Greyscale [✓]

Chapter 41

CHAPTER FORTY ONE

The rest of the school year seemed to fly by, the months blending into each other until it was summer and they were smack back at the end of exams and the beginning of university offers. After Ashlyn and Gabriel had been expelled and severely disciplined by the local police force with counts of breaking and entering as well as sexual assault, things started settling down.

Some new drama had occurred following Becky's ridiculously stupid decision, as it always did in high school, and people's interests wore off.

Whilst she had stopped avoiding Rayne and running away whenever he was around, Hannah just wasn't the same person around him. The bond between them had been broken and the worst thing was, she knew it was through no fault of his own. He tried to talk to her many times but she'd mumble an excuse and get out of there, tail between her legs. At school Rayne had resorted to giving Carter messages to pass along whilst Becky, Cameron and Mohammad spent their time loudly exclaiming how stupid she was being.

When he wasn't around others, he would continue sending her voicemails. It tore at something inside her when she listened to each and every one per night but she couldn't bring herself to ignore them. Becky had clearly told him that Hannah believed he didn't like her – which was a lie, even to herself – and he had resorted to changing that. Every night he would send her a voicemail with something he liked about her. Over the months, they piled up but he still hadn't ran out of things to say.

Hannah knew how stupid she was being for pushing him away when he was the best thing that had ever happened to her but she couldn't help it. Truth be told, the embarrassment about the video had slightly worn off but now she was faced with an even worse dilemma.

She really and truly loved him.

And having that thought spinning around her mind whenever she thought of him – which was damn near all the time – made it even harder to look at him. She didn't know how it had happened really, but it hit her like a shot in the dark. On an ordinary day, it struck the target that was the heart she had built walls around.

Hannah had tried to tell herself that it wasn't true, that she was only eighteen years old – far too young to fall in love. She had a lifetime to look forward to, a world to explore and somewhere inside her, she felt love would have dragged her down. She had tried to step out of the shooting zone as the acceptance hurtled at her, full force, but how could she possibly ignore it when it was as real as she was?

And every night, when she lay in bed and listened to the voicemails that had clogged up her new phone's memory, it hit her even harder.

---

Thankfully, exam season flew by and Hannah was ecstatic to know she had done fairly well and gotten into Cardiff for Web Design and Internet Application Development. She had never intended to leave England, even if it was only five hours away from London, but this was her future and she couldn't refuse it.

The others were all moving around the country as well, their friendship dispersing in what was a bittersweet feeling. On one hand they were all excited for what was to come but on the other, they had all formed such close bonds this year that it felt a shame to leave it all behind.

With promises that they would all remain friends no matter what, Hannah found herself sitting in her most formal and expensive dress – a graduation gift from her aunt – beside the stage. She had eventually said yes to the offer of giving a short speech at the end-of-year celebratory event but with her stomach now twisting in a ball of nerves, she almost wished she hadn't.

Eventually the head-teacher gestured for her to stand up and she took a deep breath, plastering on a smile. But unlike at the very beginning of the year, her smiles had become real.