A Slave to Love

Chapter 40: Old Rival

But her eyes...she looked wary. In between conversations, when it lulled or when no one was paying attention to her, her eyes darted around like a prey animal searching for the predator lurking in the shadows. She looked pale and there was a stiffness to her posture that wasn't usually there. I had no idea how she could stomach coming back here after what happened. You couldn't pay me to come back to the place where I nearly died, especially not every single day for school of all things.

I veered off my path to my usual table where my friends sat and beelined for Jill. We might not have been friends, but it was my fault she got mauled even if she didn't necessarily know that. The least I could do was see if she was really okay. It'd been almost three weeks since the incident after all, so it was still a relatively recent trauma and it was the polite and decent thing to do.

As soon as her eyes landed on me she froze, blue eyes wide with fright as if I was coming over to murder her myself. The look on her face was so visceral that it made my insides run cold, made me stop dead in my tracks.

But then one guy hanging on the edge of her group started begging for attention and she shook it off to turn to him, her back to me now as she returned to her normal conversation and acted like I didn't exist.

I swallowed hard and wandered back to my seat, guilt and anxiety swirling in my gut like food that wasn't sitting right. Maybe it was best to talk to her alone.

"What was that about?" Katie whispered to me while our friends chatted, apparently the only one who noticed my attempt to get close to Jill.

"I just wanted to make sure she was okay," I explained. Katie nodded, understanding clouding her eyes. 

How was I going to get Jill alone? The girl hated my guts on a regular basis, and she clearly seemed even less thrilled with my existence now, though I couldn't imagine why. It wasn't like she knew it was my fault. 

Or did she?

After what seemed like an eternity of watching her like a creep from across the room as she flirted and picked at her lunch and caught up with all her friends and other students and faculty coming up to talk to her, wish her well, ask her what happened, Jill finally saved me the trouble and excused herself left the cafeteria alone. I jumped to my feet and took off after her, not even giving an explanation to my friends. There was no way I could miss the rare opportunity and every second counted, especially as I was slower now with my leg.

Drawing her immaculate leather jacket tighter around her, she headed outside and I followed at a brisk walk.

"Jill!" I called once we were both safely outside and away from most of the prying eyes of our classmates. "Hey Jill! Wait up!"

And then she did the weirdest thing I had ever seen her do. She burst into a sprint.

She ran--in high heels in the grass, which was impressive--like I was the Devil himself chasing after her intent on dragging her screaming and kicking down to Hell.

"Jill! Stop running for Christ's sake!" I snapped as I sped after her, even though I knew she probably couldn't hear me with the cold snap of wind and if she did, she certainly wasn't about to stop on account of me asking. Thankfully, my long legs and track practices kicked into gear and I caught up to her. She was just in arms reach, so I grabbed her as gently as I could by the arm and hauled her to a stop before I could bust any of my stitches. Already my leg was flaming in agony. But if she was breaking her rule about unnecessary physical activity and sweating, then I damn well wanted to know why I managed to goad her into it.

"My God Jill what the hell happened to you?" I panted out, irritated and utterly confused. She hated me sure, but not run-for-your-life hatred. And she looked downright hysterical now that I'd caught up.