A Thousand Thrones

Six

Six

When I walked into my ceramics class, the first thing I heard was a scream.  It sounded like someone was being tortured to death.  It turned out that in the next second, that person was me.  Arms wound tightly around me, making it hard to breath. 

"Oh, my God, Persie!" Molly cried as she hugged me.  "I thought you were never going to come back!  What happened to you?"

"Hey, Molly.  No need to suffocate me," I choked out with a laugh. 

She pulled away, wiping the tears off of her cheeks.  "I'm sorry.  It's just...I just miss you like crazy!  Why did you leave?"

I shrugged.  I really didn't know what my cover story needed to be with my friends.  Damon hadn't even really said anything about it.  I knew my one with Wendy and Tom was that I went to stay with one of my old friends.  Maybe I should just stick with that in general.

"I just needed time to think," I said.

She nodded, understanding in her eyes.  "I get what you mean.  I mean, the thing that happened with Lee...It made you think, huh?"

My eyebrows furrowed.  "What do you mean?"

She looked around at everyone obviously watching us.  The one person I noticed wasn't in the room was Lee. 

"Where's Lee anyway?"

She shook her head.  "He's been beating himself up for the past week since you left.  He feels like you left because he kissed you."

I shook my head.  "No, I just got away because I needed to think," I lied.  "I went to my old town, the one I grew up in, though I can't remember anything about.  I went to visit one of my old friends, Ari."

"But why?" she asked.  "Why did you have to leave like that?  You know you had everyone worried sick, right?  We thought you were dead until she called Wendy.  Your friend.  I called Wendy every day just to see if she’d heard anything from you at all."

"You're being a little dramatic, don't you think?" I asked, laughing.  "I'm completely fine."

"No, I'm not being dramatic!  We didn't know what happened to you!  I was scared!"

This time, I was the one to hug her.  She started crying again as her arms tightened around me.  Everyone was watching and listening to our exchange.  But when the last person walked into the room, my eyes immediately went to his.

Lee. 

He just stood there, his eyes wide and trained on mine.  He looked surprised to see me, just like everyone else was, only him a little more. 

To say the least, he looked awful.  There were dark circles under his eyes like he hadn't slept in days and his hair was a mess.  Yeah, he actually changed his clothes, but he held himself in defeat, like he didn't care anymore.

He started walking hesitantly toward us, his eyes never leaving mine.  I knew I should have looked away, but it was like I was stuck.  I couldn't move.  As for that trance that I always seemed to put over people when I looked into their eyes, Lee was already too far gone to do any good. 

"Lee," I said once he was right in front of me.  My voice sounded a little choked.

He just stood there, looking down at me.  He didn't say a word before taking my hand and dragging me toward the door. 

"Lee, what are you doing?" I asked him as he dragged us toward the open door of an empty classroom. 

It was dark inside since the blinds on the windows were closed.  Lee closed the door behind him once we were in and locked it before turning back around.  I smiled slightly and went to sit on top of one of the desks.