Toast

Chapter Nine // 'R'

- Amber's POV -

The second day of school had ended and it was very boring, nothing exciting happened. Elizabeth was tired because she hates getting up early so she decided to have a nap after we got back to the boarding school, I messaged Elijah and we planned to go on a walk to catch up.

I waited for him outside the girls boarding school, he told me on the phone that he knew a lane which had a river near the school. I tapped my feet and hummed quietly as people passed me until Elijah jumped on my back out of nowhere and scared me.

"Hey girl!" He shouted while kissing my cheek and getting off me because people were staring, I hugged him tightly and then we headed to this secret lane that Elijah knew of.

"How are you? Are you liking it here yet?" Elijah asked me as we walked along the empty road, I shrugged my shoulders.

"There is a lot of drama going on with the girls.. There's a lesbian named Jade and-" I began telling Elijah about Ashley and Priya bullying Jade for her sexuality and the lunch room incident, also how I tried to help but I was dismissed.

"That's rough. You didn't tell anybody about you right? In places like this secrets spread" Elijah asked me, I shook my head quickly and he sighed with relief.

"I don't know if I will ever find out my sexuality, I'm just.. nothing" I muttered while lowering my head, Elijah nudged me and smiled sweetly. We turned a corner onto a small pathway which was hid between two huge trees, I could tell why this place was special to him. As we continued to walk I could hear the river flowing.

"What about you? How has your first few days been?" I asked Elijah waiting for a crazy story, he has a very adventurous life.

"My first day back to school was great!" Elijah shouted, he took a deep breath and began to tell me everything.

- Elijah's POV -

Early in the morning I rounded up my friendship group, there are nine of us by the way. There's me, Joshua, Lukas, Nicholas, Ryan, Michael, Matty, Harrison and Ricky. Some of the guys didn't want to help me with my genius plan which was a downer but Harrison, Ryan and Lukas were up for it.

When our first class came I was ready to attack. Mr Richards is our teacher for registration and has been since last year so I thought we would give him a welcome back he would never forget.

Me and Harrison hid in the cupboard on the left side of the classroom while Ryan and Lukas hid on the right, the whole class was in on this prank.

When they entered the classroom and everything fell silent, we prepared ourselves. Mr Richards began calling out the role, he marked everybody in the room present and then it was our time to shine.

"Where is Elijah, Harrison, Ryan and Lukas today?" Mr Richards asked the class, as soon as he stopped speaking we jumped out of the two cupboards behind him and began throwing water balloons at him. He was drenched and so was his suit, the rest of the class joined in by grabbing water balloons from under their desks and throwing them across the room at him, Mr Richards grabbed some of our water balloons and attacked the class too. It turned into a huge water balloon fight and we didn't even get shouted at for it.

It was a good way to start second year if you ask me..

- Amber's POV -

I was completely shocked at how brave and crazy Elijah was, his smile was shining brighter than the sun at this point.

"That sounds incredible, I'm jealous" I told him as we laughed together. The boys boarding school sounds so much more relaxed than the girls one, over here we just attack each other but not in the fun water balloon kind of way.

We were surrounded by beautiful trees and wild life now, the river was flowing beside us and I thanked Elijah for taking me here. As we continued to walk there was a figure in the distance, they were sitting with their back rested on a tree and their legs dangling down near the river. We approached the person and then I knew who it was.

"That's Jade.." I whispered to Elijah as we stared at her, she had her back to us and she was smoking a cigarette. She didn't turn up to school today and I hadn't seen her since the day before when she told me to leave her alone.

"Go talk to her, I'll come back in a bit" Elijah said before running on without giving me an option of yes or no, I watched him in anger as he jogged down the lane. I glanced back at Jade and then approached her, I sat down on the grass beside her and leaned on the tree just like she was doing.

Jade was completely ignoring me, she was staring at something in the distance while smoking. I glanced at her a few times before looking down at her lighter which was sitting in the grass beside me, I picked it up and admired it. It was leather, red and had an 'R' engraved into it. I stared at it in confusion while thinking what the 'R' could stand for, Jade looked across at me and noticed I was holding her lighter.

"It was my friends lighter, his name was Ross" She explained before taking it out of my hands, her sleeves slightly rolled up as she reached to take it from me and I noticed she had four small tattoos on her wrist.

"Did he give you that lighter? That's sweet" I said with a grin, she laughed slightly and ignored the question.

"I like your tattoos" I said a minute later, she pulled up her sleeve and looked at them too.

"What are they for? They're pretty random" I giggled to myself and she nodded.

"I had a really great group of friends in my home town.." She explained while continuing to stare at her tattoo, she began pointing at every individual one telling me what they represented for her. I was intrigued.

"The boxing gloves are for my friend Rosie, she was a professional boxer. The heart is for Curtis because he was the first person I ever dated and had feelings for, the music note is for Todd because he really loved his music and then the 'R' is Ross.. Just like the lighter" She explained with a huge smile on her face, it's as if talking about them was taking her back to when she was happy with her group of friends. I told her I liked the tattoos and she thanked me.

We sat in silence for a while and listened to the birds chirping and the river flowing under us, Jade lit another cigarette and I watched her closely. She was an interesting person, clearly damaged and hiding it but I wanted to know so much more.

"I'm sorry that Ashley and Priya are so rude to you, I really am. I care about you.." I told her while nervously playing with the buttons on my dungarees, I could feel her watching me.

"Why do you care?" Jade asked me, I looked up at her while trying to think of the reason but honestly I didn't know. Jade looked terrifying and her attitude was scary too, I had no idea why I wanted to make sure she wasn't sad.

"I'm not sure.." I whispered in confusion, Jade laughed and looked away from me again.

"Thanks"