Between the Cracks // 𝓕𝓻𝓮𝓭 𝓦𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓵𝓮𝔂

50. Simply...Working

50th chapter!! Weooowww

Chapter 50: Simply...Working

The days slipped past, one by one nearing the start of the mocks. Leigh and the majority of her classmates spent their every waking second with their nose stuck in either a book or their notes, with a few exceptions. The library was full to the brim, and the common room was for once not as rowdy as normal.

While Leigh, like most others, tried her best to focus and lock in to prepare, her mind didn't always share this goal. The nightmares were as horrible as always, to the point that she sometimes laid awake for hours not even daring to close her eyes. Each time her eyes slipped shut she was faced with Evan's dead eyes, or ginger strands streaked with blood.

After a few sleepless nights she quickly realised she couldn't function without any sleep at all, and decided to turn to alternative measures. Only up until the holidays.

And so she stood in the morning, just dressed and ready for classes, gaze staring mindlessly into the dark void beside her bed, knowing exactly what hid inside it. The faint outline of a bottle made itself known, and Leigh furrowed her brows, throwing a look towards the bathroom, where Nova was getting ready, before throwing herself onto her bed and reaching down into the black pit. Her palm made contact with the cold glass, and she moved it deeper in towards the wall, even now remembering the strong taste of it on her tongue the night before, the soothing feeling it filled her with.

She stood up again, looking back to the spot only to see nothing – the bottle hidden in the dark. Only until the holidays, she told herself. It was temporary.

But it turned out it wasn't quite so easy. A few mouthfuls quickly became too many, and the dull pressure the day after quickly became a stabbing headache. She wasn't chasing something to faintly calm her down, after all. She was aiming for something to overpower her mind, suffocate her memories and allow her to pass out with nothing but a black screen present before her eyes.

And while the sharp liquid did its job, the gnawing feeling of self-loathing slowly started to creep up on her. And no matter how much she told herself it was temporary, it wouldn't go away.

-

Leigh sat along the table during lunch, surrounded by the usual suspects chatting absentmindedly around her. It was one of the rare occasions that they all could meet together in the great hall for lunch, given that more often than not one or several of them would sit in the library with their nose in a book.

The group's topic of discussion was their plans during the holidays, a discussion Leigh was more than happy to be left out of. Despite having a book in front of her, her eyes barely moved across the page. The constant talking about Christmas gifts and family traditions which surrounded her didn't help her headache, and she closed her eyes momentarily in an attempt to zone out.

The guy beside her, which happened to be Nova's boyfriend Terry Boot, just finished his sentence, having just spoken for several minutes about him going home for the holidays, his aunt's famous mince pies, and how he had to admit he wasn't a big fan of them. If anything, the uninteresting chatter made Leigh's headache worse.

Hermione, who had kept the conversation around the table going, briefly met Leigh's form before skipping her and moving right on to the one beside her; Neville. She knew Leigh wouldn't go home for the holidays, and her body language didn't really scream that she wanted to be involved in the conversation at all.

"You going to spend the holidays with Louise, Neville–?" Hermione started, soon cut off by Ron, whose gaze was still on Leigh.

"What about you, Leigh?"