A Broken Heart

Chapter Seven - First Lie

Dawn's POV

I woke up a few minutes before my alarm and climbed out of bed. The weekend ended and we're back to school. I peer outside the window to find rather unpleasant weather. The howling wind causes tree branches to dance and the sky's clouded with no sunlight passing through. 

I pray that there's no thunderstorms, that's one of the few things I cannot deal with. I shake my head to remove my pessimistic thoughts and begin preparing for school. I head downstairs for breakfast to find a note instead of my mom. It reads:

Dear Dawn, I was called for an emergency business trip. I'm unlikely to be back anytime soon therefore I'm counting on you to take care of yourself. Remember to eat properly and I trust that you'll complete the household chores. Stay safe.

Love you, Mom

I sigh and begin packing some leftovers from yesterday for lunch before eating a simple sandwich for breakfast. I'm glad that my mother trusts me but it does make me feel rather lonely, especially in a lone-parent household. I leave the house slightly early after grabbing my bag to school.

A gust of wind from behind blows away my beanie, I start chasing after it and crash! What's this feeling of déjà vu? I glance up and it's certainly Ash. He extends his hand to me and flashes a smile. I take it and return a smile to him.

"You look rather different without your beanie." Ash remarks as he hands it back to me.

"You think so? I look cute either way don't I?" I jokingly say as I take his hand to stand up from the ground.

Ash timidly scratches his neck with a flustered face and nods. I start burning up as he fundamentally called me cute! However, in my eyes, the sheepish Ash in front of me seems cuter. After snapping out of my thoughts, my hand is still held in his and we continue walking to school like this. I let out a small chuckle which Ash notices.

"Is something the matter Miss Berlitz?" 

"Nothing really. I was just comparing this to the first time we crashed, our relationship changed quite a bit in such a short period of time." 

Ash gives me a perplexed look and I smile before continuing.

"Don't you remember? You ran away and I remained motionless the first time we crashed..... Hey Ash, can you hear me out?" 

He nods and we stop walking. It isn't anything significant, Ash most likely didn't even notice. Yet it's still been bothering me. I take a deep breath and confidently look at him.

"Sorry."

His bewildered expression emphasises that he doesn't understand what I'm apologising for. But it's fine, I was able to apologise properly. I release his hand and smile before racing into the school building first.

I reach my classroom in a matter of seconds and open the door, spotting my circle of friends who gathered around May's desk. May notices me and if I'm not mistaken, her movement stiffened. Within the next second, she starts waving at me and stands up from her seat. Is my eyes playing tricks on me?

"D-Dawn! You're here! W-We were just..uh...just..."

May's the straight forward type of person, she always says whatever's on her mind. It's my first time seeing her stuttering and at a loss of words, aside from being picked on by the teacher that is. Her awkward behaviour makes me wonder whether she's hiding something from me that she shouldn't. May's my best friend so she wouldn't.....right?

May's POV

I'm discussing with the rest of my friends about what to do with him. Dawn insists on introducing the 'demon child' to us last week. I wasn't able to express that we despise him and somehow even agreed to meet him the following week on Monday, which is today. 

For the first time, we don't want lunch to come. We talked over how to naturally avoid meeting him without upsetting Dawn. As I badmouth him instead, as we couldn't come up with any ideas, I hear the door open. I don't consider that it'll be Dawn but realise it is her when my friends stop chatting. We make eye contact and I stand up to greet her normally.

I've always told Dawn everything. Never once had I lied to her since we became friends, which is the reason why I'm at a loss of words when I attempt to lie about our discussion. There's no way that I can truthfully tell her that we were belittling the 'demon child' yet I couldn't bring myself to lie.

"D-Dawn! You're here! W-We were just..uh...just..."

I glance over at one of my friends, Drew, who's most recognisable feature is his green hair. I plead for help through my eyes, hoping he'll get the message. Drew sighs and run his fingers through his hair before standing up and taking over the conversation.

"We're just discussing about how we should welcome the transfer student to our group." Drew casually lies.

He gives me a smug look after which frustrates me yet I'm thankful to him. Drew's a dependable person in situations like this but his narcissistic personality needs to be fixed. Dawn stares intensely at us and eventually flashes her usual smile to us.

"That sounds great! I'm sure Ash would appreciate your thoughts. Despite the rumours around him, Ash is a kind person at heart. I'm sure you'll get along!"

Seeing her smile and hearing her kind words deepens my sense of guilt. Dawn's the reason our group is able to befriend one another but now we're all betraying her. She always trusts us yet we're deceiving her. My heart aches to the point I almost apologise and admit that we detest the 'demon child'. However, Drew catches on and prevents me from doing so by stepping on my feet. Does he not feel anything after blatantly lying to Dawn like that?