Lovers: Boarding School

_pool

I know I shouldn't be making excuses, but two things prevented me from updating this story earlier: (1) the FIFA World Cup and (2) food poisoning. I am WEAK. Forgive me Q7Q

Fun fact about me: I nearly drowned three times in pools so you can guess how this chapter will play out based on the title aloneヽ(' ∇' )ノ

WARNING: I'm going to stop it with these warnings because the story from here on out will be VERY unpredictable and I don't want to ruin all the fun by giving away too much >;) I hope y'all be keeping notes...

Enjoy!

If it weren't for James, Violet would've left the game for good.

If it weren't for James, Violet would've never been greeted with the concerned face of her virtual roommate when Violet decided to return to the game.

If it weren't for James, Violet would've never confided in Lena--of all characters--about something that was as personal and private as her pitiful relationship with Gin.

If it weren't for James, Violet would've never discovered the surprisingly compassionate, supportive side to the girl that Violet never would've expected from a character like hers.

And if it weren't for James, Violet would've never went out with Lena for an early morning run around the school, talking and chatting like the kinds of friends they were supposed to be since the very beginning of her virtual journey.

It was strange how the end of one relationship can consolidate another one that Violet always assumed was miscarried since birth. If Lena was like this with her, how would the other characters be if they knew?

Returning from their enlightening run through the school's picturesque scenery together, Violet and Lena entered the girls' locker rooms chattering and giggling like hummingbirds high on saccharine nectar.

"I wish you told me you were seeing Gin," Lena said to Violet as she was stripping off her electric pink sports jacket. "I totally would've watched your back if he'd done something sketchy to you."

"It's alright," Violet murmured for what she counted was the sixteenth time. Several annoying aspects of Lena's character still remained like her incessant talk about boys she'd been eyeing and her repetitious, valley-girl dialect that made listening to her less pleasant than nails dragging across chalkboard.

However, it didn't bother Violet as much as the black hole fixed at the centre of her chest, sucking the life and vitality away from her and leaving her a hollow, empty shell of the once vivacious firecracker of a girl she'd been before her feelings came to play. Other times, the hole would lessen its pressure and let other emotions fill her heart and head with petty plots of vengeance and soul-crushing nostalgia tinted in hues of neon blue.

She felt like she had lost something and everything when she had walked away from Gin in that dark, dank warehouse.

How could I be so stupid? And for a fucking "bad boy "character even.

"It's so humiliating," Violet said out loud, unconsciously. The girl was at a loss of what to do. Part of her wanted to avenge her ruined pride and destroy him for emotionally manipulating her for as long as he had. But another, less forgiving part of her understood that this was her punishment for getting too emotionally involved in a character that was as real as unicorns and the Loch Ness monster.

He was not real. So why was she feeling like it was?

Violet felt a hand over hers and she lifted her eyes from her lap. While Violet was swimming in harsh tides seeped in regret, Lena had seated herself beside Violet covered in nothing but a neon pink bath robe.