she's mine.

41

Eli and I walked in silence to the principals office to let them know Jake went home sick. I stood back as he talked to them. I didn't know where Jake actually went, maybe he went home, maybe he went for a drive. Either way, we all knew he wouldn't come back.

Eli told Lea she had to go to class, that he couldn't have both of them ditching. She wiped her tears and sulked back to class while her brother took care of everything else. D gave us a nod and followed her.

We had missed all of lunch and my stomach didn't forget it. I was starving. I planned to get something to eat during my off, but for now I tried to focus on helping Eli as much as I could.

I was hesitant to ask questions about it; my mind flashed back to him at my house in the middle of the night telling me I asked too many questions.

I rolled his words over in my head- 'Is it like a hobby for you to be as nosey as you are?' He spat. 'Or do you just make it your goal everyday to annoy me?'

Ha. Why did I like him again..?

I decided to try and keep quiet as we walked. I didn't want another fight today.

He opened the door for me as we walked out of the front office.

"Thank you," i said softly as i passed through. The more I thought about it, the more i felt like i understood him. He was carrying his entire family on his back, he was the Jonny of his family, except he didn't have his mother to help him. Instead her had two siblings, both with tempers and mood swings that could throw anyone through a loop.

He was trying so hard and I wondered if anybody else saw it.

We walked all the way to our calculus class in silence. We were in an honors class so we finished the lecture early, and it seemed to be a trend that i appreciated for the the teachers to let seniors leave when they were done with the lecture, rather than on the bell. I remember one of the teachers talking about how it prepared us for college. I enjoyed this very much.

We stood together and walked in silence again. The silence wasn't awkward like I had expected, but it seemed to fit. We didn't need to talk, we just clicked. We both stood, he grabbed my book, I met him at the door, he opened it, I waited for him and we headed for the fishbowl.

It turned out that we had the exact same afternoon schedule. Which seemed to make Eli happy, but that meant we had our off together.

Eli talked to D and Lea for a while during passing while I started on our calculus homework. I was nottt about to have homework this week.

Eli sat next to me, after the bell rang.

"C'mon," he said as he stood.

"What? I have to finish my homework," i complained.

"We have to go," he said as he looked around. Something must be wrong. Oh no.

I quickly stood and gathered my books, tossing them into my backpack. He impatiently grabbed my backpack and threw it over his shoulder. He protectively moved behind me as I walked.

My stomached dropped as he reached over my shoulder to push the door open for me. I mean it fluttered at the fact that he was still taking care of me and opening the door in a time like this, but it dropped at the urgency of the situation.

Did he get a text about Jake? Was he okay? Did he see Dillon or Xavier or Rock? What happened and why didn't he tell me?

We rushed to the car as my thoughts went through every possible scenario of what could have happened.

When we got into the safety of his car he started it and hastily pulled out.

"What happened? Did something happen to Jake?" I stumbled over my words as I worried over all the possibilities. I grabbed the seat belt and started to buckle as he pulled his car from the parking lot.