The connection

Chapter twelve - Bad habits

Chase

It had been almost two weeks since I'd seen her, she was either missing a serious amount of school or she was skipping the classes we had together. I thought not seeing her would help but it was somehow making it worse. Not knowing where she was or if she was ok was driving me insane. The bell rang out for the end of lunch and I pulled myself up from the tree I was sat against, putting my English notes in my bag. I caught sight of a flash of red across the quad, my eyes fixated on her. She had her hair pulled up into a bun on top of her head, loose strands escaped and were flowing in her face. She was smiling as she spoke, I couldn't hear what she was saying but she looked happy at least. My eyes moved over to Josh who was walking beside her smiling and laughing at whatever it was they were talking about. He had an arm draped over her shoulder resting on the fabric of her red sundress. God, I wished that were me with her right now. Had she really gone back to him? Not that I could talk, after all it was my fault we were in this situation in the first place.

I watched as she disappeared through the doors, probably on her way to English, maybe I should skip so I didn't have to be tortured by the pain of seeing her. But it was the end of the week and Hoskins liked to throw a surprise Friday pop quiz and I couldn't risk getting into more trouble. We'd decided it was best to keep things low key for now so I could finish the remainder of the school year before looking for a job in the summer to help support Lauren and the baby. She couldn't afford to lose her job either, so it suited us both to keep things a secret.

"Ah Mr Matthews so nice of you to join us" Hoskins voice boomed as I took my seat just as the final bell for class rang out. I was careful to keep my head down as to not catch her eye.

"So, I hope you've all been busy studying, today we have a little pop quiz" he announced to the sound of groans and murmurs from the class. He started to hand out the papers and I couldn't help but think of the first time I heard her thoughts. It was during one of these quizzes only a few weeks earlier. God, I missed her so much I thought as I looked up towards her seat. I was frozen as I locked onto those beautiful brown eyes, was she thinking the same thing. Had she been reminiscing about us too. She looked so distant, she looked like her but not quite the same. Her eyes had the outline of dark circles underneath them which she'd tried to cover with makeup. Her skin looked pale and gaunt. I wanted nothing more than to go over and pull her into my arms, to kiss those cherry lips and tell her it was all a mistake, that I should have fought for us. I should have found a way for it to work.

Her eyes grew wide and I swear I saw tears begin to form, and then we were jolted out of our trance like gaze by the familiar howl of Hoskins voice.

"Morgan, Matthews eyes down! I hope you two enjoy gawping over each other in this afternoons detention!"

Her head shot forward focusing on the paper in front of her, I heard her mumble sorry, but I knew there was no point in trying to reason with this tyrant. On the plus side I had another hour in the same room as her.

The afternoon dragged by painfully, all I wanted was to head to detention so I could see her again. She'd avoided making eye contact with me for the rest of English and when the bell rang out, she'd rushed out the class before I could catch up with her. I had a free period and had been killing time in the computer lab wishing for the minutes to pass by quicker when I was disturbed by a tap on the shoulder.

"Chase, can we talk in my office please" Lauren whispered, clearly trying not to draw attention to us. I nodded and followed her down the hall and closed the door behind me she stood looking at me expectantly.

"Is everything okay" I asked confused.

"Yeah it's just, it's almost time to leave for my appointment"