Starry Eyed

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Two

James cried for hours and didn't let anybody see. It was seventeen minutes past nine when the school rose to their feet, greeted by the most relieving news we'd ever had. Bridgit stepped in beside the principal and a huddle of teachers, trembling hands and snowflakes in her hair. Nobody was sure what the appropriate reaction was, aside from standing up.

So we leapt up, and an eerie silence fell across the room. James looked up from the sleeve of his sweater at my side. I kept my arm around his shoulder, but he ran out of my grasp as soon as he caught her eye.

Bridgit was wearing a ridiculous fur vest and a pair of speckly black high-waisted shorts. Her arms and legs were left bare, now coated with white and pale as the world outside. Instead of second hand embarassment, I felt the second hand freeze looking over at her. This was the height of winter, not some midsummer romance about a rich little bimbo swanning about as a supermodel. But James did not care. Perhaps this was in fact one of the reasons he was especially panicked upon realizing what he'd done; he'd left Bridgit to freeze. Of course, he could have just been upset on account of the fact he'd left his one true love sitting on the side of the road in the snow.

James enveloped her in an uncomfortable embrace, and I cringed from the other side of the room. The silence of the school was beginning to bubble into talk, and the teachers were still surrounding the two lovers in the doorway, awkward parental figures trying to chaperone. I wanted to be swallowed whole just to avoid the whole awful situation as I watched. James cried into Bridgit's shoulder, not trying to hide anymore. She pushed him away. Then said, and I quote: "Get away from me, you freak!"

One of the teachers, Miss Simmons, tried to whisk James away to the side of the room. I couldn't watch. But I caught a glimpse of him cowering away, looking as heartbroken as ever. And I heard the chorus of laughter simmering away all around me. It twitched, then heaved up like a bucking bull, leaving me in an emotional heap. 

"Quieten down," Principal Huntley bellowed. Star was at his side like a loyal puppy dog when I reluctantly managed to open my eyes. Nobody would listen to the headmaster's commands, so he was just yelling at a hysterical crowd of kids, with his daughter throwing her arms about trying to help. It was not doing any good. Instead of trying to shut people up myself, I just stood in silence, feeling the ground buck and roll about beneath my feet.

By the time I had managed to calm myself down, the room was much quieter, under the threat that everybody would be slammed into class for an extra two hours over the course of the next week. Even the teachers looked terrified. Bridgit was crushed up in the corner under the heater, quaking between two frantic teachers who had lent coats and scarves and freaking beanies to warm her up. Personally, I lumped the blame onto Bridgit herself. Sure, she probably hadn't been expecting to be abandoned on the side of the snowy road today, but she could have at least dressed like it was cold out. This wasn't Barbados.

Principal Huntley began a speech, and I sneaked a look to the opposite side of the room, where the mess I recognised as James slumped in a pile on the floor. Star had flitted over to comfort him, along with Mr. King, who was probably the only teacher who was really dished out the true, heartfelt story. I felt guilty standing at the front of the crowd just watching. We were friends.

"Tonight was a mistake by two of our students," Principal Huntley announced, and I pretty much zoned out immediately after. I knew it all already. Besides, adults only ever chop and rebuild stories, so that they're fit enough for the immature race that is the teenagers. They're all too rebellious to hear anything serious in its full entirety. It would probably stoke up a riot, wouldn't it?

An elbow, sharp in my side, nudging me out of a spinning haze. "Hey. Luca, is it?"

I whipped my head around to find the culprit, and met a familiar face that I recognised, after a few moments, as one of James' supposed friends. Star had known him, too, through Audrey. Were all these popular kids as perfectly chiselled as they seemed?