not over him.

It felt like I had been holding my breath for weeks, waiting for him to talk to me, waiting for him to just... be there. But instead, he'd pushed me away, locking himself in this stupid bubble of grief and anger, shutting me out like I was some inconvenience. Like I didn't matter anymore.

I couldn't even think straight. Everything felt off balance. Even though I'd made it out of his classroom, it still felt like I was trapped in there with him. The weight of his silence, the look in his eyes—like I was the last person he wanted to see—stuck with me like glue.

I walked through the hallways, barely seeing the other students or hearing the buzz of chatter around me. My head was spinning with all the things I didn't say in that room, the things I wanted to say. I was tired of waiting. Tired of being the one who cared too much, who gave too much, only to get shut down every time.

What the hell had happened to him?

It wasn't just the funeral—I knew that. I knew losing his mum had gutted him, had broken something inside him, but it was more than that. This wall he'd put up wasn't just about grief. It was about him not letting me in, not trusting me to be there for him the way he'd been there for me so many times before.

And I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't stand the distance, the coldness. The way he acted like I was just another student now, like none of it mattered. Like we didn't matter.

I felt a tightness building in my chest, a mix of anger and pain that I couldn't shake. He thought he was protecting me by pushing me away, by keeping everything bottled up inside. But all he was doing was making it worse. For both of us.

I couldn't get the look on his face out of my head—the way he wouldn't even meet my eyes when I was practically begging him to let me in. To talk to me. To stop acting like I wasn't standing right in front of him, wanting to help. Wanting to make things okay again, even if I didn't know how.

But no. Instead, he had to be all noble, all distant, like his problems were too big for me to handle. Like I wasn't strong enough to stand by him when he was falling apart.

I reached the girls' bathroom and slammed the door shut behind me, leaning against the cold tiles and taking a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. The fluorescent lights buzzed above me, harsh and sterile, making the whole room feel even more suffocating.

I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror—my face pale, my eyes red-rimmed with frustration. I looked like a mess. But not just on the outside. Inside, I was breaking too. Cracking under the weight of everything—school, home, him.

Why did he have to make everything so damn difficult? Why did he always have to carry the world on his shoulders alone, like no one else could possibly understand?

Like I couldn't understand.

I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the wall, letting the coolness sink into my skin. I hated that I was even here, hiding in a bathroom because I couldn't deal with my own feelings. It was so pathetic. But I didn't know what else to do. I couldn't go back to class, couldn't face anyone. Not after what I'd done, not after pushing Lane like that in front of everyone. It wasn't like me. I never acted out like that, never tried to get detention on purpose just to have an excuse to be near him.