Sin

8 | The Eighth Chapter

The Eighth Chapter - Welcome Back.

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I came home from school in a mess of tears and mixed emotions, so Mum made me a hot chocolate before settling next to me in my bed. I was wearing his hoodie, and had the PlayStation going with his red remote in my hands. Mum hardly ever came in to watch me play, but when she did, she always contributed by telling me which decisions to make and always ended up staying longer than she intended. This time, I didn't think she was going anywhere.

She laughed lightly when a dialogue scene came on between Vlodimir von Everec and Shani after he'd jumped into the little pond to fish out her shoe in Geralt's body. It was probably my second favourite side quest in the game, if you weren't including the one where Geralt gets drunk with Eskel and Lambert in Kaer Morhen. A small smile found its way to my lips at the memory.

"Honey, are you upset about the ring?" Mum asked finally, her voice soft over the sound of the console game before me. I hesitated, my fingers hovering over the thumbsticks on the controller. I reached over to take the mug of hot chocolate in my hands, just holding it between my palms. I didn't answer her, and she took this as her answer.

"What happened, sweetie? Why aren't you wearing it?"

I bit my lip, feeling it start to tremble as I struggled to find the courage to say the words I wanted to say. It took a while, but finally, I spoke.

"I lost it," I whispered, my voice soft and quiet. I kept my pale, glassy eyes trained down. "In Chemistry today."

There was a pause in the air. "Honey, I'm so sorry," she murmured finally, her hand stroking my arm soothingly as she pulled me closer. "I'm so, so sorry."

"I couldn't go back and find it," I continued, wiping my eyes carefully with the sleeve of his hoodie to avoid spilling my mug. "I just felt so shit..."

"It's alright, River; it might have been his but it doesn't mean he loves you any less," Mum assured me gently, a warm smile painted across her worn face. "Everything happens for a reason; maybe you weren't meant to have it. Maybe you were just meant to remember it."

I didn't reply. Maybe she was right.

Regardless of what conclusion I'd come to, I didn't go to school on Wednesday. I know, I'd already missed so much school in the past two weeks, but I just couldn't do it. I didn't want to see his smug face, or those electric blue eyes. I didn't want to see how angry he made me, and I didn't want to see how weak he made me either. I just couldn't.

I spent the day transitioning between the couch, the kitchen and my room. I felt like shit, I looked like shit and if I tried to speak, I knew I'd sound like shit as well. The only problem was that I couldn't mope around home like this forever.

I spent majority of Thursday at home, but I couldn't concentrate; all I could think about was that cold, dead look in Tyler Slater's eyes when he dropped the ring in the bin. I was mad at first, of course I was. How dare he? He had absolutely no right. But the more I thought about it, the more depressed I got about it. He was doing this to get me to stay away from his family. And I knew that no one else in the school talked to them for a reason. And even though Will was obviously the nicer and kinder of the Slater siblings, he still avoided me this week. And it was all for a reason. So why not just give them all what they wanted? If they wanted to be alone for the rest of their lives, shutting out anyone who ever wanted to be close with them, then so be it. In the meantime, I had to find other people to occupy my mind with. I was so sick of getting shut out that it was actually kind of nice to have a heap of time to myself, watching movies and chatting with my mum. It was kind of a relief to get all the thoughts of Klaus, Tyler and Dad out of my head, if only for a little bit. And Mum was pretty fun to hang out with; maybe she wasn't a school friend that I could talk to all the time, but she was still always there for me, and I couldn't have asked for anything better.

I decided to show up for the lesson after lunch, which was P.E, only because I knew Jack was going to be there. Besides, I wanted to show Tyler Slater in particular that he couldn't just treat me like shit and get away with it like that. Not that I was going to do anything about it. I was just going to show up, and prove that he couldn't drag me down quite as much as he thought he could.

I walked in about ten minutes late, in my usual P.E shorts, skins and t-shirt before dropping my bag by the door. The lesson was just in the middle of a discussion, of which I'd interrupted when I walked into the room. Heads turned my way, just as I'd expected, but I kept going, steadily making my way to the group. Coach Palmers, who was also the coach of the soccer team I wanted to get into, nodded at my arrival and wrote something else on his clipboard, as I picked Jack out of the crowd. He caught my eye, jogging to meet me, and that one small gesture made my heart soar. That was friendship, right there. That was someone actually giving a fuck about me. And it felt nice.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked quietly as soon as he reached me, eyebrows perked up in worry. "Everyone heard what happened..." I nodded, a small smile playing at my lips.

"I'm fine," I assured him, glancing up at the group before me. My eyes flickered over a pair of piercing blue irises, but they moved on just as quickly as both Jack and I made it back to the group.

"Hey, River, welcome back," Zoe announced from the front of the group, where she was obviously the teacher for the lesson. I smiled brightly back at her.

"What are we doing today?"

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Like I said previously, this is only a very small filler chapter and I'm sorry. But the next chapter is where it picks back up again and the story kinda starts going somewhere, so stick with me!

Who is your favourite character so far?

Keep reading! x