A/N sorry for the lifetime wait for an update! I have been focusing on school this year. I have just finished my last year of high school! Also I have suffered some serious writes block, but I'm back! And in celebration of my return, here is a double update.
*warning* this chapter heavily involves self-harm, which I believe is a massive part of youth today. If you do not feel comfortable or if this could trigger anything I would advise you skip this chapter. The next chapter should still make sense if you do.
J U S T I N
IT'S BEEN TWO SLOW, hard and lonely weeks since Tilda's diagnosis. Two weeks since she gave me the cold shoulder, and I her. Two weeks of waking up with high hopes of her coming back to me, only to be crushed down each day. Fourteen days since she took my heart and tore our relationship to shreds. When we came home from the hospital, everyone could sense the tension between us. They all knew something was off, but none realised just how much of a shift our relationship had taken. Not until a week had bygone.
The thing that kept me hopeful in all this, was the fact that it wasn't only me that she'd pushed away, it was almost everyone. Almost. Not quite. She'd pushed away everyone closest to her, including everyone at the academy. She'd walk to school slightly ahead of the rest of us. That was her new routine. She'd walk alone. Meet Riley at the school gate, where she'd greet him with a tight hug as if she was trying to rub it in my face more than she already did. He was one of the two people she'd talk to. The two have become in separable. They were constantly together, and when they weren't, she was with Ella.
Of all people, she decided to hang out with Ella. That drove Vicky and Milly absolutely crazy. She had not only created problems with me, but she'd lost her two best friends. All traces of the Tilda we all loved had drifted off to sea, and that's what saddened me most. I didn't care if she decided to break it off with me, but she had changed herself in the process. She wasn't the same Matilda that I fell in love with, that's what hurt most. She looked so much the same, but on the inside, she couldn't be more different. She was a stranger.
It wasn't so bad at school. We didn't have to encounter each other. At home on the other hand, whenever she was around the tension was like cement. Everything and everyone felt awkward. Walking to and from school was awkward. Doing chores around the house was awkward. Scott had us partnered up for training at the start of the year, so that was especially awkward.
Dinners were unbelievably awkward. Scott and Beth would try their hardest to make small talk, but nothing could ease the tension in the room; so when I heard my phone ringing before dinner, it was like music to my ears. I'd do anything to save me from that awkwardness. It was Julia. Strange. She hardly ever called me, usually it was only when she needed to know something about one of my siblings.
"Hey Julia," I answer cheerfully. "What do you need to know this time? And before you ask, no, Eddie is not allergic to broccoli, he just says that to get out of eating it."
"That's not what I'm ringing for Justin," she speaks softly, confusing me more than I already am. "I'm so sorry," she says, her sobs evidently sounding through the speaker. I felt my heart being to race, growing worried about what she was about to say next.
M A T I L D A
Justin was late for dinner. Not that he'd talk to me anyway. Something had changed between us. I didn't want it to happen, it just happened on its own. Call it fate. I hated dinner time. I'd do anything to get away from my so called 'friends' and join Justin up stairs. Everything was perfect before, but things fell apart so easily. My life had changed drastically between everyone here at the academy and I had no idea why.
