A life in the Dark

C h a p t e r T w e n t y F i v e

F r i d a y 2 9 t h N o v e m b e r
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I stepped out into the harsh, unforgiving winds after History and headed over to my sanctuary: the cage. Along the way I got a text from Keira: she was hanging out with her friends, and although I was welcome we both knew there was no way I was going. As I was looking down, trying to type a response with uncooperative fingers, of which had lost all feeling, I suddenly walked into a cold, plasticky fabric of someones coat.

"Oh, I'm so sor-" I began rambling, before looking up at the person, my eyes meeting their dark chocolate ones that I could get lost in for hours, framed by a mess of curls that my fingers longed to entangle in and-okay stop!

"Hey," Logan began with a shy smile. I forced mine off of my face. If he was awaiting a response, it wasn't coming. Eventually he got the memo and continued. "I know we haven't spoken recently but... Where are you going?"

I ignored him and proceeded to go out of my way to walk in a huge semi-circle to get past him.

"Seriously?" I heard him ask, irritation trying to cover hurt. "Come on, please, can we not just talk about this?" he pleaded, not making an effort to stop me, so I didn't. Even if he had I wouldn't of. I reached my destination.

About half of the usual gang were already there, as expected since History block is one of the furthest from the cage; the rest are probably at the canteen. "Hey, you going to play?" Finley called over as I entered.

"No thanks," I replied, having to shout as I snuggled further into my coat. "I'm going to focus on not freezing to death, if that's okay."

"No worries!" he chuckled, sitting next to me as I went to get my reading book out. "What book is this?"

"Zodiac Killer," I replied, licking my dry lips a bit; upon realising what I was doing I reached in my pocket for my lip balm; peppermint and basil.

"Is it good?"

"Yeah, pretty good. It's a murder mystery amongst these twelve stereotypical zodiacs and its so obviously-"

"What are zodiacs?" he interrupted.

I was shocked. "You've never heard of the twelve zodiacs? Or star signs?" He shook his head to both so I sighed. "Okay, we have a lot to catch you up on." I explained to him the twelve signs; Aquarius, Pieces, Aries, Taurus, Gemani, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Saggattarius and Capricorn. I listed what dates they are and how well stereotypes of Virgo sum me up. It's quite amusing actually.

The conversation became really interesting when, out of the blue, a voice cut through the background noise like a siren, and frankly the voice itself was as annoying as one too. (For those that haven't guessed it was Jadyn, obviously.) "Hey Lettuce," she drooled. (I wish I could add 'quite literally' but she wasn't that stupid.) Her hair was shook out of her hood and flowed around her shoulders in jagged clumps with enough hairspray holding up the unnatural curls to set the whole town on fire in a split second.

"Hey," I replied shortly and coldly, glaring at her from behind the wire fencing.

"What are you doing here, Jadyn?" Finley asked with a sigh, not rudely but with a tang of annoyance.

"I just wanted to talk," she replied, drawing out her syllables. "Why am I straining your attention?"

"Forcing you attention, you mean," I muttered, purposefully loud enough for her to hear.

She huffed and tutted a quick "rude" before flicking her hair out of her eyes and returning her gaze back to Finley. "See, I'm just trying to be nice-"

"You and nice in the same sentence? Most mutually exclusive thing I've ever heard," I commented. She pretended to ignore me.

"See, I'm worried. For your sake..." She reached out to gently put her fingers on the metal, which must've been so cold I half expected her hands to get stuck; I rolled my eyes. As if we're going to believe this bullshit. "I don't like the idea of you hanging out with certain people. I don't want their peasant ways rubbing off on you."

That's where she crossed the line. 🎶Where we draw the line🎶 Urgh! Shut up! "Look here you selfish little bitch, you can't call me a peasant. You can't call anyone a peasant. What does that make you? Coming here all dressed up with a...what is that? Worried? Face painted on and trying to claim you're thinking of someone other than yourself for once-"

"Thank you Lettice, that's enough," Finley interrupted.

"No, who'd you think you are?" I argued, stubbornly. "My mother? Do you know that she got me into-"

"Tell me later." I shut up, and he rose up so that he was a similar height to her, in her contraband high heeled boots. "Look, I appreciate the concern, but it's my choice who I hang out with, not yours."

"But!"

"And I am hanging out with Lettice at the moment and she is most definitely not a peasant, and is actually a lovely person and I would strongly appreciate it if you leave her alone from now on." A look of horror passed over her face, leaving her mouth wide and eyes bulging out of her skull.

"But-I...I'm the reason she-" Then, no doubt as the wave of calm and realisation set in, her eyes looked down and she muttered an "alright" and slowly walked off, towards the canteen. 

Karma's a bitch, I thought, laughing to myself when a wave of nausea hit me.

"I'm the reason she..." she'd said. I'm the reason she what? The 'she' can only be me. But then what does she mean? What reason? What has she done?

You know that feeling where you feel like your life isn't really your own? That it's scripted? Yeah... That's what I was feeling. She's done something to alter my life... But what?

~~~~~~

Hey guys, I have a double update for ya! Hope you're all having a great day-I'm kinda having a bearable day I suppose. Last night I had a really good idea for a sequel. No comment.

Really like this song by Gabbie Hanna:

She's improved so much!

About to go make hot chocolate because it's really cold here at the moment.

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