Fine Line

chapter eleven

It Really Begins

"Valerie!" Three knocks pounded on my door. "Valerie, get up!"

My bedroom door swung open exposing my room to the light from the hallway and the figure of my father tying his tie.

"Hurry up and get dressed, you're going to be late for school. I'm taking you."

He walked away and his words lingered in my head for a moment before everything hit me. Missing school, being late, that wasn't the problem. My father was in my room, that was what had struck me like a knife in the chest.

I shot up and looked around my room. Empty of people other than me. No Jaden. At all.

At least he didn't see him, didn't know he was here last night. He must have left early for this exact reason. Or at least, that was the excuse I made for him, I had no idea for the real reason he was gone.

"Valerie, hurry up!" my dad shouted.

I groaned a reply as I got out of my bed and started to get myself ready for school, remembering what happened last night as Jaden and I talked before going to sleep.

I had actually made him mad because he was trying to make me feel better. I had made him mad because I didn't want to tell him anything else beyond that about me.

Was that the reason he left early without anything? Had he been so mad that I had done such a thing that he just thought it was best to be done with me now?

He wasn't drunk so it was unlikely he would forget, and he even said he would remember. Maybe he didn't, though that wouldn't be completely fair.

"Valerie!" Dad's impatient voice boomed through the house once again.

"Coming!" I replied in an annoyed tone that matched his.

♡♡

Austin was back sitting with us today, just Kat and I, though. Jaden didn't make an appearance to our table, or to school by the looks of things.

He could take care of himself, I knew that. After all, it wasn't the first time he had disappeared to sort himself out. And it wasn't like this was the first time he had left before I had even woke up. But it felt different this time.

Throughout the entire day, I looked everywhere as we passed classrooms and groups just to see if he was there, but he never was. It didn't seem to me like he was at school at all.

"Are you okay?" Austin had asked during lunch when he noticed how out of it I was.

"No, yes, completely. Just have something on my mind. Nothing to worry about, though," I had told my two friends with my words followed by the bell signalling the last lesson of the day.

Gym for both Kat and I, and neither of us were looking forward to it. Especially since it has been raining all day and has yet to stop. Hopefully, we wouldn't have to go outside, or I would throw a strop like a two-year-old just to get out of it.

Everyone got changed slowly, dreading the lesson as much as me and my friend, which was a surprise considering the fact that people usually liked this period. But it seemed as though no one else wanted to go outside either.

Luckily for us all, as soon as we all got into a group outside, Coach led us to the sports hall and the lesson plan was changed three times over before settling on a new one.

"Daniels, get the dodgeballs!" Coach shouted to me in a sigh that told everyone he was already fed up with this class. He wasn't the only one. "Seems like we've got a different lesson planned for today."