In 7 Days [Book 1]

Chapter 22 - Born To Hand Jive

"Marley!" Jake was calling me as I raced down the corridor, I just kept on walking. I could hear heavy footsteps coming up behind me, tapping the grimy tiles. I was scared he was going to catch up with me, so I resorted to a slightly faster jog, rushing up to my locker. Jake was gaining on me but I couldn't see how close he was, so I stopped at my locker, dumped my books in there carelessly, and went to walk away again, but that was when he caught me, wrapping his rough hands around my wrist. He pulled me backwards so I was facing him. 

"Marley," he sighed as he looked me in the eye. A few tears were beginning to gather there. I tried to pull away, but his grip on me was far too strong. "What's wrong?" There was so much concern in his eyes as he asked me that. 

"Listen, Jake, it's nothing," I felt as if my voice sounded sad and heartbroken, so I cleared my throat and spoke again. "Nothing's wrong, it's just-"

"What? Tell me now." He stated, tightening his grasp on my wrist. It had begun to hurt. 

 "I thought you broke up with Kitty and then you two were singing with each other just then and that didn't exactly seem like you had broken up!" I whispered. I felt quite annoyed, like he was lying to me, but I tried to keep my voice from sounding that way. 

"We did, ages ago.,," He said weakly, dropping my hand and running his fingers over his scalp, exhaling a frustrated breath. What was up with him?

"What was that then?" I asked. My heart was beating really hard, and with each beat it hurt more and more. 

"It... I.... Marley..." Jake tried to start his sentence, but his words failed him.

"Congratulations on getting back together, I guess," I whispered. "You two are perfect together." I walked off, trying not to let my sadness about it all happening get to me, leaving Jake standing there in the middle of the hallway. I felt so defeated, but at least I walked away with my head up high. 

I walked into the cafeteria and as soon as I got there, darted to the end of the lunch line. There thankfully wasn't really any people, so I moved straight to where mom was serving food. "Hey mom." I said, holding my tray out as she put a few scoops of food into it.

"Have you been crying? Marley, are you okay?" She asked worriedly. Always spotting the little things seemed like a typical mom thing, and even though I hadn't been crying, I knew it was just a part of her mom instinct to know when I felt like it. 

"I'm okay now." I gave her a soft smile. "I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Alright, honey," she nodded at me, giving me that concern filled glance. 

I thanked her and blew a kiss over the counter, laughing at myself, then walked into the student filled cafeteria. The Glee club was always changing tables, so I had to take a few seconds to wander and weave through the students throwing food at each other to actually find the table full of my friends. And when I found them, I noticed they had saved me a seat, so I rushed forward and sat right down. "Where were you?" Blaine questioned straight away, not even letting me get a word in. 

"Don't worry, I was doing some things." I smiled over enthusiastically, going to put a bit of potato salad in my mouth before throwing the fork back down with the potato still on it. I couldn't eat anything, I didn't feel well enough; in other words, I was too upset to eat. 

Everyone around me was eating and having their own little conversations, all laughing and joking with each other. It was a nice environment to be in, and it even willed me to take a little bite of my lasagna. I joined a conversation with Blaine and Tina about our favorite songs and themes we'd like to have in Glee club. Blaine was telling us two about his favorite song and how he first heard it, through his boyfriend, Kurt, and I could see Blaine getting all misty eyed.