Unshed

Part Two

Featuring my attempt to continue this story.

My head hit the cafeteria table loudly when I found that my usual seat in lunch was surrounded by a few conversations. None of which that involved me. Sam would occasionally bump or lean onto me to get a bit closer to Jonah, who was on my other side, to continue with their ridiculous conversation about Rebecca and Stacey. Sure, they looked pretty and... curvy... but that doesn't mean that my dumb friends here should explain their nonexistent chance to get them laid. I suppressed an irritated groan as I pushed Sam off of my shoulder. Everette chuckled from across the table as he examined my expression. A very angry expression I assume it was.

The degrading conversation between Sam and Jonah stopped just long enough for Jonah to address me. Finally. "Hey, Lid, have you seen Eponine?"

I searched around the seats after landing my eyes on Eponine's usual seat, but today it was empty. Taking a deep breath, I looked up and around to the others, and just as I thought she magically disappeared from space and time, I found her in the back corner booth with a guy beside her.

His hair was buzzed short, but I could tell there was a color that she adored. Brown. It probably existed in his eyes too. His hands were tanned as I watched them snake around her shoulders and into her hair, and she giggled to the closeness.

I took a deep breath, staring at them with my mouth surely hanging open. That's the boy that she was drooling over in the car, and I didn't notice it before? I thought that she wouldn't give him any time in her life. My eyebrows narrowed as I could only remember one thing about him. Two years ago.

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Bodies pressed up against each other in the hot air of a house that I don't even know the owner of, alcohol tinting the air and everyone's breath. Why did she bring me here? Why is she even here? No matter how many times I told her that this thing is nothing but destructive to herself and her relationships... and me.

"Where's Eponine," I questioned the first kid I could get my hands on, taking his cup from his hand and dumping it out the open window beside me. The small, pale, blonde teenager surely around my age just opened his mouth with his brows knitted together. I'm only wasting my time with him.

Groaning, I shoved past him and walked around the house to find Eponine myself. And mind you, it was a big house. The music blared with some odd, screaming music, but I couldn't ever notice what song was playing. What, through the obnoxious teenagers screaming at each other and the distant moans from the bedrooms.

I practically opened every door in the house before I yelled her name. Loud. And I yelled it again.

If she's dead, I'm sure that I won't be able to afford a proper burial, and I'm not going to waste the time on her sorry butt because she can't handle herself and stay next to me when she drags me to a party with all of these bad decisions. My feet carried me to the end of the hall, which lead to the back door and the hot tub, and I stumbled into the grass. By this time, panicking was inevitable. I mean, she could've been anywhere, but what could she be doing ther-

Two hands poked out of the sides of the hot tub by the windows. Two very pale hands. The fingers clenched shut... they where shaking. I walked a little closer to examine it and found a head looking down at whoever owned the hands. His hair was long and shaggy, carrying a wet looking brown color. The girl underneath him let out a yelp, but it was cut off by another hand covering her mouth roughly. He seemed to be hurting her.

Shaking my head, I moved from the spot I was frozen in to walk as quick as it was possible. I pulled my phone from my pocket and dialed 911, but I didn't call it yet. Not until I could see what was happening to the girl in the hot tub. Clearing my throat, I spoke to the man, or should I say boy, hovering over her, "I suggest you get off of her before I call the police and get you and everyone here arrested." The boy looked to me and smirked, allowing me to look down in the water.

Eponine.

Tears streamed down her face, coating the dark red mark over her mouth from his hand. My breath hitched as I stared at her, an ache coming to my chest and blocking my ears.

I pulled my hand up to the guys throat out of anger and tugged his face close to mine harshly. My voice came strained but deep, like gravel, "Now you listen here," The hot breath from my lips fanned over his nose, "You can leave now before you A.) Get arrested or B.) Get beat to the cold, hard ground by my fists." The fingers around his neck gripped harder to forcefully throw him from the hot water. You could say that I learned how to lift humans by the one and only Everette, and right now, I'm very grateful that he exists.

The annoying kid scrambled from his spot on the ground and into the house. Oh, please, he couldn't beat anyone. He could hardly even talk to me. I turned back to the hot tub and gently pulled Eponine up and out and into my lap, and she cried some more, turning her flushed face into the fabric of my shirt that covered my stomach. How could someone do that while watching her like this? It was hard just to sit here while she cried like this. My heart thrummed hard in my ears as I brought my hand to caress her hair comfortingly and rocked her back and forth. I whispered down to her, "Hey... I'm here... I'm here... We're going to leave, and it'll be okay..." I pulled her skirt back down so that her butt was no longer bare and picked her up in my arms to carry her to her parents' car.

I couldn't bear to watch that again, never again. That'll never happen again, never.

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My eyes stung at the memory as I watched him get a little too close for my comfort. She's not even eating her food. I tried to stand to walk over to her and this guy, but Everette pushed me back into my seat. Chest tightening, I lied my head on the table without another word.