Why I Hate Hunter

{33}. Some People Are like Cockroaches

By Monday Mavis felt significantly better, that until she walked towards her locker and found Elijah waiting for her.

She stopped when she noticed him, but since the hallways were full of people, she decided it was better to talk to him than ignore him and suffer the consequences later.

"Good morning," Elijah greeted her casually as he pushed himself away from her locker so Mavis could use it.

"What do you want?!" she asked, feeling rather nervous since her meetings with Elijah lately didn't really ended well.

"Straight to the point," Elijah chuckled as if they were old friends, "Could have at least said 'hello'."

Mavis glared at him.

"I would but then I remembered that I had to wear a scarf for quite a while because someone almost strangled me."

"Well, it was your fault. After all, I warned you not to go to the police."

Elijah seemed quite collected and calm as if nothing at all had happened between the two. Just like the Elijah Mavis had had a crush on. Even his hair was back to being perfect and his face had no more bruises on it. There was not even a sign that she had at some point broken his arm.

Mavis slammed the door of her locker in annoyance. A part of her thought she was being over the top, especially with Elijah being all nice and laid back. But she couldn't forget how she had run for her life nor how her neck had hurt for days. So she was trying her best to show she wasn't afraid of him even if it seemed like too much.

Nor could she accept the guilt being put on her.

"What do you want?!" she repeated.

"To talk to you," Elijah said and for the first time, Mavis saw a hint of sadness in his eyes. "I need to apologize since things went so out of control."

Mavis' right eyebrow shot up.

"Apologize?!" she asked unbelievably.

"Well yes. Apologize." Elijah stood straight for the first time showing some worry on his eyes, "I lost control in that stupid party."

Elijah took a deep breath and focused his eyes somewhere far.

"You were right to break my arm you know? I didn't get mad at what you did. I just chose to blame everything on you since... it was definitely better than owning up and dealing with my family."

"Shitty times?" Mavis asked in understanding as she remembered what Hunter had told her about his father and his brother.

Elijah briefly looked at her in the eye.

"Sorts of," he winced and looked away again, "but I will admit this is not me being a cavalier, a gentleman or something."

"Than why are you apologizing?"

Elijah took a moment before he replied.

"I went up to this girl yesterday and she went away in fear. So many girls do that around the school you know and even some guys have started fearing me. It's not cool being feared by people."

He was alone. Elijah's popularity had fallen because many people had heard of what he had done to Mavis and now everyone was afraid of him. Mavis hadn't even seen the change coming.

"This is where you get happy," Elijah said after a silence fell over them for a while.

"Why? It's not like you are really getting that punished. Nor are you really sorry about what you did. So are you here to apologize so that girls come close to you again?" Mavis' eyes were stern but Elijah deserved worse.