A Forbidden Finale (Student/Teacher Romance)

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

I'd gone back to bed and cried even after the revelation that I wasn't actually going to jail. I'd been a dick to the one person here I really cared about and I'd still lost my friends. I just didn't want to have to think about any of it anymore.

Liliana texting me the next day and asking if I wanted to meet up was almost a surprise. I hadn't been sure she'd even got away. I'd been perfectly happy to just sit in bed for another day wallowing.

So, I'd dragged myself up and into class so that I didn't get told off for skiving when I went to see her in the evening. I definitely wasn't having a lesson with Ethan, probably ever again, so that wasn't an issue.

I'd practically fallen asleep in all my lessons despite the excessive amount of sleep I'd had the previous night and day.

Dragging my feet towards Liliana's room, I was ashamed to admit that I was curious what she had to say. It hadn't been on the forefront of my mind like it should have been, but she'd blown up some explosives next to a person. He could be dead for all I knew.

I knocked on her dorm room door, and she answered wearing a hat and scarf. "I thought we should walk and talk so no one could overhear us." She was wearing a sullen scowl which was a startling contrast to her normally preppy expression.

"Oh, sure," I agreed, lamenting that I hadn't even brought a coat with me. I didn't have the energy to go and fetch one though, and I declined when Liliana offered go and walk back past my bedroom. "You all got away okay, then?"

Liliana shook her head. "One of the guards caught me." Liliana paused until we were safely into the school gardens and then she exploded. "I cannot believe them!" Her hands were balled into fists at her side. "They threatened to cut me off if I ever do something like this again. They didn't even listen to what I had to say about what they're doing to the environment."

"What about the guy?"

"The guy?"

"You blew someone up." I hadn't meant to sound quite so unimpressed that she hadn't even known who I was talking about. Hopefully that meant he was okay.

"Oh, right, yeah," she scratched the back of her head guiltily. "He's just got a concussion, he wasn't burnt or anything. I was such an idiot for pressing the trigger, I just panicked. Anyway, my parents, they're such dickheads." The word sounded completely foreign leaving her mouth.

"That sucks."

"As soon as I'm self-sufficient I'm going to make sure their business gets shut down. They don't deserve to be rich off ruining the environment. I can't believe they didn't even listen to me. They just told me that I was a disgrace and that if I ever did anything to potentially embarrass them again that they'd disown me."

I didn't really know what to say. At least the guy wasn't dead. Liliana wasn't actually getting into a shred of trouble despite having blown something up. Was there really anything to complain about? "At least they're not actually pressing charges or anything," I tried to cheer her up a bit. I wasn't really in the mood to do anything but waffle.

"That's not the point, though. This was never about me or you or the twins, it was about trying to change something. We didn't change anything."

I lifted a shoulder in a shrug again. "Well, at least you tried. I mean, that's more than can be said for most people when it comes to things they believe in."

"Are you not bothered?" Liliana fixed me with a disbelieving look. "My parents' plant is still spewing harming chemicals into the air at an alarming rate. They're damaging things."

"Of course I care, I guess I'm just more relieved that I'm not going to jail right now."

Liliana sighed. "You didn't have to come, you know? I said you didn't. You didn't look like you enjoyed yourself very much."

"It was scarier than I thought it was going to be. I hadn't realised how much I didn't want to throw my life away by being thrown into jail when we were actually on the way there." That sounded reasonable, right?

"If my parents had stopped polluting then it wouldn't have been throwing your life away. If you were really dedicated to the cause you wouldn't think like that."

I'd lost her. She knew that I didn't care. "I don't think that bombing their shed would have convinced them to shut down their sole source of income anyway, do you? You know your parents, it was a pointless thing to do. It was about making yourself feel like you'd done something worthwhile even though you knew it wasn't going to actually make any difference."

Liliana stopped walking to fix me with a fierce glare. "You're talking a load of rubbish. You don't know my parents. You have no idea what they'd have done if they didn't know it was me. They didn't want the publicity of something like that. Their image is everything. I didn't want them to stop producing all together, I wanted them to cut back. They could do that, but they're lazy. They just buy people's pollution permits off them instead."

"Oh come on, you blew up a tool shed. It was a vanity project."

"Why did you even come?"

"Because I wanted to be your friend. I wanted you to like me."

"I did like you." She threw up her hands. "I didn't care if you weren't interested in my beliefs, I never asked you to be. But don't try and buy my friendship. I don't like that."

She stormed off and left me standing with a scowl on my face. My downward spiral had reached its end.

I was about to find out whether I could really deal with being friendless.

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Another short chapter! Carly's self-destruct mode is in full-force. Let me know your thoughts, and thank to everyone who has voted and commented so far! It means a lot <3