"Come on, you have to go to school."
"I refuse."
"Y/n," my mother said warningly, tugging off my duvet and tossing it to the floor. I was curled up in the middle of my mattress pitifully, weakly grasping out for my shield in the form of a thick blanket. "Seriously. You can't not go to school."
"That's a double negative. See, I'm smart! I don't need school."
Mum was growing annoyed.
"Y/n!" she snapped. I sighed heavily, setting my exhausted, drained gaze on hers. Her face crumpled slightly at the sight of me. "You can't avoid him forever and you're certainly not missing school just because you and Lloyd had a fight."
I closed my eyes and heavily exhaled through my nose.
"I can't face him," I murmured. "I- we-"
"Sweetie," mum said, grabbing my shoulders and claiming my attention. "This will pass. You and Lloyd will be fine. So woman up and go to bloody school before I drag you there by the leg myself."
She stood before quickly leaving the room. I rolled my eyes and sighed.
"Yes, mother."
I lethargically got ready for the day, dragging my body along. I spent last night mostly staring at the ceiling and wondering why I'm such a horrible person. And sleeping, but very very little of it and very very fitful when I did.
I couldn't stand to think of the look on Lloyd's face when we had that fight. He was so angry, so disappointed. But he shouldn't have pushed me. I said that I didn't want to talk about it. And I shouldn't of brought up his age. Of course he's subconsciously embarrassed about it. Why would I think he wouldn't be?
"I really don't want to go on the bus," I murmured to my mum when I was staring at the glass of water in my hand in the kitchen. She sighed, shoving her feet into her work shoes.
"Well, hurry up, then," she ordered. "I'll drive you, but I'm leaving now."
I nodded, quickly discarding my glass in the sink and rushing to finish getting ready. I grabbed one of my old favourite grey sweatshirts.
The drive to school was silent and tense. I could tell that mum wanted to ask me what happened between Lloyd and I, and what happened before that, but she remained quiet. I was somber, staring out the window and watching the city pass.
"Do you have any classes with Lloyd today?" Mum asked.
"Just art and English," I mumbled.
"Are you going to talk to him?"
I blinked. "No."
Mum's lips twitched at my grumpy tone.
"Why not?"
"Because I don't want to!" I snapped.
"Okay, okay," she chuckled. "I get it. First major fight and all."
"Can we stop talking about it?" I whined. I already had to deal with the loss of my friends - and like hell I'd hang out with the others when Lloyd and I are clearly not seeing eye-to-eye. I was ready for a long, lousy day of solitude (again) and talking about my misfortunes really didn't make me feel any better about it all.
"Sure," Mum said with a huff and pulled up outside the school. "We can stop talking about it right now."
With a roll of my eyes and a scoff from mum, I grabbed my bag and reluctantly made my way into the school.
Being the new kid in general sucks. Everybody wants to know the 'new blood' and clamours to meet them. Being the new kid who came in already dating the most infamous guy in school... well, they took that opportunity.
I wasn't liked. But I wasn't hated. I was held at arm's length, and I didn't really blame them. I'm a horrible person. Everybody but me knew.
Stop thinking like that. But isn't it true? Claire only fuelled the fire - I screwed myself over by distancing myself from my friends. That was my own fault.
And last night, I took it out on Lloyd. He didn't deserve to be treated like that, but I just couldn't stop. It was like a dam, everything just got released and I watched as the force of it all crumbled the only person I needed and loved the most.
I didn't deserve him.
I sullenly grabbed my books from my locker. First class was Psychology, something I enjoyed and was good at - and even better, no Lloyd. I slammed the locker shut.
Now, if I could just get to class without-
"Hey, Y/n."
Fuck.
"Cole!" I grinned weakly as I hugged my books to my chest. I nervously glanced around, hoping to and to not find Lloyd. Or Claire. Or Aaliyah. Or anybody else. "Erm... hi!"
Cole smiled awkwardly, tugging on his long fringe. Ever since he became human again and gained that gnarly, glowing green scar on his forehead, he'd been self-conscious about it, trying to hide it behind his hair. I suppose he wouldn't want to answer questions as to why he had a glowing green scar, so I couldn't blame him.
"I heard about... y'know, the fight."
I blinked blankly. "Which one?"
