Fine Line

chapter fourteen

Welcome Home

Surprisingly enough, Jaden continued to attend school after Tuesday's rile, but avoided me in whatever way possible. I couldn't blame him, I wasn't exactly in the mood to see him, either, but it wasn't purposefully avoiding him. I wasn't skipping science lessons just so that I wouldn't have to risk sitting next to him.

I wanted to apologise to him, but I also wanted him to apologise to me. I didn't know which I was supposed to do: wait, or apologise. But if he wasn't going to come up to me, he couldn't care that much.

He probably hadn't stayed up on Tuesday night wondering what had happened and what was going to happen between the two of us. He probably didn't care.

I had mostly sat in silence for the last two days, only half-heartedly answering the questions from Austin and Kat. i know that they had noticed my mood, but they had yet to say anything.

That was until we were walking out of school and a hand gripped my bicep, yanking me backwards as a car horn sounded through the parking lot by the man driving by. The guy glared as he passed, and other students looked around to see what had caused the trouble. Everybody's eyes were focused on me for only a few seconds, but it felt like hours before they went back to what they were doing previously.

I didn't even know where I was going. My mother was picking me up, or at least that is what she had told my dad. Whether she was here was a different story all together. Something might have held here up in London, and I'd have to wait till Christmas till I can actually see her.

"All right," Austin exasperated. "What is going on with you?"

"Nothing," I replied, but when his eyebrows rose, I followed it up with, "I'm fine." But he clearly didn't believe the words that came out of my mouth, not that they sounded convincing. I just couldn't tell him that Jaden Campbell was the reason; he would just tell me to get over myself, that he wasn't worth it. And maybe he wasn't.

"Fine? You just walked in front of a fucking car, Val. you've hardly spoken in the last three days. And I don't think I've seen you eat one thing."

"I'm fine," I repeated.

"No, you're not. We're your friends, you can tell us what is happening." I didn't say anything, nor did I meet his gaze. My eyes stayed focused on the floor and my mouth stayed closed. "You know what, the three of us are spending the evening at my house."

"We are?" Kat asked.

"We are," Austin confirmed.

"I can't."

"What?"

"My mother is meant to be picking me up. She's coming back today."

"She is?"

"That's what she told my dad. She said she would pick me up from school." Neither of the two looked particularly thrilled about this information. I didn't feel that thrilled about it. I think the three of us knew she wasn't going to be in her car waiting for me to exit the school doors and join her.

Kat smiled politely and offered to help me look around for her car since I wasn't exactly sure where she would be, and it wasn't like I had been looking once we stepped into the lot. Austin joined as well. By the time we made it around all the cars, most of the students had left the ground and the three of us had still yet to find her.

Those doubts we had about her showing up were true. And not one of us was surprised by that.

His mother wasn't surprised to find the three of us in her hallway when she came downstairs at the sound of the door closing. It had been a while since we were all here together, though. Mrs Nichols was definitely happy to see us all together again.