Beautiful Lives

Chapter 16

Hi everybody! Once again, so sorry for the wait, life has been absolutely crazy. School is almost finished for the semester now (Week 11 of 12!!) so I'm hopefully going to have a lot of time to write over the holiday break, and I haven't given up my goal of having the book done by New Year's. Hope you all enjoy, thanks for reading!

Kate xoxo

Chapter 16 – Stubborn Love (The Lumineers)

For some reason, my talk with Nate was reassuring. It shouldn't have been – I felt like all I'd done was make everything seem worse than it was. But, even though I'd made it abundantly clear that things were only going to get worse, he hadn't left, and that was something I'd never expected from anyone. So, when I woke up the next morning, I felt surprisingly refreshed emotionally, if not physically.

"How are you feeling?" My mom asked, waltzing into my room and pulling up the blinds. "Do you think you can go to school today?"

"I think so," I pushed myself up, ignoring my throbbing head and twisting stomach. My mom gave me a skeptical look, and sat down beside me, pressing her hand to my forehead.

"Are you sure?" she asked. I shrugged.

"I want to see my friends," I pushed the blankets onto the floor, and stood up, taking a few gulps of air to steady myself. I was feeling a bit better – obviously sleeping for almost the entire day had done me some good. Still, I noticed myself moving slower than usual, as I got ready for school.

Half an hour later, I finally tripped my way downstairs, dressed in a pair of leggings, and a warm teal cardigan. Even though spring was in full bloom, I was starting to notice that I was constantly cold; a symptom that wasn't too rare for me.

Walking into the school, I could feel everyone's eyes burning into me. My mom had finally gone to talk to the principle, and the word had somehow spread throughout the student body. My heart clenched in my chest – the sympathetic, and slightly judgmental stares of other kids were something I was used to, and something I'd never wanted to experience again.

"Hey," Ryder grabbed my arm as I stopped moving. "Go find your friends," his voice was gentle, and I knew he could sense my unease. I nodded briskly to clear my head, and followed him into one of the back hallways of the school, where I usually met up with my friends every day.

"Lexi!" Sebastian was facing me as I approached, and immediately abandoned the conversation to come over and give me a hug. "I didn't think you were coming today,"

"Couldn't stay away," I joked, reaching over to take Nate's hand. He wrapped his arms around me, and kissed my temple, his arms taught across my chest in a clear signal to the world that he wasn't planning on letting go.

* * *

As it turned out, coming to school was a royally bad idea. By the end of the day, I was so worn out I could barely get up from chair in last period. Ryder showed up at my locker to drive me home, and he could instantly tell that being up and about all day had taken its toll on me.

"What happened to you today?" he asked. I shrugged.

"I'm just really tired," I said, running my hands through my hair. I knew it was my imagination, but a little part of me thought it felt thinner than it had the day before.

"Lexi, you've had one treatment," Ryder crouched beside me as I packed up my bag. "How can you be this out of it?"

"I don't know!" I snapped, meeting his eyes. "How am I supposed to know, I'm not a doctor?"