Maybe It Was Fate

Chapter Thirty-Three

"Allie...Allie!"

My attention snaps back to reality as I stare at the coffee coloured eyes of my best friend. Concern is etched onto Jakob's face.

"What's going on?"

I suck a breath through my teeth, that all too familiar jabbing pain in my chest returning.

"You know." I whisper, avoiding eye contact.

Days had passed. Not once had Chris looked at me, let alone spoken to me. I texted him. Twice. He didn't answer. I didn't have it in me to try talk to him in person.

My arms sit limply at my sides. Clouds fall over the sky, blanketing the Earth in darkness, reflecting my mood.

The lunch room was bare today, the last day of term. I liked it though. There were less people to pretend for. Smiling when you aren't happy isn't easy. Especially when everyone can see straight through you.

Charlie hasn't tried to speak to me but I know he wants to. I lock eyes with him from across the room, breaking the eye contact and staring at my food once again. I stare at my food, my appetite shrinking every second longer I look at it.

From the other side of the room, Chris sits at a table with other people. Other friends. A sickening feeling bubbles in my chest and it's not from the lumpy mash potato sitting in front of me.

No, it's the incessant rap of heels against the vinyl floor that brings nausea to my stomach. Madison appears in front of me within the blink of an eye.

"Boy, do I have a show for you." She says to me, heading towards the middle table.

She raises one foot onto the chair, lifting her body up so she is standing tall in the middle of the lunch room. She clears her throat, not that all eyes weren't already on her. They were.

"Fellow students. I have an announcement to make." She smiles, her lips painted red, pulled into a malicious grin.

Her eyes dart to me, filling me with dread.

"Allison Grey has cheated on our favourite brown-eyed hunk, Chris."

Gasps from all around the lunch room arise, including several from my table. A strangled sob claws its way from my throat, shocking me into silence.

It feels as though she has pinned me up for murder, sewing my mouth shut along with it. Now, all eyes are on me.

I stand, my legs almost giving out beneath me. Footsteps approach me from behind as I walk through the hallway.

"Allie!" A voice calls out.

I stop dead in my tracks. My eyes are one sentence away from overflowing like floodgates.

"I'm sorry. I didn't tell her to do that."

Where I should have been feeling sorrow and embarrassment, anger replaced it. I whip around, facing Chris, who looks shocked at my sudden shift in demeanour.

"You," – I take a deep breath – "could've prevented that. You could've stopped her but you just sat there. You just watched."

He doesn't respond.

"I can't do it anymore." I whisper to him. "I miss you."

His eyes jerk up, meeting mine. He swallows hard, his jaw muscle ticking.

"I don't know what to think." He replies.

"What do you mean?" I ask, desperation swallowing me. "You know I didn't cheat on you. I told you I don't have feelings for Charlie. I don't even know his last name."