Chapter 55:
Surprisingly, this morning, I had woke up early enough to stop by the cafeteria and get some breakfast. I stopped by Chase's room to see if he wanted to join but when I knocked on his door, there was no answer. I hadn't heard from Chase since he took me to the rooftop. I wondered if he was avoiding me because I stopped the kiss. I would look for him in our classes that we shared but he didn't show up to any of them. Where did he disappear to?
I sat in a booth, eating the mini pancakes that were on the menu for today and watching the rain sprinkle over the campus. The cafeteria was filled, everyone chattering at their tables trying to be heard over one another. I put my headphones in, put my music on shuffle and tuned out the world for the next twenty minutes.
What hurts the most
Was being so close
And having so much to say
And watching you walk away
And never knowing
What could've been
And not seeing that love in you
Is what I was trying to do
It's hard to deal with the pain of losing you everywhere I go
But I'm doing it-
Suddenly, I felt a violent tug on my ears as my headphones ripped from me. There was an instant flare of rage that coursed through me and I balled my hand in a fist as I snapped my head away from the window.
"What the hell?!" I snapped as I looked at Pogue who was glaring at me. I looked past him for a moment and saw the others with him who looked just as surprised. Reid came forward and tugged on his shoulder pulling him away from my face.
"Dude calm down," he muttered to Pogue.
"Is it true?" Pogue spat.
"Well good morning to you too," I retorted. "What is your problem?" I asked, trying my best to push down my anger as I wrapped my headphones around my MP3 player.
"I spoke with mom and dad Blair," Pogue seethed. "They told me about the papers."
"Okay...?" I said, not really sure what the problem was.
"Okay? That's all you have to say for yourself?" he growled. I was confused as to why he was snapping at me over this.
"Pogue, come on dude. Don't do this here," Tyler stepped forward and calmly spoke.
"Shut up, Baby Boy," Pogue said shrugging him off. The rage poured off Pogue as he turned back to me, waiting for an answer.
"Hey, don't take your anger out on him," I said to Pogue. He didn't seem to care that he was yelling at everyone. "Why are you so upset?"
"How could you ask them to sign those papers?" he asked, trying his best to keep his voice level.
"Because I needed those papers in my file for my emancipation," I explained. "They had somehow gone missing from my file and without them, I needed them to sign the waiver again. It's not a big deal, they had done it before."
That answer seemed to make him angrier. "So what, you don't want a family?"
"What? What does that have anything to do with the papers?" I asked confused.
"Clearly you don't care about us being a family. You have parents and you have me a brother but you rather not have any of it. Do you know how upset mom is? She hasn't stopped crying over it. How could you hurt her like that?" he spat. I looked at him in disbelief. I glanced at the others hoping they would chime in to help explain all of this but they were looking around, noticing the deafening silence in the cafeteria.
All eyes were on us like we were a show put on while people ate. They could hear everything. All of my personal business and my life and how it was different than most of their lives.
"I don't want to talk about this," I said, picking up my backpack and standing up. I pushed him aside as he tried to block me in the booth and started to walk away. Reid's eyes caught mine and there was an apologetic look.
"No you never want to talk about things! You would rather run away! Like you always do, just run away. It's what you do best!" Pogue shouted. I halted.
"Okay, Pogue." Caleb's authoritative voice came through. "This is not the place," he advised.
"Why not? It's not like she cares about anyone but herself clearly!" Pogue yelled.
There was a snap in me. I whipped around and glared. My heart was beating fast, it felt like it was going to burst out of my chest.
"I only care about myself?" I scoffed.
"Yes because you would rather be alone and throw away a family. Throw me away and throw our parents-,"
"YOUR parents!" I barked. He was taken aback. "Your parents Pogue. Not my parents. I don't have parents. I've never had parents. They raised you. They loved you. Not me. Let's get that straight. You and I have lived different lives, and you love your parents but that's who they are. They are your family, not mine. I don't even know who they are. If they wanted me in the family they wouldn't have left me at a random orphanage states away. If they wanted me in the family, your father wouldn't have thro--." I paused. The boys' faces showed they knew what I was talking about. "If he wanted me in the family, he wouldn't have told me he would sign them if I left Ipswich."
I was seething as I spilled everything. My powers were at the surface, circulating through my veins just waiting to be released, to show off my emotions. I was still aware of everyone's eyes on us. Past the radiating anger that Pogue was sending my way, I could feel the anxiety of the others. We were teetering on the edge of the true nature of the families and our powers. Pogue felt the sting of my words and through the anger came some hurt feelings.
"Pogue, come on," Kate said to him, pulling his arm a little to break our battling glares. "You're overthinking what this is," she explained.
"I'm so confused as to why you are upset," I tried to calmly say. I wanted to be understanding even though his words were slicing through me leaving gashes of open wounds in me. "Nothing changes between us. The papers were a replacement for what was already there. It's nothing new. You are still my brother to me. I don't need to be in the family for you to be my brother. Literally, nothing has changed," I explained. The feelings were getting too much from them. I had to actively try not to dig my nails into the back of my neck like I would usually do. So instead, I dug my nails into the palms of my hands hard.
"Everything has changed!" he yelled. "You don't want us to be a family and you are choosing not to. Then what's the point of you staying here? You should leave Ipswich."
It felt like something in me cracked a little.
"What?" My voice the smallest it's ever been.
"Since you want to be alone so badly and not have us in your life, then we can go back to the way things were. We will act like you never existed and you can leave Ipswich and never come back," Pogue declared, fury showing in his eyes.
It was as if he put this box of space between us making us as distant as ever.
"Okay now-," Reid interjected.
"Let's not-," Caleb stepped forward.
"Pogue, you can't just say-," Kate snapped.
They were all talking over one another, trying to tell Pogue that he was being ridiculous. Pogue's eyes never left mine.
"Got it."
Everyone's eyes flashed to me in disbelief. They all started to come towards me but the warning bell rang. No one moved. The tension was so thick, I felt like I was being suffocated.
Turning on my heel, I left the cafeteria and left everyone behind.
There was a satisfied cackling rolling in the back of my head that didn't belong to me.
"See?"
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Author's Notes:
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my story! If you liked it, feel free to give this chapter a vote and/or comment. I would love to hear what you guys think, who your favorite character is, anything you would like to say! Again, thank you for your support. See you at the next chapter!