Beginning Again

Chapter 22 - Problems.

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©Sapphiresamo 

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Chapter 22

Problems.

The school was buzzing the next day. I got my fair share of looks as I walked down the school hallway. Even several teachers shot me curious and disapproving looks. Obviously news had spread about the event of the previous night.

I stayed over at Mary’s house last night assuming that she’d want to know the details about the fight. But she didn’t and instead went to sleep quite quickly, which wasn’t like her. Eventually I figured it might be because her mother was watching us like a hawk the moment I came through the door.

Mr Ford looked extremely disappointed when I came through the classroom door and hurriedly went to my seat. Several conversations stopped as I passed people on the way to my seat.

Turning into the row that my desk was on, I saw Stanley giving me a small smile as I sat down in my seat next to him. Unlike every other morning, Stanley turned to me with a serious expression.

“Hey, are you okay?” He asked with no sarcasm or joking to his voice.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I smiled appreciatively. “Thanks.”

Stanley stared at me for a couple of seconds as though he was trying to decipher whether I was lying or not. “You must have liked having two guys fighting over you,” he joked. “Even if one of them is your brother.”

“They weren’t fighting over me.” I stated and then turned my attention back to the front of the class where Mr Ford was scowling at me again. I got the message and didn’t say a word for the rest of the class.

~✩~✩~✩~

Mary was almost non-existent that day at school. I couldn’t seem to find her anywhere.

I had caught glances of her several times during the day, once I even got her to stop her hurried pace to talk to me for a second but she told me she had to run to class or else she’d be late.

I was getting tired of trying to get her to stop so I planned to get to her the moment the bell rang in order to talk to her. And thankfully after a few minutes, the bell did ring.

Sprinting out the classroom, I looked around the over-crowded hallway to find Mary but she was nowhere in sight.

Eventually after a lot of looking around, I saw unusually messy hair bobbing towards the student parking lot. I hustled my way through the sea of people, my voice strangling to call her name so she would stop. It almost seemed as though she glanced back, saw me, turned back around and walked on towards the parking lot with even longer strides.

Finally I broke free from the mob of students and rushed to catch up with her.

“Would you slow down?” I huffed running up behind her.

“Sorry.” She muttered but still didn’t reduce her speed. “I really need to get home.”

“Okay, could you slow down a bit?” I said gasping for air as I tried to keep up. “I haven’t seen you all day and now when I do, you’re running to your car.”

“Sorry, I just really need to get home.”

I picked up my pace as she slowed near her car. I was a little in front of her and finally got a glimpse of her face. Her eyes were red, sure signs of her being frustrated or possibly having cried. I reached out and grabbed her arm, forcing her to stop and face me.

“Mary, what’s going on?” I asked her sharply and she instantly looked down at her feet.

She looked away from me, shaking her head, “Nothing.”

I watched as she continued to avoid my gaze. Something was wrong and Mary for some reason wasn’t telling me.

“Don’t lie to me. I haven’t seen you all day and now I’m thinking you’re avoiding me. So tell me what’s going on.” I watched her sigh and finally look up at me.

“It’s nothing; just a bad day. I need to get home.” She pulled free from my grip and turned to go back to her car.

I watched her go, not fully understanding what was going on or even believing her. “Fine. I left my stuff at your house though.”

“You can get it later.” She stated getting into her car. She started up her car and pulled out of the lot with ridiculous speed, leaving me to go find a ride with Callie.

~✩~✩~✩~

Callie wasn’t too please with having to leave her precious guy friends to drive me home, but she did it anyway; seizing her opportunity to ask about what happened at the party.

I was too preoccupied with what was going on with Mary, to give her more than a quick explanation. When Callie realised that I wasn’t really in the mood to talk, she turned her attention back to the road, leaving me to mull about Mary. It was really abnormal; Mary was usually chasing me down to figure out what was going on with me.

“You should give her some time.” Callie said interrupting me from my thoughts.

“Huh?”

“Mary.” She said looking at me from the corner of her eyes.

Looking at Callie, I was surprised she knew something was wrong. She stopped the car and turned to me smiling. “Here’s your stop.”

Still slightly baffled, I gave Callie a sincere thank you, got out of her car and made my way up to the house.

The house lights were completely off like usual, but this time my mum’s car wasn’t in the driveway, meaning she wasn’t home. Upon entering the house, I dropped my school things on the kitchen table and went upstairs.

Halfway to my room, I heard a quiet rustling coming from Luca’s room and so I made my way over. I quietly approached his bedroom door and gently pushed it open. There he was sprawled on his bed, bruises surrounding his eye and dark red patches on his cheeks. His eyes slowly opened as I came into the room and soon enough he was scowling at me.

“What do you want?” he grumbled, closing his eyes again.

I stood inside his room, resting my back against the dark blue walls. “I want to know what the hell was wrong with you yesterday.” I said, watching his face carefully.

He didn’t open his eyes as he said, “You saw what happened. Kayden isn’t a part of this place anymore; he needs to go back to his stupid life in Hollywood.”

“What’s your issue with him?” I asked moving over to sit down on his desk chair. “Last time I asked you about him, you didn’t seem to care much about him. What changed?”

Luca laid there for a while, not answering, not even opening his eyes to look at me. If I hadn’t been so tired from the night before I probably would have raised my voice by then, but I was so I didn’t.

When he didn’t say anything for what seemed like eons, I got up and headed for the door, planning to exit quietly. But as I approached the door, I changed my mind and turned back towards him.

“You know what I don’t get?”

He didn’t say anything, but one eye slowly opened to look at me.

“You leave for several months, only to come back and not want to say a word to me. I go out and there you are trying to beat my friend – who I haven’t seen in ages, for no reason?” I emphasised shaking my head. “We used to talk about almost everything, Luca. But I guess you really have changed now. You’re not the only one who got hurt when dad died.”

With that, I turned around and left his room.

It had been a long time since I ever had a conversation this quiet with him and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.