Rivals | D.M

54. Just a Migraine

Aster's POV

"Can you please stop scowling?"

I frowned at Blaise.  His dark eyes squinted at me in defiance.

"Seriously, it's depressing" he drawled, before reaching out and picking up a green apple from the bowl in the middle of the table.

I snatched it out of his hand and placed it back in the bowl, my frown now feeling permanently etched on my face.

"What was that for?" he whined, screwing his nose at me.

I didn't reply. Instead I ran my eyes up and down the long table.

"Is this about Malfoy?" he hissed at me, clearly annoyed still.

I gave Blaise another gut wrenching glare.

He looked back at me, pity glowering back at me.

Bile gurgled in my dry throat.

"Aster, c'mon he will talk to you eventually" he grumbled, now picking up his goblet and sipping on it obnoxiously loud. The sound made my teeth grind.

"He's ignored me for two whole days now, does he think he can just do this without me?!" I complained, gripping my fork in my hand with enough force to bend the hard steel.

"We've all been busy, you know the first few days back are full on" he replied.

I rolled my eyes.

"Just..." Blaise started, before coughing on his drink.

I look to my left and find his eyes wide. I follow his stare to see Harper sitting next to Montague, her face awfully close to him as she whispers something into his ear. I knew that look. She was flirting with him.  Her hair was longer and she had opted for no make up which was unusual for her.

I look back at Blaise finding all colour washed from his face, his dark skin now shadowed by an eerily grey.

"Ignore her" I mumbled, glancing back at them quickly before finally tearing my eyes away from the ghastly pair and staring down at my empty plate.

I hadn't felt like eating anything since I returned, a pure sign of the battle crashing around in my head. It was like every dreadful emotions I had been ignoring over the holidays had come flooding back as soon as I walked through the familiar tall entrance doors to the castle.

I had cornered Draco on our first day back and casually asked him when he wanted to meet next. For a flicker of a second he looked happy to see me and then his gaze wandered to my chest and his eyes turned cold as he saw my necklace. The ring he bought for me hanging proudly from the silver chain.

He pushed me out the way without saying a word.

He had avoided me ever since.

I felt my stomach turn as I watched Blaise fill his goblet up with more juice.

My nerves were rattled from the obvious change of atmosphere in the Slytherin house. It was like every sixth year Slytherin knew about the darkness emerging on the horizon. The fact that Harper had easily slipped into their ranks was enough for rumours to drip down the grapevine and into the rest of the school.

There were only a few of us in Slytherin that had not chosen sides, the students that tried to ignore the switch in dynamics. Blaise and I being two of them.

Snapping me out of my daze, Blaise placed a piece of dry toast on my plate in front of me.

"Eat" he ordered, before munching on his own slice of toast.