33 Days To Live (Under Revision)

52

On Friday Lucy and I didn't dare go near the lunch table. I wanted to stay clear of Leopold until he cooled off and Lucy didn't want to ditch me for them even though Rodney begged her. She told me that she loved them but didn't want to leave me alone.

At least Gene's attack had made an impression on Victoria and my crazy ex stayed in Jamie's company while avoiding ours. I hoped she would just avoid us from now on. Even with this small improvement, I could still tell Lucy was miserable which made me angrier at Leopold and I was twice as angry at Andrew who knew what I was dealing with and didn't just try to understand.

I remember when I was in middle school Rachel went through this phase where she wanted to be a philosopher and the only thing that came out of her mouth was deep quotes she memorized online.

Most of them were really stupid and easy to forget, but one always stuck with me; you don't realize what you've got until its gone.

This whole month I had taken Andrew and his friends for granted and now that they were pretending I didn't exist I felt the void of loneliness open up wide.

Yeah, I had Luke and I had Lucy now, but my whole life I never had a whole group of friends that were perfect for me. It really hurt to know I may have tarnished four life long relationships, or at least three of them.

By the end of the day I was going out of my mind and I think that was what compelled me to get up Saturday morning and drive to Gene's house. If anyone could talk Leo into forgiving me it would be her. So with the small ray of hope I had managed to grasp, I found myself knocking on her door early Saturday afternoon.

Since the whole incident with Victoria I hadn't talked to Gene at all, not because I didn't want to, but because I didn't know what to say.

Even now I didn't know what to say.

"Ben, Gene didn't tell me you were coming by this morning," Her mother said upon opening the door and I smiled politely.

"I hadn't been planning to, it was a spur of the moment decision. Is Gene available to talk?" I asked hopefully.

Nodding her mom stepped aside.

"She's upstairs doing her homework. Make sure you knock." She forewarned before disappearing into the kitchen. Sighing heavily I made my way upstairs and knocked on her bedroom door.

"I told you mom, I'm not hungry!" Gene called out, making me smile a little.

"Its Ben actually. I promise I won't try to feed you if you let me in!" I called back. For a long moment the only response I got was Gene shuffling around, then a moment later she opened the door.

Almost gasping, I took a step back in surprise.

She looked horrible.

She had scratches all over her face, a cut on her lip and a bruise near the corner of her eye.

"Stop staring at me, I wear these battle scars with honor," She said and I swallowed thickly.

"I know I haven't told you this yet but...I'm really sorry Gene." I apologized quickly as I looked down.

''Why are you apologizing? You didn't do anything wrong." She frowned. I wasn't sure why but her words relieved some of the overwhelming burden I was feeling and I found myself hugging her.

"Thank you, thank you so much for saying that. They all blame me Gene, they all blame me. Especially Leopold I-" I began to ramble quickly, only to be cut off by her shushing me and hugging me back.

"Hey, hey, calm down. Come on in and tell me what your going on about. Momma Gene is here." She reassured before guiding me into her room and over to her couch.

Once we both were seated I told Gene everything that happened after I walked away from the fight and she listened silently with a deep frown as I let out all my anger and confusion. When I had finished who knows how long later, I sat back and closed my eyes tight.

"So that's why I apologized to you because I was hoping maybe you can fix this mess. I hate to put the burden on you but I need someone on my side who can handle the situation." I mumbled. Inhaling and exhaling deeply Gene shifted to a crossed legged position.

"Okay, first of all, I was the one who made the choice to punch Victoria. I was protecting my friend and I will proudly tell anyone that, even college admission offices when they see I have a suspension on my record. I'm glad you left me, Lucy needed you more then I did and that was why I wanted to take the fall so she'd have you there for her."

She then bit the inside of her cheek.

"Secondly, Andrew is being a miscreant. He knows what kind of horrible position your in and he's not being understanding. I get he's upset and he has a right to be upset but not without hearing your side of the story first."

Nodding slowly I looked over at her.

"He hates me," I said sadly. It really did hurt. I know boys weren't supposed to have their feelings hurt but like girls we did invest time and energy into friendships and when they ended or were about to it sucked.

"He doesn't hate you. Andrew just needs to cool off, he'll come around. He always does. Leopold on the other hand...Leopold already kind of hated you..." She admitted quietly, making me frown.

''Why would he hate me?" I asked in surprise.

"Jealousy I guess. He always had a little bit of a problem with you since you joined our friend group. It was probably because Andrew and Rodney took such a quick liking to you and started ignoring him. I think what really pushed him along though..." She hesitated for a moment.

"He um...when I went to your house that day I was supposed to meet him at the library but I showed up almost an hour late. When I told him I was at your house and that I couldn't tell him why, or what were talking about...he thought we...ummm..."

"What?! That's crazy! I mean, your a pretty girl Gene and I love you as a friend but everyone knows I'm into Lucy," I said, my voice coming out a little strong.

"I know dude, keep your cool," Gene said before she stood up and began pacing around. "I guess the fight yesterday was a breaking point for him and he had a lot of anger he needed to get out. Now that its out, I hope I can talk him out of it," She said, more to herself then me as I stood up as well.

"And if you can't Gene?" I asked worriedly.

"Then we're going to have to hope he'll eventually come around." She sighed prior to sitting back down. "Until then Benjamin, you and I are going to focus on Lucy and make sure we get her into a better place before the weekend is over." She then stood up again. "So, how about you go pick her up and come back here, giving me time to call Leopold and we'll discuss everything that happened over milkshakes at Eatology and maybe go to the mall or see a movie or something?" She suggested and I nodded as I pulled out my keys.

"Okay, I guess I'll go get her right now." I decided before heading to the door, when I reached it I stopped for a moment to turn back to Gene.

''Thanks for being such a supportive friend Gene, I never would've thought you'd be the knight in shining armor I needed for my crusade."

and with that being said, I left so she could call Leopold. Hopefully Gene would be able to fix this and everything would back to normal by Monday.

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Hello my lovelies! Firstly, I'd like to say a BIG thank you for 20,000+ reads! That's a milestone for this story! Also, I know I said the story was almost finished and it almost is but I might have to expand it a few more chapters then planned to make it work, meaning this will be one of the longest stories I had ever written! That's pretty awesome considering I had zero ideas for this story when I first started writing. Man, writing a story is such an incredible journey, one you can take as many times as you want. That's my favorite thing about writing, the rush from creating your own story and never knowing what could happen to your characters, or even you!

Enough deep thought, time to go see Ghostbusters again!
-Mari.