Drowning In Color | ✔️

Chapter Twenty-Seven

"You seem distracted. Everything okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. It's just... Math, ya know?" she said, obviously hiding what's really on her mind. Should I question her? But I don't want to come off as being too pushy to her.

She glanced my way a couple of times. As much as my heart jumped each time our eyes meet, at that point, I was more concerned about her distressed look. It's like there's something about me that's bothering her.

I shifted closer to her on the bed. She stuttered, apparently nervous that I might be about to do something to her. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders. With my other hand, I pointed at the question in the book, particularly the fourth line in her answer.

"Good workings. But there's a problem with the final answer."

She inspected it closely. I gave her a little time to figure it out so that I didn't have to spill everything at her face right away. Amazingly, she figured it out—a careless calculation. She probably typed '1' instead of '7' in the calculator. Other than that, everything else seemed pretty solid.

And then I moved away, probably to her relief. I was already six questions ahead of her, but she's progressing better than before. At least I made a good difference to her.

"Hey, didn't you used to hang out with another girl all the time?"

She looked at me defensively. I assure her that I had absolutely no romantic interest in her friend. I was simply curious as to how she's coping ever since she left.

"We don't talk anymore, if that's what you want to know," she put the pencil down and sat crouching. Damn. Did I strike a nerve there? "Bitch left faster than a racecar hunted down by the cops."

Part of me wanted to know more, but I was unsure whether or not to continue.

I continued with my homework, saying, "It's just... You two were together all the time. But you bounced back from it quite quickly."

Shit. No. I shouldn't have said that. I didn't think about it before saying.

She heaved a huge sigh and shook her head. "Maybe I'm not that great of a friend, if you can call me one to begin with. She probably got sick of having to look after my dazed mind and neediness all the time." She then gazed at me from the corner of her eye. "You'll probably leave me too."

No, don't say that. Please don't say that. It'll only make me feel guilty about it.

Violetta's a little insecure about things. Her appearance; her relationships. The more she explained about it, the more I understood what happened.

Instead of fixing the insecurity, they just deflected all the harassment away from Violetta and onto her. My guess is that in trying to protect Violetta, she got herself harmed far beyond control. All that confidence, but internally, she couldn't handle it. As for Violetta, she became overly dependent on that friend, until she was gone. It's no wonder she became quick to change herself when she saw me.

In a sense, it's all my fault. My fault for pushing the bullying from me to a new target. Is it really worth sacrificing new lives to save my own?

Shit, no. I shouldn't think that. It's all their fault. Their fault for messing us. Their fault for being addicted to harming others. Their fault...

Doesn't matter. It's not important now. I pulled her to my chest and rubbed the shoulder that was away from me. As well as stroked the side of her head to calm her down.

"Violetta, I said this before. But I'll say it a million times if I have to. There's nothing wrong with you. You didn't cause all this. So please, don't blame yourself. Don't, and we can get through this together."