Leia

VIII

Alex ran a hand through his hair as he softly knocked on the door. Luckily there was no one else inside.

His eyes scanned the room, only the cubicle at the far end was locked and there were faint sniffling sounds. She had to be here.

He locked the toilet door behind him, not wanting any interruptions as he walked over to where Leia was.

"Sweetheart?" He called out to her softly, giving the locked cubicle door a soft knock.

Her sniffles silenced, like she was pretending to not be there.

"Sweetheart, I know you're in there." He sighed, his heart ached for her.

Leia pulled her knees closer to her chest and buried her head into her arms. Natalie was right, no one liked her.

She shouldn't have come to school, she didn't belong here. Maybe she should tell her parents she wanted to be homeschooled again.

There was no more point anyways, she'd be all alone either way.

"Leia." Alex called again, making her raise her head.

She wanted to be in his arms again.

She shook her head, he was just pretending to be nice, he didn't actually want to talk to her.

If she ignored him long enough he'll go away.

"Leia. Please open the door sweetheart." He sounded so soft, just like all the other times he talked to her.

Tears were filling her eyes again as she started to sob.

"Whatever Natalie said isn't true. Come on Leia, open the door and let me explain." He begged, his forehead pressing onto the plastic.

Her sobs were filling the air again.

He frowned at the sound, he didn't realised he came to care about her so much to the point he could feel like heart cleaning at every sniffle she made. He wanted to protect her, he wanted to wipe her tears away and tell her everything was going to be okay.

His eyes shifted to the flimsy lock on the door and he got to work, trying to pick it open.

Leia thought she was right, he got tired of pretending to care about her and left. The sudden silence proved it. She didn't know he was just focusing on opening the door.

Her sobs grew even louder, not bothering to hide it anymore. No one was here to listen anyways.

Her parents were right, school was scary, the people were scary.

Leia hiccuped as she stared down at the floor, the tears making a puddle beside her feet when the door was suddenly thrown open.

Her eyes darted up to see Alex standing in the doorway, his face twisted in concern.

She stared at him in shock, reaching to rub the tears away from her eyes so she could see clearly. It really was Alex.

She felt another wave of tears coming on. He didn't leave, he was right here. He still cares about her.

But Natalie said Alex didn't want to be close to her, that she was clingy and disgusting. The fact that she was about to reach out for him to pull her into his arms proved that.