Uncovered

Chapter 18

I trudged back to my room grovelling in self pity, conflicted on wether or not I should be angry or concerned. Despite seeing Izzy walking in the general direction of class I didn't see her inside nor did I see her afterwards. However, as I opened the door to my room I got the general gist of where she went.

My bed was unmade, my few possessions and bags lay stricken across the floor on my side of the room and my half of the wardrobe was full with clean clothes.

But that was it.

Izzy's bed had been stripped, her side was-for the first time in a while-completely clean, and all of her clothes were gone. And so was she.

I dropped my bag, filled with notebooks and pens, to my feet and stepped further into the room. Scanning my eyes across everything different, I tried desperately to wrap my head around what was going on. As my mouth dropped open a single tear spilled from my eye and slowly tumbled down my cheek until it dropped off of my chin. And then another. And another. And another. And before I knew it I was on the floor, my vision blurry and my eyes pooling with tears that seemed to have been building up for days now.

It wasn't just that Izzy had left. People lose friends all the time. It's that she didn't give a reason, and it looked as if she had none. She didn't talk to me but instead let someone that she's surely only known for 3 days talk for her. It's who she was with too. Not just Elin, although that pissed me off somewhat. It was Louis. He knows that I've been in distress these past couple of days yet all along he knew where she was. It was my kayaking trial. It was being away from home. It was trying to keep up with my courses. It was as if I was feeling all of the anger and pent up emotions all at once, and it made me want to scream.

I took several deep breaths and held my head in my hands. I inhaled deeply and slowly, letting out all of the frustration.

I had to get out of there. I just had to go for a few days, away from the stress and confusion, and most of all, away from Louis and Izzy and her supposed new friends.

Dragging my feet behind me, I crawled over to where I had dropped my bag and pulled out my phone from the zipped up pouch in the middle. Quickly deciding of it was the right thing to do, I pressed call and hoped that they'd pick up.

"Hello?"

"Mum?" I said breathlessly, already feeling calmer by hearing her voice even though I'd seen her not that long ago.

"Sophia, love. How is everything?"

"It's fine, I just-" I bit my lip. "Mum, can I come home for a few days?" I asked, my voice cracking at the end.

"Of course, what's wrong Soph?"

"It's nothing, honest. I just need a little break is all" I lied.

"Well, if you're sure everything's fine, then that would be great. As long as it's ok for you to miss classes"

"People skip all the time mum, I'm sure it's fine"

"Ok, well I'll see you tomorrow then love"

"Can I come now? Tonight?"

"I don't think it's a good idea for you to drive if you're feeling a bit....upset"

"I suppose. Ok, I'll leave early tomorrow so should get there by 9ish"

"That's great. Bye darling, I'll see you soon, ok?"

"Ok mum, bye. I love you"

"I love you too" I could almost hear my mums face break into a smile as she said those simple yet powerful words back to me, and then hung up leaving me alone again in pure silence.

Sighing, I figured I had nothing better to do than get into my pyjamas and slide back into bed. As I pulled my laptop on top of my folded legs, I remembered Emi. Molly and Liam are out together pretty much every night so Emily must be alone too.

Quickly checking that no one was around to see me in my fuzzy blue pyjamas, I skitted across to Emi's room where she was indeed sat alone.

I suddenly felt bad for being so selfish and not stopping to think how Izzy had effected other people and bit just me. Emily was there with me when we saw Izzy so she must be just as confused as I am. Considering her tear streaked cheeks I assumes that she was pretty beat up about it too.

Without knocking, I walked in, shut the door behind me and approached her. She was sitting straight up in bed with her eyes closed and her legs crossed. I sat down opposite her and pulled her into me. I wrapped my arms around her and I felt her shoulders start to shake, telling me that she was close to tears again.

"It's ok" I told her as soothingly as possible. "She'll come back when she's ready, but for now, we don't need her"

Emily always striked me as the timid one and now more than ever, she looked and sounded like a small child in my arms.

By 12, we had settled down to watch a downloaded film and I had decided to stay in Molly's bed that night as she had shown no sign of returning.

*****

I had informed Emily of my departure and she had asked if I could drop her off at the nearest train station so that she too could go home to, if anything, just get some closure on the matter.

I was still in her room tying up my shoe laces when Molly walked in claiming that someone was camped out in the hall, and her tone suggested there was more to it than that.

"What do you mean?" I asked arching my eyebrows.

"I mean someone is sat out in the corridor and it looks as if they've been there for a while now"

"Uh huh" I replied simply. "And do we possibly know who this person is?"

"Well I didn't really catch their face and-"

"Molly?"

"Yes?"

"Is it Louis?" I asked pinning my hands to my hips.

"Alright, yes it is" she said in defeat. I groaned and rolled my eyes suddenly less keen to leave the room. "Oh come on Soph, just talk to the poor guy. I honestly think that he's been waiting for you all night"

"Wouldn't surprise me" I mumbled, then gave in to Molly's puppy dog eyes. I would have to leave sooner or later and if it meant talking to him then that was something that I just had to deal with.

"Ok, I'm ready" I announced to the girls. They both nodded in encouragement and Emi even managed a small smile.

I pulled the door open and tried to look casual and nonchalant as I walked up to Louis.

He was indeed on the floor with his legs stuck out in front if him and his back supported by the wall. He looked peaceful with his eyes closed and my anger dissolved slightly.

I suddenly felt myself bending down to push back the wisps of hair from his eyes when they shot open causing me to jump back in shock.

"Hello" he said with the nerve to even smirk at me. I rolled my eyes and immediately guessed this was a bad idea.