"What is going on here?" Hazel crossed her arms, passing her glare between me and Micha. She'd practically shoved the poor janitor out of the room, and I swear I saw actual steam-or smoke- coming off her.
"Exactly what it looks like, Zel" Micha rolled her eyes. I tried to hide my teary face from the irritating girl, trembling a little while my head was buried in Micha's shoulder.
"Why is she crying?" Hazel growled.
"If she wanted you to know, she'd've told you and not confided in me" I gave Micha a mental thanks. Her hand rubbed my back comfortingly, although I could almost feel the thing -that could only be described as hatred for Hazel- radiating off the ravenette.
"Get away from her" the younger girl snapped, taking half a stride toward us.
"No" Micha sighed boredly. "She has a mind of her own, Hazel"
"If you're so sure I'm wrong, let me hear it from her" I didn't have to see Hazel to know that she was looking at me.
"Get away from me, Hazel" I breathed shakily. God, it was awful. I knew she could feel, I knew she did feel, and I really don't want her to go, but I'll be damned if I let her stay.
"What was she talking about?" I heard Hazel take another few steps toward me. Micha's comforting arm became protective, and a low growl slipped her throat.
"Go away" I caved more into Micha for protection. As if she could somehow protect me from myself, or Hazel.
"Not until I get answers. Why are you hiding from me?!" Hazel's voice was dangerously low.
"Because you're confusing me" I really didn't mean for that to slip out, but I think that by now it's pretty apparently that my body doesn't like listening to me.
"I made it perfectly clear what my intentions were. What exactly don't you understand?!"
"Grace..." Micha interrupted before I could say something I'd regret. I took in a deep breath and reestablished my defenses.
"I don't understand you, Hazel. I just don't get it"
"What? What is so hard to understand?!" She sounded more frustrated than angry, but then she did something that surprised me. She drew a breath and pinched the bridge of her nose, exhaling loudly. "Micha. Please give us some privacy" she stated more than requested.
"I'm trusting you, Hazel, don't waste your time" Micha sighed, giving me an almost indescribable look -between pity and reassurance- before getting up and leaving.
Hazel didn't watch her as she made her exit, but I could see her twitch when the door clicked shut. Intuition told me she was consciously watching me and more consciously not letting her attention drift elsewhere. Her eyes were hard, but I could see there was some mix of curiosity, exasperation, boredom, maybe even sympathy behind them.
"I have told you before, Grace, that I never meant to be your enemy. Explain to me what I have not done. I have given you my intentions, what have I not made clear?" she started. I rolled my eyes boredly.
"What about this is clear? One minute you hate me, then you tell me about Winter, and maybe you don't feel something about it, but I definitely feel for someone who has been through that. And I can't help but feel that you're taking advantage of me. You give me a reason to give you a chance, and then you're back to... You"
"And this is bad? Do you see the irony in this? You claim to have feelings toward me, yet you do not want me"
"Exactly, Hazel. I don't want to feel anything for you. I want to just forget about everything you're doing to me, forget what you've brought me in to. You're driving me insane. You get jealous when I'm around anyone, but you won't express anything to me. You kiss me whenever you feel like it and I'm expected to just deal with it like nothing. Its not nothing, Hazel. Whatever delusion you have about what it means to kiss someone, I don't give a damn because no matter what it is to you, it means something to me and unless you're going to respect that, back the fuck off" I found my voice getting more and more angry the more I tried to explain to Hazel what she was doing and I hated- no- loathed admitting anything to her. I am telling her everything and god knows that by tomorrow or by the end of the day she'll have already forgotten it.
"Okay" she started to walk away. I let her make it about two feet before I stood.
"Where the hell are you going?" I crossed my arms. She sighed.
"I will not kiss you. That solves the problem at hand, so I believe we're done here" when I kept glaring at her she let out an exasperated breath and walked back. "What would you like me to say?"
"I don't know! Just say something! You can't just walk out without giving me an explanation" she almost groaned.
"Grace, I don't like you. I have a physical attraction towards you but that is all. Granted my judgment of you may have been somewhat false to begin with, but the fact that I do not look for a relationship with you still stands. I think that you are... Tolerable... But the amount of unwanted strain you put on me is not worth it. We are a burden to each other. Trying to make something of us now is not feasible" she started to walk away again, and just out of frustration, I was going to let her escape. I almost expected that there would be something to make it harder for me. And there was. And that problem came in the form of a bored brunette walking into the locker room as if Hazel had opened the doors for her.
"You two are seriously just impossible" Marley dragged a confused and annoyed looking Hazel back into the room by her wrist, forcing her to sit a few feet away from me on the bench.
"This really isn't any of your-" Hazel started.
"Yeah, yeah, shut up with it. I'm sick of my best friend moping around and I'm sick of new Hazel related problems bombarding me every single day. It gets pretty damn old" Marley glared at Hazel. I don't know how, but Marley actually managed to shut the girl up. Granted, Hazel was still trying to burn Marley with her eyes, but she was quiet.
"Okay. You two are driving me mad. Grace, I want you to try tolerating the devil child for a change, and devil child- stop bitching. For god's sake, just try being nice. It isn't that hard. I don't care if you're barely out of your tweens, you're in high school. Suck it the fuck up and be a big girl" my first concern was that Marley rarely got this irritated. The second concern was that last time she got this angry around Hazel she got hurt.
Hazel and I just started back at Marley in silence. I had a blank face, but Hazel looked like she was going to kill the poor girl. The rage Hazel was radiating was so thick I could almost touch it.
Marley let out a deep, grumbling sigh.
"Don't think for a second that I am doing this because I want to" she started "since you have been so kind to barge into our little lives," she hissed resentfully, "you can get used to us. You know where we usually are. Be there. Clearly there is no chance of you just packing your bags and leaving, so get over yourself, deal with Grace's friends, or I will make sure Grace doesn't have to deal with you" the brunette glowered down at Hazel.
"You don't fool me. You have nothing to stop me" I saw something flicker in Hazel's eyes- something dangerously close to recognition and fear. Scary because it didn't stop her from standing by it.
Marley just jerked her head a little towards the doorway, where a scowling Micha was watching us intently.
"My girlfriend just hacked herself into a school. I'm sure we're both well aware of how easy it would be to just hack into another school, transfer and leave this school. No one would know. And you're too paranoid to handle not knowing where Grace is and what she is saying to people about you and your night school" my friend retorted.
"And I will personally make sure that everything will be told to Riley and Megan" Micha folded her arms and walked to her girlfriend's side. "Hazel, we've all had enough. Make a decision. Right here, right now. You're either going to leave Grace alone, or you're going to be civil" Hazel tried to restrain a throaty growl. She glared up at Micha for a long time before finally lowering her gaze, and speaking to me without turning her head.
"You will be at my house at seven thirty for dinner. Megan will pick you up at seven fifteen. You'll be back at your house by nine" her voice was scarily angry, and she didn't hide that she was speaking through her teeth.
Once she was done, she got up and stormed out of the room.
**Sorry for the long wait guys... we're getting into a new stage of the plot and it's going to be a hard transition for me writing it. Anyway, the next chapter will hopefully be done this month...