Forbidden || an anime love story

Chapter 20: Distance

Star's POV
Days had past since Aoi's arrival, and Travis has been way more distance. He treated me as if I was invisible, like I'm not even there. Every time we made eye contact, he would glare at me and turn away. Nothing made sense right now.

And just when I was recovering from mom's death, just when I needed a shoulder to lean on, Travis was gone...so late at night, I would cry about these things, about mom, about Travis. And my pillow would always get soaked up the next day, but I always hid it from Dr. Willow.

What would mom tell me? I couldn't keep hiding these things from the ones who cared. It's time I forget about him...but I can't. 3rd semester already started. My study and school stuff has been going well, but my social life has gotten weaker. I'm barely talking to anyone and my smile faded, even through the fake smiles.

We couldn't even talk to Bloods anymore, not as long as Aoi's around...not anymore.

Whenever I try to speak to Travis though, Aoi always comes and takes him away from me, and glares at me, telling me to stay away from him, especially since I'm Dark.

At least I'm keeping up with Dad now, our relationship has built up. He told me that the necklace that he gave me, mom once gave it to mom, so it basically belongs to mom. He said it suited me, especially since it was a star.

I wasn't fulfilling mom's wishes, I stopped smiling and placed a fake smile, my stars inside of me...they started fading. Every time I apologize to mom, I knew it wasn't enough.

I miss my old self...😔

~~~~~~~•~~~~~~~
"Star!" Jayden shouted. I turned around and saw that the three of them were running towards me. It was after school and we were on the way to Dark Headquarters.

"Leaving without us?" Umi smiles. "Well, you guys are pretty slow." I shrugged as we started walking together. "Hey, don't you always wear that eight star necklace?" Darold asks looking at my neck.

"Of course, I would never—" but when I touched my neck, the necklace was gone. I gasp, searching my body to look for the necklace. "Oh no. I-I can't lose this thing." I panicked. The others seemed unconvinced by why I was so worked up on trying to find it.

"It's my moms'. She had it back when she was 15 or something, and gave it to dad, he gave it to me. I can't lose it, it keeps us connected." I explained. They let out an understanding expression. "It's possibly back in school somewhere. You remember when you last touched it?" Jayden asks.

It hits me as I started remembering. "Now that I think about it, the necklace wasn't with me when I changed back into my uniform after swimming. It probably dropped in the pool." I gasp and started running back. "Star! What about—"

"I can't go anywhere until I find it!" I shouted back to them, cutting off Jayden. Umi came running with me. "I can't let you go alone." She says and I smiled. I heard Darold sigh and ran with us as well. "Well, I can't go without Umi."

Jayden finally caught up to us. "I can't go without a full team, besides, none of you guys can swim." He smirks. I smiled thankfully as we made our way back to school.

**
After asking permission with the physics teacher, we made it to the pool. All of us searched from the docks of the water. "I don't see it." I looked confusingly. "It's not in the locker rooms either." Umi came running back to us. "Don't see it on the floors." Darold says.

I sighed panicking. "Maybe before this period, but it might've fallen in the hallways too, and students might have kicked it, or picked it up and kept it. Who knows where it is?" My face buried into my hands as I'm stressing.

"I told Jean that we might be late because of this." Jayden says. I nodded it him as a thank but slumped right back and fell to the floor.

"Looking for this?" A familiar voice calls out. I turned to the voice and saw that it was Aoi, followed by Travis, Yui, Selene, and Drake. I gasp when I saw that Aoi was holding out my necklace and stumbled back to my feet.

"Aoi-chan, that's—"

"Step one more closer and I'm throwing this away." She glares. I paused to my feet. They walked towards the other side of the pool, still with the necklace in Aoi's hand.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked. Aoi smirked. "Oh, it wasn't me who retrieved this, it was your 'friend', Yui." I looked at Yui stunned. She couldn't, right? But Yui's face showed that she did when she looked away guiltily.

After seeing that, I turned towards the other two, to see if they were on Aoi's side, and they were, when they averted my gaze. "You're all hypnotized aren't you?!" I asked stunningly. "First Travis, and now you? Didn't we made a promise?!"

"Oh, you guys sure did, and I know all about it." Aoi smiles and chuckled evilly. I wanted her to shut up so badly but she continued. "That's why I threatened them with this. If agent Collins, our head agent, knew about your secret friendship, then they'll be out of the team for good. What is up with that friendship stuff?

Honestly I got mad when I knew, but they pleaded to not tell anyone, but I wasn't going to let that slide for free, so I asked them what was your most precious thing to you. They told me that you always had that necklace on you and you never took it off unless if it was swimming class, so I got Yui to get the necklace for me.

Turns out the necklace is actually precious to you since you look like you're about to turn into tears if you don't have this back."

I felt so shocked and breathed heavily. "Give me my necklace back Aoi. It's the only thing that connected both my mother and father! And I don't want that gone!" I cried.

Aoi paused for a moment, but then went back to her evil side again. "Pitiful aren't you little one? You lost your mother because she had cancer, your parents are divorced, your father won't even come see you, you don't have any money to survive on your own, you'll practically be living homeless next month without that doctor's help, and you lost your friends. Heh."

I knew that all of those were true but with those words, it gave me pain and so much madness inside me, waiting to explode. My fist clenched together as I felt tears swelling up on me. I bit my lips a few times. I fell to my knees, crying. I missed the old me, the old me always put on a fight when things like this happened, I would have courage, but now,

I don't even feel anything but pain stabbing through my heart.

"Yo! Don't talk to my best friend like that! She may have lost her friends but she still got us!" I heard Umi yell. That was the first time I've ever heard her so angry before, so did the rest of us. "And just cause you're forcing them to be on your side doesn't mean that they actually are. Look at them, they all give out a guilty, regretful face.

Star has been suffering so much, wouldn't you know how that feels?! I know that old Star is still in there, and she'll find her true self again. This won't stop her, this won't stop us."

When I looked up, I saw that Darold placed a hand on Umi's shoulder, as if he said 'good job.' Then he looked towards Aoi and gave a serious expression, one I haven't seen in a long while. "And if you say another word about her, you'll regret that. Star had always been there for us, so now we'll be there for her."

Aoi was surprised at first, as if she understood a bit, but then chuckled. "And you think that will stop me? Well then see for yourself. If you want the necklace so badly, then get it." And with that last word, Aoi threw the necklace into the pool. I gasp. "No!" I shouted and ran to my feet as I jumped into the pool, forgetting the fact that I couldn't swim.

"Don't." I heard Aoi said to Yui and others when they wanted to help. I swam under when I saw the necklace, in the deep, deep end. I swam with all my might, then when I got closer and closer to the necklace, I grabbed it. But I was losing air, I needed air.

I swam back up but felt weak, and when I reached the surface, I couldn't tread so I gasp for help, my head going up and down the water. "Mm!"

A splash came and I felt someone grabbing me and helped me back to the floor tiles as I coughed out water. It was Jayden who saved me. "You freaking idiot, you forgot you couldn't swim?! I could've gotten the necklace stupid!" His words were harsh but his expression gave out a different story.

"Sorry." I said through my coughs.

Then we heard footsteps of high heels. "What is going on?" I heard a familiar voice ask with a firm, mad tone. The women bend down to me and I saw that it was agent Jean. She grew mad when she saw me suffering and turned her mad gaze at Blood.

"I knew you were horrible. Don't ever go near Dark again, ever!" She said and got us out of here.