Mend Me? ➸ hemmings a.u

11. Protective

"Guys," I whispered and they nodded. "We realise," Calum said sadly and I handed the phone back to him. The world started spinning around me and I had to use the wall to keep me up. The bell rung loudly signalling the start of first period, and I felt my heart explode in paranoia and worry. Biology. The period we were meant to hand in our displays. "I-I can't go there," I hid my face in my hands and Ashton wrapped a comforting arm around my shoulder. "If you're afraid of Rose she's been taken to the principal's office. It's okay," he rubbed my shoulder lightly and I looked up at the both of them. "It's Michael I can't handle seeing right now," I mumbled and they both nodded in understanding. "Listen, you can sit next to me this lesson and Ash will sit next to Michael, that okay?" Calum asked the both of us. Ashton nodded, "good idea, come on." They both led me through the halls to our biology classroom, and on the way I noticed my display next to my locker was gone.

I have to admit that through the obvious confusion and pain I was feeling then, it felt amazing having two people care for me other than... Michael.

We entered the classroom and all eyes were on me again. I had to force myself to not look at Michael in the corner of the room. I couldn't stand to at that moment.

Mr. Peters smiled at me. "Take a seat," he said, motioning to our seats in the back of the class. Ashton walked in front of myself and Calum and sat down in my seat. "Ava?" He whispered and I ignored him. "Ava, the principal has informed me about this morning's incident," Bowling Ball told me. "So I'm willing to give yourself and Luke an extra week to redo your-" "Actually, sir," Luke interrupted him and stood up. "I took a picture of our assignment when we finished it," he walked up to the desk with something in his hand. "The picture and an electronic version of the information is on here," I realised it was a USB. Mr. Peter's creepy smile spread across his round face again. "Well, considering the circumstances I suppose this will do, thank you Luke," he said and Luke sat back down.

As we continued on with the syllabus, my mind was obviously focusing on everything but genetic engineering. Michael, my best friend of years who's been there for me and me for him no matter what had just deceived me; the human manifestation of sarcasm I could talk to about absolutely anything, from the type of tank top I should order to estimating the cause and time of death of every person we hated at school. My mind was in a frenzy trying to figure out why in this terrible dimension he would do this to me? "Ava, you're crying," Calum whispered.

I was forced out of my thoughts and realised his was right. He used his sleeve to wipe away the tear threatening to spill down my cheek. "Ava," I heard Michael whisper from behind me. I could tell he sounded genuinely worried and concerned. "Not now," I heard Ashton tell him coldly. All this time Michael said he'd been protecting me from Rose by telling me to stay away from Luke. But for some unknown reason he'd done the exact opposite and thrown me under the Rose bus. Some part of me hoped that there was some explanation or motive that would make sense to me, but I couldn't come up with anything except revenge? Would Michael want to teach me a lesson for not listening to him?

As soon as the period ended I was out of the classroom, running as far away from Michael and Luke as possible. I managed to find myself in the particularly crowded hallway of the school and had to push my way rudely through the sea of snapbacks and miniskirts as quickly as possible. As soon as there was a small clearing I sprinted, and managed to run straight into the devil and her Louis Vuitton handbag. I crashed into her and she stumbled backwards. She scowled at me. "Don't you ever," she started to threaten me with tears still running down her face. "Ever, speak to him again, Ava," she said and I simply nodded and walked around her, needing to get out of there causing as little harm as possible.

"Ava!" I heard an all too familiar voice yell. The scared puppy inside of me made me yelp and turn to run the opposite direction. "Ava," he pleaded as he zigzagged through the crowd of the annoying school population to get to me.