Separated

Six

Chapter6

I sat in the bathroom, crying, praying that no one would come in. These were the times when I needed a friend, someone to confide in. But I didn't have any and I wasn't sure if someone was there that I'd talk to them.

The door opened and I held my breath. While I wanted friends, someone who wasn't one could have come in and made fun of me for crying.

Someone knocked on the stall door. Oh crap. My worst nightmare.

"Taken." I said, hoping the tears weren't obvious in my voice.

There was silence but the feet were still there. Then the girl got down on her hands and knees and looked in at me.

It was Tori. A random person would have been better.

"Hey, you okay?"

I wiped my eyes with my sweatshirt sleeve, hiding my face from her. "I'm fine."

"If you were fine you wouldn't be crying."

"Just go away."

She rolled her eyes and crawled under the stall door. She sat up against the wall beside me. "What's up?"

"Leave me alone. I can take care of myself."

"At least tell me why you're upset. Maybe I can help."

"You can't help me." I shot back, harsher than I intended.

She watched me for a few seconds before she got up and left the stall, leaving the door unlocked and opened just a few inches.

All she wanted to do was help me. She didn't want anything in return. So why was I being so mean to her? Sure, she's said some rude stuff to me before but I knew she didn't mean for it to come out that way.

Why couldn't I just give her a chance?

-----

Neither of us said anything in class. The teacher spoke though I knew she wasn't paying any more attention to him than I was.

This went on until the day of our project. She had it all completed and finished. Though when she tried to say she'd present it for the both of us, I told her no.

"No way. You've done enough. I have to do something."

"It's no big deal." She said softly, pushing the papers into a neat, composed pile. She couldn't even look at me.

I grabbed her hand, stopping her, forcing her to look at me. "It is. Let me do this. You even said yourself that you hate speaking in front of people."

She watched me, reading my expression, waiting for me to blow up on her again. "Why?"

I knew she wasn't talking about why I was forcing her to let me present. There was more to it. "I don't want you to do the whole assignment yourself. That negates the purpose of us working together."

"It doesn't matter."

I laughed. "How could you say that? I thought everything had to be perfect with you."

"It's just a grade. I don't care."

I lowered my voice and forced her to look at me. "Since when do you not care about a grade?"

"Don't get into this now." She said, turning away from me and to the perfectly neat stack of papers in front of her.

"Yes, now."

She narrowed her eyes. "Just drop it, Emma."

The teacher called up the first group and I leaned back in my seat, confused as to why Tori was suddenly so mad at me. And why wouldn't she care about the assignment? She was the one who wanted the perfect grade. Something was wrong.

When it was our turn, Tori did the presentation without even glancing at me. She said my name once or twice, making up things that I'd done to the project. When we were done, she went back to her seat and continued to keep her eyes forward and as far from me as possible.

She was definitely mad at me. And I needed to know why.

----

Thank you all for reading! It means so much to me!