Noel (completed!)

Chapter 7. Back 'home' again

It was near the end of our first trimester. Hard to believe that nine weeks had already flown by. Everyone was preparing for their finals. I was studying but I knew not as much as I should be. Every evening Michael and Brian came over and hung out or picked us up. Only once or twice had they not come.

I studied though whenever I got a minute, but I still didn't feel prepared. On the morning of the exams both Brie and I were frazzled. We both got ready in a hurry and went straight to class. I got to each class early and buried my nose in the book, trying to review as much as possible before each test. By lunch time I was exhausted, Brie looked it too. We looked around for the boys but didn't see them. Half of our classmates seemed gone as well.

Since the guys weren't here Amy actually came and sat with us. Whatever their reason for missing, I was happy they did. I had been meaning to talk to Amy and now we had the perfect chance!

"Amy!! I missed you!" I squealed while squeezing her, then Brie did the same.

"What gives girlie? What have you been avoiding us?" Brie asked. Just like Brie, straight to the point.

"I'm not..." Amy started but when she saw our faces she sighed and continued, "I just don't really get along with that group of kids so when they're around I'll keep my distance. Nothing personal!"

Brie scoffed. "Amy, you can't be serious. Brian is like a huge teddy bear. How can you not like him??"

"It's hard to explain. I'm sorry... I'm just not comfortable." Amy said as she was standing up with her half eaten food. She dumped her tray and left. Leaving Brie and I sitting in shock. Brain seriously was such a goofball. I don't know how anyone could be scared of him once they knew him. Michael was rough around the edges but also a really great guy when you got to know him.

Brie and I finished our lunch in silence. Once we were done we split up to our separate classes to finish out our last few finals. Once the last exam was done I breathed a sigh of relief. What's done is done, hopefully I did a good job.

As usual, despite them not being at school, we met up with Michael and Brian when the final bell rang and they walked us to our dorms. Brie and Brian were basically inseparable. Brie was totally in love with Brian. She sometimes felt like he was hiding things from her but she fully trusted him anyhow. I knew for sure Michael was hiding things from me, but we weren't a couple so I didn't dwell on it.

The headaches were still happening frequently. I was always with Michael when they happened, not that I would tell him that, besides that's not really saying much considering he's practically always around me. The headaches weren't as painful as they were in the beginning. Now just a dull throb. The bigger pain was the way the necklace heated up. One time it even left a burn mark on my chest. It healed fairly quickly but it still freaked me out.

I had never taken my necklace off for longer than an hour due to the memory. I had it ingrained in my head. Those nightmares were becoming more and more frequent but I still couldn't make out more of what either of them said. It was frustrating. Regardless of the pain I still felt I needed to wear it.

As we arrived at the dorms the boys surprisingly said they had to go. Brian kissed Brie and smiled before walking off. Michael just smiled at me with his hands behind his back before walking away with Brian. Michael never tried to take our friendship further and it was starting to frustrate me.

Brie and I made our way upstairs. She texted Amy that the guys left so she came over too. We watched movies, ate popcorn, and joked around. Enjoying ourselves that finals were over, and completely pretended like the awkward conversation in the cafeteria had never happened. We had two days left of classes before we had two weeks off for Christmas, then we would start new classes. We compared our classes and thankfully had several together.