The Five Elementals

Chapter 9 - POV Scott

(A/N)

I'm so sorry for my prolonged absence!! I really enjoy writing this fic and I have a plotline in place; however, I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update. My school year is super crazy and full of time-consuming commitments and I'm also trying to finish my other fanfic, Fangs and Fur.

I'm having a hard time finding time to write, but I promise I will when I can! I'm trying to go for quality rather than quantity with this fic, and I'm working hard on the next chapters. I'll write a bit more before posting so that I don't leave anything hanging for a long time again.

Thank you for reading and commenting and sticking with me <3

***

I really, really need to stop stalking Mitch.

My back is pressed into a cold stone wall in the castle, head tilted to the side. The door to the bathroom is around the corner. I just followed Mitch here, trying to get him alone, but then he had to go and hide among the toilets. And now I'm hiding from him, because I really hope he didn't see me loping around campus after him.

A door opens across the hallway from me, and I freeze, then squeeze my eyes shut. I press further into the wall. Be the wall. I am the wall. Nobody can see me. I'm a chameleon.

"Scott?" I hear in an incredulous voice.

Dammit. I forgot that I'm tall, lanky, and altogether very not invisible.

I open my eyes and am faced with a confused Avi. He's holding a satchel on one shoulder, and a book in the crook of his arm. He looks collected and calm, very unlike how I feel. I watch his eyes scan down my body and back up, taking in the limbs spread to either side and pressed into the wall.

"...what are you doing," Avi asks.

"Um," I say, and push away from the wall, scratching the back of my neck sheepishly with one hand. "Nothing. Nothing at all."

Avi eyes me warily for a moment before smirking. "You were following Mitch again, weren't you." It's not a question.

Suddenly I hear a door open from around the corner, and the sound of rapid footsteps. I quickly dash to the corner and crane my neck around it, spotting Mitch striding briskly away. "Damn," I mutter under my breath, as I watch my best friend walk away from me again.

A beat later Avi also sticks his head around the corner, sees Mitch, then looks up at me. "So you were stalking Mitch."

"I wouldn't call it stalking, per se," I say, but no. I would totally call it stalking.

Avi gives me a stern look. "Scott, you need to talk to him."

I know that, but... "He doesn't want to talk to me!" I cry out desperately, running a hand through my hair and gesturing with the other down the now-empty hallway. It's been two days since Kirstie, Mitch and I turned nineteen, two, and I still haven't spoken to Mitch once. That day when I tried to flag him down on the campus, he wouldn't say a word, barely even acknowledged my presence. I figured something was wrong, that I should give him some space and time to come to me about whatever it was, but he still hasn't reached out and I'm forced to follow him around to make sure he's okay, because not knowing why he's so withdrawn hurts me like a kick to the balls.

Avi gives me another look. This one is even sterner, somehow. "Trust me, Scott, he wants you to talk to him."

"But then why is he avoiding me," I argue.

Avi shrugs. "Because he's anxious. Because something has clearly happened to him, and he's scared of how all of us will react, especially you. Because he wants you to prove that you care enough to find out what it is."