Marriage of convenience

Chapter 41

The walk to the office was a short one. Mostly because I was distracted and was wondering what I would probably tell my friends there. Why was I leaving? Do I have 'family issues' again? Is that what I was gonna say? But it was Hunter with me, so I wondered until where he would buy my lie.

"What documents do you want anyway?" Hunter asked as they reached the building.

"Well, you will know eventually," I smiled helplessly.

"Were you applying for something? Is it a secret?" He smirked.

I wished that were true instead. I would have felt so much better if the documents served any purpose other than me leaving this place.

The majority of the processing was done when Ralph had visited. I just had to give away all the things I possessed of the university and I would be free to go. The moment I had handed over my ID card, Hunter frowned.

"Why would they need your ID?" He asked.

I shrugged, trying to avoid him.

"Will that be all?" I asked the person in front of the desk and he handed me a file of papers while nodding, retaining my ID. I was done here. This was it. It was finally over.

The man broke the ID into half right in front of our eyes.

"What the hell, man!" Hunter yelled at him. "Why did you break it?"

The man on the desk frowned angrily and I towed Hunter away from the scene, apologizing to everyone. "Hunter, what are you doing? Shh!"

"What do you mean, shh? He freaking broke your ID!" He yelled even more loudly than before.

"That is because he has to, Hunter!" I yelled, trying to calm him. I was not in the best state to sit down patiently and calm people. I was freaking out too. I needed someone to tell me that it was all fine even though it didn't look remotely so.

"What?" He looked at me like I lost my brains. After a minute of silence from my end, he grabbed the papers I held in my hand and hurriedly looked through them. "You are leaving?"

It was no longer a yell or a scream, but a deadly whisper. The kind you wouldn't even want to face in your nightmares.

I nodded. Well, I did not have a better alternative at that point.

He asked once more as if he was listening to it for the first time. "You are leaving?"

"I'm sorry," I sighed. There was nothing else I could have said to make it better.

"Were you not going to tell anyone of us?" Hunter asked clutching those papers close to his chest as if he did not want to let go.

"I was going to," I confessed.

"After you left?"

My heart pounded. It was as if the old memories came flooding back to me. I couldn't leave people like that for a second time. I was not ready to face it for a second time. But seeing Hunter react that way made me change my mind. Maybe it was better if no one knew. Maybe it was better if there were no goodbyes.

"I was scared," I confessed again. "I already left one place like this and I am doing this for a second time. I didn't know what to say."

"Then don't go," his reply came immediately.

"I have to," I sighed. "I need to."

After all, I finally have a place I can go back to.

"Why don't you complete your course and then leave? Why do you have to leave so abruptly?" Hunter asked. He was too cocky, but at times like these, he was just a normal boy wanting his friends to be close to him. I was somehow glad that he finally thought of me as a true friend after all the ups and downs.