The Renegades

Chapter 15

It's been almost a week since Rae and Landon have talked, not including when he went to her house on Monday. Monday night, Landon went home and started crying to Sabina and Wesley. Tuesday morning, he shocked both Sabina and Wesley by being in an extremely good mood, declaring everything would be okay because now he just has to remind her why she loves him. Tuesday, Wednesday, and today, he's been finding ways to give Rae little notes and gifts. It's clear to everyone, though, that he is becoming disheartened.

"You're driving him crazy," Sabina says, sitting across from Rae at a table in the cafeteria. The temperature is starting to drop, making it too cold for them to sit where they usually sit. "What's he have to do?"

Rae looks dismayed as he eyes focus in on the table across the cafeteria where Landon is sitting. He's already looking at her, looking like he hasn't slept in a week and like he's absolutely miserable. He smiles slightly at her when he sees her looking. "I don't know."

"You don't know?" Sabina can't help the anger seeping into her voice. "Do you know how unfair that is? He's miserable because you're upset with him, and you can't even think of a way for him to fix it?"

"I just need time," Rae says.

"What's time going to do? It's not going to change the fact that he got in that fight with Wesley."

"I think it's a good thing," Marley says, piping in for the first time. She's been sitting with Rae and Sabina at lunch, claiming she's there for moral support.

Sabina cocks an eyebrow. "My brother and your supposed best friend's heart ache is a good thing?"

Marley rolls her eyes. "The space is a good thing. You two've been practically attached at the hip for four years. You need some time for just yourself and figuring out who you are without him."

"I'm the same person with him as I am without him," Rae says, but her voice gets drowned out by Sabina's.

"That makes it sound like she's trying to decide if she even wants to be with him," Sabina says. "Is that what this is about? Trying to decide whether to break up with him or not? Or are you actually just trying to calm down about the fight?"

That's what Rae had initially told her. That she just needed to time for her anger to cool off. To look back and realize that her initial reaction was an over reaction.

"I think it's pretty obvious that that's what she's trying to figure out," Marley says. She can't help but wonder if Sabina is really that ignorant. People don't just stop talking to the person their dating if they're not thinking about ending the relationship.

"I don't know," Rae practically whispers.

Sabina wants to tell Rae that if she's even thinking about breaking up with Landon then she should because he deserves better than someone who will just string him along in an indefinite limbo. She wants to say that Landon deserves more than Rae giving up on him because of something so small and stupid. She wants to say so many things, but all she says is "Well, figure it out."

She only says this because she doesn't want Rae and Landon to break up, and she knows that neither of them want to break up. They're way too perfect for each other. They bring out the best in each other. Landon's more himself with Rae than with anyone else, and with Landon, Rae shows her goofy side that had only ever come out around Sabina before they started dating. Landon is Rae's moon, and Rae is Landon's sun. He is her comfort and safety, and she is his energy and light. They complete each other, and not because they're incomplete on their own but because they bring out the things in each other that they try to hide from other people. For that to end would leave both of them with massive pieces of themselves missing.

Rae doesn't really want to break up with Landon either, but she's always promised herself one thing. She's always promised herself that she wouldn't be with anyone like her dad. She'd never be with someone angry and aggressive and violent. Landon had never been any of those things before Friday. She really wants to believe it was just a one time thing, an in the moment reaction in protection of his sister. The possibility that it could happen again just keeps playing over and over again in the back of her head. That possibility... It terrifies her. It makes her question everything. It makes her not know what to do.