Shattered Glass

Chapter 4

After the fifth consecutive restless night, she had hoped to catch a few minutes of peace—maybe even a short nap—in the back corner of the cavernous room. Elena sighed and put down her English book—and immediately held it up again. Apparently, not even the library was a safe place to hide anymore.

Chris sat down, tugged it from her grasp, set it beside him, and leaned forward. "Are you avoiding me?"

She shook her head, staring at the table between them. She couldn't even get through a whole week without seeing one of the James brothers. She hated avoiding them, but it was necessary. All the same, knowing he cared to check in on her made her heart expand. Today, though, she was unable to pretend nothing was wrong directly to his face. "Why would you think that?"

"You haven't talked to me once since I asked if you could come to Homecoming, not even to ask about what my brother is doing." His voice lowered when he said the last part, trailing off for a moment. "Did I upset you?" he added when she remained silent. "Talk to me, Elle."

She lifted her eyes to meet his. "It's nothing to do with you. You could never upset me," she replied tonelessly before picking up her book and walking away.

***

He watched her go, wondering what he could do to reconnect with his old friend enough to get the chance to make her something more. He couldn't get ahead of himself.

Will set his backpack down on a chair and propped his feet on the table. "Well, that didn't seem good."

"You could say that," Chris replied, knocking his brother's heels off the furniture. "Don't you have a fan club to grace with your presence?"

"I'll go tomorrow," his brother quipped. "So? What did she say to you?"

"Next to nothing. I asked her if she was mad at me. She said no, then left. This whole week, she won't look at me, keeps her head down when she walks into our classes and leaves them immediately. I can't pin her down long enough to have a conversation."

"Interesting choice of words..."

"Oh, shut up. That's not what I meant."

"Intended or not on your part, I now have that image stuck in my head—not that I'm complaining or anything."

Christopher clenched his jaw and reminded himself he was in the school library where there were witnesses and the expectation of silence—in short, one of the worst locations to argue with his brother about his feelings for Elena.

"Have you had any better luck?"

"She said hi to me once, but practically ran away when I tried to sustain the conversation." Will scratched his head. "You'd think she was afraid of us."

But why would she have any reason to fear them?

"I don't know," his brother answered.

He hadn't meant to speak out loud.

"She's really changed, huh? Not the same fearless girl who challenged us to climb the backyard trees wearing her skirts."

Chris cracked a smile. "I forgot about that."

His brother rolled his eyes. "No you didn't. What's even more ridiculous is that you actually did it."

"I wasn't going to say no to her."

"You still can't refuse her anything."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Look, I'm all for finding out what changed, but if she doesn't return your feelings, you shouldn't follow her around like a needy puppy."