The Good-For-Nothing Society | Completed

Chapter Fifteen

Stan is silent as he leads me back into the sports centre. I walk a pace behind him, chewing my lip and wringing my hands as I try and imagine what is about to come. I'm going to be suspended; or expelled. Expelled is more likely. If I'm lucky I'll get detention everyday for the next two years, but that seems a bit too little of a punishment, does it not? What could he possibly have to say that's going to change the fact I just kicked a girl unconscious?

When we enter the sports hall I'm surprised to see everyone still there. Lily has been taken away, probably to The Sanatorium, and everyone else is now paired up, gently fighting one another. We meander through them, making our way towards a little office at the back of the large room. Some stop and stare as we walk through, others seem too frightened to even look at me. I know for sure that no one is ever going to stop talking about me now. I inwardly groan at what a huge mess I've made of everything.

Stan briefly stops outside the tiny office and then yanks the door open, holding one arm out he says, "After you."

I step inside and see Elijah hunched over in a chair, his head resting on his fists and elbows on his knees. I swivel straight back around again, but Stan being the spy he is, blocks the doorway, already anticipating my reaction. He turns me back around, and frog marches me over to the chair next to Elijah, pushing me down into it. I can't look at him; I won't. In hindsight, backflipping directly into a girls head because she dared hug the boy I like was a bit of an emotional oversight. I have no desire to hash it out with that boy in the room.

Stan walks around the desk and takes a seat, he makes a triangle with his fingers, and holds his hands in front of his face, staring at the two of us. He's waiting for one of us to speak first. Instead, we stare back and the three of us stay sat in silence. I won't crack first, I can play this game all day.

After five minutes Stan heaves a sigh and finally says, "Since neither of you want to open the floor up, I'll start; what the hell just happened in my class?"

Stan and Elijah both look to me, but I press my lips together and look back at them. What do they want me to do? Admit I have feelings when I feel like he just rejected me for Lily? No way - besides, I think my unconscious roomie would agree that I made my feelings pretty clear today. I clasp my hands together and look down at them, they're suddenly the most interesting thing I've ever seen.

"Fine," Stan says, "Elijah?"

"Hell if I know," He growls. His jaw is jumping, he's moved so he's slouching in his chair and is clenching and unclenching his fists.

I twist to face him, that same anger that's been there since mum died, simmering up. "What do you have to be so angry about?"

Elijah turns to face me, his anger matching my own. "For weeks I've been telling you how I feel-

"-Evidently a complete lie-"

"-And you've been fobbing me off-"

"-Also a lie-"

"-Then today, I let Lily hug me for a second and you turn into Jackie-flipping-Chan."

"-I quite literally did a flip, yes."

"Amelia," Stan warns.

I throw myself back in my seat and then wave my hand for the universal 'continue' sign to Elijah, but he's clammed up. He turns his head away from me and I can see he's grinding his teeth, a pang of guilt shoots through me. Elijah has been good to me and he's right, he's been quite transparent in his feelings where as I've been more guarded. But everything I said to Grace is true; the people I care about keep dropping like flies, do I really want another one taken from me so soon? Still, Elijah deserves some truth.