20 Ways To Kill Yourself ➳ Bullied By 5SOS

Chapter 22 - Rain

It had been a few weeks since my detention fiasco and needless to say, mother was furious. But seeing the bandage wrapped tightly around my hand, protecting the partially corroded skin, the mothelry instinct kicked in and her mind was forgetful of the fact that my coming home late was a thing.

But since then, I guess life had been the same unforgiving bitch...

Because, everyday after school, I was required to stay behind the gates of the tormenting hell hole, spending the precious hours of my time that could have been spent doing something a lot more practical. And the daily practicalities of life consisted of colour coding my notes, organising folders and cramming every small bit of information into the very crevasses of my mind.

But clearly that schedule of mine was interrupted and had to be delayed a painful three hours as a result of my violent encounters with the one boy who I would spend my three hours after school with. And that made each second even more unbearable.

Or so I thought it would be like...

While I scrubbed the grimy tables of the cafeteria, occasionally gagging at the pieces of soggy remnants of food here and there, Michael mopped up behind me, shooting a smile my way as he looked up at me. And that was the thing that, surprisingly, bothered me the most. Everyday was a day I had dreaded setting foot within the premises of the school grounds, terrified at what torments awaited me from my peers. But for the past few weeks everyone had been... quiet.

And I don't mean that in a necessarily bad way...

When you have the same routine every single day and things go awry, you tend to feel slightly confused. As I ventured through the halls this morning towards my classrooms, not a single person turned their head towards me and not a single insult was thrown my way. Of course it was peculiar, but I was grateful for the sudden halt of attention that was always focussed on me.

"Ready to go?" Michael asked, wiping sweat away from his forehead with his arm as he tucked the cleaning supplies away into the supply cupboards. This is child labour, I thought to myslef, but nevertheless I nodded, heaving my heavy school bag over my shoulder and almost snapping my spine in half. As we left the hall and strode through the empty halls together, silence fell upon us. From the corner of my eye I saw Michael looking up at the white ceiling, seemingly debating something with himself.

"What you thinking?" I asked quietly, my feet falling to the floor as I watched one foot in front of the other as my legs carried me to the exit.

"About everything and nothing." He replied cryptically, our hands brushing the slightest by mistake as he adjusted the strap of his backpack but not taking notice as I flinched out of nervous habit.

"Everything?" I continued, looking back up as he looked down and we stared at each other.

"Just... everything. Like, us then and now and everything in between." I closed my eyes for a long period of time, knowing exactly what he was referring to.

Michael was a mystery sometimes, and one that was hard to unravel. But what I didn't expect was for the next three words to come out of his mouth.

"And I'm sorry." I halted in my tracks, tempted to slap myself to check if this was real, or pinch myself to check if I was awake.

(A/N: He ain't sayin "I love you" if that was what you're waiting for m8.)

"I'm sorry for the way I've treated you like shit. I'm sorry for always blaming you. I know it wasn't your fault and I know you weren't in control." He apologised, and I was astounded by that.

I was at a loss for words and didn't know what to say. There wasn't any extent of knowledge that a book could give that would assist me in such a circumstance. He wasn't a mathematical equation with a single variable that led to a single answer. He had uncountable unknowns and so many different answers that my brain couldn't comprehend.

But as he waited for an answer, waving his hand in my face, I reciprocated with the only way I knew how. "I forgive you." I nodded my head, smiling slightly as he did the same.

And that was the point where I didn't know where we stood. Did that make us friends again? Were we ready to rekindle that flame of friendship between us?

It seemed that I didn't know anything anymore.

And clearly I didn't know the weather either. Because the morning sunshine had suddenly transformed into thundering rain and before I knew it, Michael had grasped my hand and we were sprinting together in the rain towards what I assumed was the parking lot. I say assumed because my vision merely consisted of raindrops. Shuddering from the cold, he reached quickly into the pockets of his skin tight jeans and pulled out his car keys, unlocking the vehicle and motioning for me to get in.

"No, no it's okay! I can walk!" I managed to make out over the loud rumbles of thunder overhead.

"Just get in, I'll give you a ride." He shook his head as a flash of lightning crashed a close proximity near us.

"Thank you." I said, climbing in and trying to wipe off the moisture on my glasses with my sleeves, but that was futile as every piece of clothing was drenched with rain. I put my sleeve covered hands over the heaters, my teeth chattering as he leaned over the centre console, pulling something out from the backseat and handing it to me.

"Are you sure? Won't you need this?" I asked him, unravelling the soft material and realising it was his jacket.

"Nah, just take it." He shrugged, driving off out of the school parking lot and towards my house. I was somewhat surprised that he still remembered my address even after all these years and it made me wonder if he still held the remnants of our memories like I did. Before long he pulled up at my front door and I waved him goodbye, a genuine smile on my face as I watched his car pull away into the distance, realising that I was still buried in his jacket. 

(A/N): Potential Maya, Michael ship???? thoughts????

hello : ) 

It's been a while hmm

how have you all been? 

first off i just want to apologise for the lack of weekly uploads (2 weeks! eeeeek!) 

but here you go ^_^ and another chapter is coming up later on today so look out for that 

(QOTC): umm if you could do anything in the world, just one thing, just one opportunity to do absolutely anything, what would it be? 

Mine would be to meet the people that mean the most to me and just tell them how much they've done for me, what they've done for me and to never stop what they're doing.