A Little Hope

12. Why Now?

"Where are you from? What do you do? Why did you run? Somebody's missing on you.
They're crying Sweet Adeline"
~Avi Kaplan

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"J-Jasmine?" I asked, making sure it was really her and not all just a dream.

She smiled gently and nodded, as she cupped my cheeks in her palm. She cradled my face for a bit, before pulling me in for another tight hug.

"I've been looking for you all morning, Savannah. Now I found you, and I promise that I'm never going to lose you again," she told me.

My mouth was wide open, still gripped with shock, until I finally composed myself. Suddenly, I felt rage consume me. "You were the one who left. You were the one who broke my heart and left me alone to deal with Justin. You have no right to just suddenly show up and try to pretend nothing happened!" I shouted at her.

She looked at me with surprise. She opened her mouth to say something when I suddenly felt another person grab me, pulling me away. Goddamn. I knew I was small but the next person to pull or tug me, I was going to punch their freaking face.

I huffed and turned around to see who it was, but my face softened once I realized it was Sebastian. He had my wrist in his hand and had pulled me out of Jasmine's hug. He moved in front of me, blocking me from her view.

I looked up at him and saw him glaring at her, "Miles. I see you've come back from your little vacation. I hate to be the one to break to you, but Savannah is no longer interested in being friends with you. If you have anything you wanna say, you can tell me and maybe I'll pass it along. For now, Savannah needs to get to class. Take this as your first and only warning to stay the hell away."

Jasmine eyed him and moved her eyes to me, then back to him. She simply nodded and left. Sebastian calmed down a little bit but possessively kept me close to him. He walked me back to my class and told  me, "Tell Rue to walk you to your next class, okay? If she tries to come near you again, tell me."

I nodded, still confused with everything going on. I had mixed feelings: anger, sadness, excitement, etc. I wondered why she left and why she suddenly came back. The rest of day went by in a daze. It wasn't until lunch that I snapped out of my consciousness.

Rue snapped his fingers in front of my face and said, "Savannnahhhhh. Hellooooo? Did you even listen to a word I said?"

"No, I'm sorry. I was thinking. What did you say?" I asked him.

"I asked you who that girl was. Sebastian looked like he was going to her alive. I saw from around the corner. Sorry for eavesdropping, but you disappeared and wanted to make sure you were okay. Is she that girl everyone said left because of you? I'm sure they were wrong and she has her reasons, maybe you should hear her out?"

I felt anger boil inside me. Rue didn't know anything. I yelled at him, "Don't tell me anything about Jasmine! You don't understand what I went through and you never will! Not everything can be happy go lucky, Rue. Grow up." 

Rue's eyes filled with tears but I didn't care as I walked away. I was walking towards the library when I spotted her. Jasmine, sitting on the floor with her head in between her knees. I kept my head low, not wanting her to see me as I walked past her. My attempt failed miserably, however. She called out my name that sounded more like a whimper than a question, "Savannah?".