33 Days To Live (Under Revision)

27

After I sat with Luke until the last possible minute, I grabbed my bag with a heavy heart and made my way to school. It felt weird not having Victoria chasing me through the trails, I would've thought her to made a vengeful appearance by now but since the incident in the cafeteria she had been nonexistent.

Something I could thank Lucy for.

I badly wanted to know the reason behind her defending Luke. She said it was embarrassing, the situation, so I wasn't going to pry but I had my suspicions.

When I got to school I felt like I was dragging, I always did after seeing Luke.

"Hey Ben! There you are man, what's happening?'' Jake called out upon me passing my locker and he broke off from our group of popular friends to sling an arm over his shoulder. "I haven't seen you since you got knocked out at the party. That whole fiasco was epic!" He informed excitedly, all I could do was offer him a weak smile.

"Yeah, it was pretty cool. Rodney and the others are dead set on making that a new thing," I said and Jake nodded in approval.

"I'd totally hire you guys to play the party, I knew you loved music but I didn't know you could sing," He said.

"I didn't either if I'm being completely honest with you, but I'm glad I can. Maybe I can make my friends and I a segment on the radio show," I said, meaning it as a joke really even though something stirred in the pit of my stomach.

"That would be awesome! So, are you going to stop moping and come join us cool kids today?" He asked. There it was, the annoyed feeling I had been getting around Jake recently.

"I think I'd be a drag, I saw Luke in the hospital today and he doesn't seem to be getting better." I admitted, hoping for some kind of support but Jake just brush me off.

"Yeah, yeah, that sucks man," He said absentmindedly as he looked over at a group of girls that were eyeing us. He then gave my shoulder a squeeze.

''Stop looking so depressed and come hang out later. I've got to go see about getting me a fun night this weekend," He said before breaking away from me to go talk to the girls and I felt a stab of betrayal impale me. I had always though of Jake as one of my good friends and now I had began to realize my popular friends didn't give a crap about me.

Swallowing thickly I decided to walk away instead of getting all whiny about it and go find Lucy and the others. Trying to keep a stiff upper lip, I continued walking down the hall way and to the art hall.

When I got there I was surprised to see Lucy was already at her locker. Smiling just a little, I made my way over and leaned weakly against the locker.

"Hey Lu, did you have fun cleaning up paperclips last night?" I asked, earning a giggle as she looked up at me.

"I had more fun trying to explain to Oscar why we only got a quarter of our homework done in two hours." She informed and I laughed softly before sighing heavily. I couldn't uphold the smile anymore so I let it fade as I gestured towards our homeroom.

"Ready to go to class?" I asked and Lucy's smile faded into a frown as she studied my face.

"What's wrong Ben? Are you okay? You look like you've been crying, or lost a whole night of sleep or something," Lucy said worriedly as she reached out and brushed her fingertips over my arm.

I just shrugged.

I wanted to tell her what was wrong but I was scared she was going to brush me off the way Jake did, so I just swallowed the lump in my throat.

"I'm fine," I said as I pushed myself off the locker and gestured to the homeroom. "Shall we?" I asked and Lucy stubbornly shook her head.

"Not until you tell me whats wrong. If you want me to trust you, then you have to trust me." She informed, giving me a point I couldn't argue with. Girls were really good at that.