Runaway Man

Chapter 32: Returned

Chapter 32: Returned

We sat on the school field, picking at daises and turning them into chains. It was carefree but relaxing and for once, I felt like a kid again. With school and exams and everything else going on, that was a rare feeling. The stress made it too hard to juggle with outside school life.

Slowly, Jenny peeled off the lid of her corner yogurt, licked it then dumped it onto the grass. Diana squinted at her but didn't say anything. My friends were what made everything easy to cope with. They were like the glue in-between all the cracks I had, like the only thing that actually kept me whole. I thanked them a lot metaphorically but they never got the credit as such to their faces. But hopefully, they had a rough idea on how much they actually meant to me.

The crowds of student dotted around the field talked amongst themselves for a while and my thoughts drifted off to the conversation with Joey. "Because, I promised that I wouldn't." Did he really not ever break his promises? If he didn't, then wow, but it seemed like something too good to be true. Maybe it was just part of a scandal to make me see the fake side of him. His words seemed real though yet there was something that stopped me from believing them completely.

I shook my head: better not to think about him.

Suddenly, the air dropped silent and I looked up. All eyes were on the owner of a slim body with long dyed dark brown hair and bright blue eyes. There was a soft expression on her face and her skin had tanned since I'd last saw her, most likely from a spray tan, but it looked very convincing. It wasn’t like those bad tans that were all blotchy and uneven.

Linda Patterson.

Without her usual swagger, she cautiously wandered over to the corner of the premises and sat down. She didn't even exchange eye contact with anyone, not even me. She didn't even try to pierce into my soul and frighten me.  Somehow, she'd transformed into something kind of beautiful. With everyone watching her, I suspected that she'd at least give me a glare just to remind me who was boss. I hadn't seen her in ages and I wondered about her whereabouts.

She opened her bag, remaining to avoid everything else, and pulled out a brown paper lunch bag. Then, Linda took a bite into her cheese wrap. Her new self actually shocked me and what seemed to be, the rest of our year at school too (hence why no one could stop watching her).

Now, she was gentle, which was a huge contrast compared to how she'd been. And it was beyond her acting, well I thought so. Perhaps the latest incident had changed her... and her appearance too? Part of me felt sorry for her all alone, being observed and judged but there was another part of me that thought it served her first. She'd made my life hell, traumatized me and stole my chance with Jo- stole my friends. Her groupies obviously weren't coming back to her or me otherwise they'd be here by now. Instead, they had made reformed their own group, which was probably a lot better an idea.

In fact, they were on the other side of the school in the canteen.

Diana nudged me in the ribs subtly, "Quite a change, right? I wouldn't have even recognized her if I didn’t look closely..."

"Yeah, I know." I answered bluntly. She'd changed and I thought about looking into the matter a bit more. It wasn't mine to but I was curious. Speaking of curiousity-

"Hey, beautiful." A voice from behind me interrupted my thoughts. Quickly, I craned my neck and saw Pete's arms wrapped around a rather red Diana's neck. His chin rested on her hair with a stupid smirk plastered on his face. Love, wasn't it? I felt happy for her. I wished that my love life wasn't so confusing. My goal was for to be something like them. On the surface, they seemed so perfect like they were destined to be soul mates.