One of the Bullied | ✔

Chapter 24 - Don't Leave Me Alone

It's okay. I guess I'll have to tell you sooner or later, or you'll find out. Or someone else will.

Zoe Meyer ~ 19:43

Would you tell me if I promise I wouldn't be angry?

Rita Tory ~ 19:45

That's impossible. I've done too much to hurt you. I don't know if you'll ever forgive me.

Zoe Meyer ~ 19:45

Well, I'll sure forgive you sooner than the Three.

Rita Tory ~ 19:45

Who are the Three?

Zoe Meyer ~ 19:45

Caleb, Luke and Seth. I don't think I could ever forgive them.

I wait a few seconds, expecting to have an immediate reply. I don't, and after waiting for three minutes, I put my phone away. I wonder why they didn't answer- OH MY GOD. It's Luke, isn't it? It's bloody Luke. I knew it. This is a prank.

"Jean!" I exclaim. He looks up yet again. "I think I know who Rita is!"

"Really?"

"It's Luke." I carry my phone over to him, and show him my last texts with Rita. He nods his head a little as he reads, then points to forgive.

"What does that mean?"

"Forgive." I answer quickly in French. His English has gotten so good I almost forgot he's still not fluent, and there's plenty of things he doesn't understand.

"Well, it looks like it, but I wouldn't be too sure, Zoe." He smiles. "Just leave Rita for the time being." He glances up at me, then wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me down next to him. "What does this mean?" He asks, drawing a faint line under a word in the book.

Yes, he's reading Roald Dahl. Come on, he literally only started learning English a couple of weeks ago. 

"Uh, that's a made up word." I smile. "It means something fantastic, though, kind of extraordinary."

"You said this was easy!"

"It is easy!" I answer, curling my legs under me and snatching the book from him. "Come on, what's wrong with this?"

"It's got made up words!"

"Just ignore them!"

"How am I meant to know they're made up in the first place? My English vocabulary is tiny!"

"Okay, okay." I giggle, handing the book back to him and patting his back. "Learn, my friend."

Instead of continuing to read, he folds the top corner of the page and puts it down. "I kind of don't want to leave, you know?" He says quietly. "It's been really nice, being here with you, somewhere where no one knows me and people haven't judged me in the same way."

"I'm not exactly the kind of person you want to be with anyway..."

"You are." He smiles. "You're funny, super intelligent, you understand people, and you've been a great teacher. You didn't act differently because of what I told you, and even through everything you've been through, you haven't given up."

"That's not true." I say, blushing and pulling his hand off my chin, where it somehow ended up resting. I get up, brushing my fingertips through my hair. "I just have no one else. Was I really going to push away the one person I had a chance of be-friending?"