By the River's Edge

Chapter 2

Thanks for reading

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Flashback

Everything had started to go downhill during lunch. I had just gotten my food-an apple, diet Coke, and a ham sandwhich. I scanned the cafeteria, looking for my boyfriend, Nick. I eventually found him sitting at a table by himself. He didn't look very happy. I wondered if he had gotten a bad grade on his science report. Nick isn't very good at science and he had been stressing out on this report for weeks. I had tried to help him with it, going over to his house multiple times to help him.

I santered over, smiling at him. "Hi NIck!" I greeted him cheerfully. He looked up briefly at me, muttering something that sounded like "Hi" before returning to his lunch. Okkkkay? What was wrong with him. I kissed him lightly on the cheek before sitting down. No reaction. Fine, well two could play at this game. I started to eat my ham sandwhich.

After about five minutes of silence, I decided to try to start a conversation. "So how has your day been so far, honey?" He looked up from his food-finally. "Isabelle," he said slowly, "there's something I need to tell you." I was confused. What could he have to say to me? I listened intently. "me and you. It was fun for a month." He paused, not seeming to know what else to say. Wait a second. I'd been through enough breakups to know this was one. He was breaking up with me. The realization hit me, knocking the breath out of me. Why?? I thought we'd been doing great. Sure, our relationship had a few rocky points, but didn't all relationships? He was about to respond but I interrupted him. "Look, Nick, let's just save both of us the time. I know you're breaking up with me. I'm not stupid. But, please, just tell me one thing. Why?" I looked at him. He looked surprised. He ignored my question, instead asking me "How did you know I was breaking up with you?" I shrugged, not wanting to tell him. "I don't know." I said instead. "You still didn't answer my question though, why?" He ran his fingers through his hair before answering me. "I don't really know, Isabelle. Everything was going great, but I just felt like this wasn't going anywhere. I thought it would just be better-for both of us-if we were just friends." He looked up at me hopefully. There had been so many guys before that had given me the exact same speech. I don't think this is working out, Can we just be friends? I sighed, looking him in the eye, before replying curtly. "You know what, Nick? I actually think it would be better-for both of us-if we didn't see each other at all."

I got up, not waiting for him to respond, and walked to a different table. At it was one of my best friends-Suzy. "Hey, Isabelle, where have you been?!" She asked me, slurping down her seetened tea."It's a long story" I replied, looking back at Nick's table. Her gaze followed mine, and understanding lit her face. "Oh, did you and Nick break up?" One of the things I loved about Suzy was she never said so he broke up with you? even thought that was always how it went. In fact, I think of all the guys I'd dated, I hadn't broken up wtih any of them. They'd all broken up with me. "Yeah," I said.  

All of a sudden, it all caught up to me. Tears sprang up into my eyes. Suzy saw them and gave me a hug. The tears started flowing freely. I got up. "I need to go to the bathroom." I quickly hurried to the bathroom.

Once there, I was able to control my tears. I looked at my reflection in the mirror, fixing my makeup. I made myself forget about everything. I walked out of the bathroom. By now, lunch was almost over and the cafeteria was almost deserted. I headed off to class. I had biology and pe left and I forced myself to focus the rest of the day. When school was finally over, I finally allowed the tears to flow freely. 

End of Flashback

And that was how I'd ended up in my hideout. I looked out at the river. There was a squirell by it, washing itself. I envied the squirell. It's life was so simple. IT didn't have to deal with so many breakups. The squirell suddenly perked up and scurried away. Why had  it left? I heard a twig snapping. I strained my ears. I could hear footsteps coming closer. Before I had time to react, a silhoutte came into view, blocking my enterance of the hideout.