Okay, so maybe I was being a little hypocritical in saying anger isn't a beneficial emotion, but it isn't. I mean, what the hell would he, or anyone, gain from being angry at everything and everyone? Nothing.
I walked down the halls, heading towards the cafeteria for Lunch on Friday afternoon. I hated that Reed's absence in my life was having an affect on me, to be honest. I mean, what the hell? I wasn't supposed to be affected by his absence! He was supposed to be affected by mine! Although, I can confidently say that he was affected by mine, which made me feel very smug. He deserved it. He was a douche to me.
It wasn't uncommon that I'd catch him staring at me, or being in the same area I was in. He looked to be in bad shape, but that wasn't my problem, or that's what I told myself, anyways. He wasn't my responsibility nor my friend. He didn't deserve my concern.
I plopped down at the table, huffing quietly as I scooted in my chair. Olivia, Noah and Elias all stared at me, but I paid them no mind. I wasn't in a good mood, not that that was anything unusual as of lately. I hadn't been in a good mood for the past few days. "Eh..." Noah stared at me while everyone else went back to eating their food, narrowing his eyes. "Are you okay?" He asked. I stared at him. "No." I said flatly, crossing my arms over my chest.
He pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes, leaning towards me. "Are you still sulking over Reed? Of all people, really?" He sighed, raising a brow. I glared at him, leaning back into my chair more. "Why don't you shove your thumb up your ass and leave me alone about it?" I snapped, irritated. He had been asking me about it every single day, which I knew stemmed from concern, but I didn't want to talk about it. I didn't want to talk about Reed. I was trying to forget him, not talk of him.
He snickered, shaking his head. "That's Olivia's job." He said.
I stared at him along with everyone else at the table, scrunching my nose up in disgust. "You...are repulsive." I said simply, shaking my head with a deep, exasperated sigh. He chortled like a moron, leaning back in his chair. "Yeah, yeah. Anyways," He began, dismissing my insult. "Maybe you should try to talk to him." He suggested hesitantly.
I narrowed my eyes, shaking my head. "Absolutely not." I refused. "Besides, you're acting like you weren't trying to put me off of talking to him! Now you want me to try to talk to him?" I scoffed, irritated. He didn't try to deny it, slowly nodding his head as he stared at me. "I just think you should." He shrugged. Elias nodded, also looking over at me. "I agree, Leila. You've been upset and unlike yourself this week." He frowned, cocking his head to the side. I sighed deeply, just about ready to slam my head into the table. "I'm not talking to him. He is mean and he doesn't care about me or like me. I'm not going to validate his actions by going back to him." I said firmly, unwilling to change my mind.
"But he always looks at you like you're continuously killing his puppy, Leila." Jasmine mentioned, also adding herself to the conversation. "He doesn't have a puppy. He has a snake named Buddy." I blurted in correction, face palming directly after. Why did I say that?
Noah snorted, amusement twinkling in his eyes. "Interesting." He remarked. "But regardless, you should still talk to him. He really does look at you all the time. Maybe I was wrong about him." He admitted reluctantly, sighing. It must've really hurt his ego to admit that he could have been wrong about something, especially Reed. He hated Reed, maybe even more than he hated to admit that he was wrong. "I don't care!" I insisted, knowing I was lying. "Reed should've thought about that before he made the decision to be a conscious asshat." I huffed, glaring at him.
Elias hid a smile, like he didn't want to smile at me while I was insulting someone. He really was too nice to everyone. "But you talked to him on the phone. Why would you do that if you didn't want...something?" Noah pointed out, staring at me quizzically. I stared at him, silently daring him to say what I thought he was trying to. He didn't. "Because I wanted answers, you idiot." I muttered, absentmindedly bouncing my leg. He rolled his eyes, slouching into the table more as he stared at me. "Well, I hope you still have answers that you want because he's coming towards the table." He mentioned.
His words startled me, my head snapping up to look behind me as his gaze diverted from me. "What the fuck?!" I hissed, seeing that he wasn't joking. Reed's eyes landed on mine, a look of stubborn determination on his face that made my heart kick up into the back of my throat. "No. Nope, not happening." I snapped, quickly standing up.
I gathered all of my things, keeping my gaze on Reed to make sure I knew how close he was. When he started getting closer I panicked, not even bothering to push in my chair before I bolted away from the table, heading the opposite direction. I didn't want to talk to him or even be near him. He didn't scare me anymore, but I still didn't want to talk to him.
I raced out into the empty hall, glancing over my shoulder to see if maybe I'd been able to lose him. I squealed in panic when I saw he was still following after me, shoving through groups of people as if they were purposefully trying to prevent him from getting to me. By that, I mean he was shoving through them as if he had the intent of breaking them into pieces. Maybe I would have found that amusing if it weren't Reed, and if he weren't chasing me. I booked it down the hall, my backpack thudding against my back as I realized I had no idea where I was going. I ran into the girls bathroom and hid in a bathroom stall, locking the stall door.
Only moments after, the bathroom door pushed open so hard that it hit against the bathroom wall, causing me to jolt at the loud noise. "Leila." Reed said my name, his voice soft. I inhaled sharply, getting down and carefully shimmying underneath the wall that separated my stall from the one beside mine. I saw Reed's feet outside of the locked stall that I had just been in and I stood up, feeling gross for having just crawled on the bathroom floor.
"I just want to talk to you." He whined, and I blinked in surprise when he didn't even look beneath the stall door before he began slipping underneath it. I slammed the door open to the stall I was in, hearing him curse in frustration as he realized that I had tricked him. "Damn it, Leila!" He hissed, as if annoyed. Even then, he didn't sound mad.
I opened the bathroom door and hurried down the hall, quickly turning into another hall before he could get out of the bathroom and see where it was that I had gone to. I calmed down, thinking it was safe enough now that I didn't have to run anymore. I thought I had lost him. I sighed softly, slowing down as I walked down the hallway instead of running. I blew out a breath of relief, at first planning on circling back around the opposite way that I had come so that I could go back to the cafeteria.
However, my plans were changed when footsteps suddenly marched up right behind me, causing me to turn around in confusion. My eyes landed on Reed, stood no more than three feet away from me with his dark eyes locked onto me. "I just want to talk to you, Leila." He said quietly, but I only stared back at him. "No." I said flatly, turning around and beginning to speed walk in the opposite direction.
The faster I walked, the faster he walked, and before I knew it, I heard him break into a run first. I kicked my legs into motion, forcing myself to turn to run down the hallway. I contemplated going to the cafeteria, but I didn't see any point in that. He'd just follow me there and get me. Hell, Noah might've even helped him to get me, with the way he'd been encouraging me to talk to him.
When I turned onto a new hall, I ducked into the nearest classroom I could find that had its door unlocked, quietly closing it behind me. I absolutely refused to speak to him. I'd hide in here for the rest of the day, if I really had to. I didn't want to, of course, but I would if I needed to. I stayed quiet, able to hear footsteps that I could only assume were his nearing the door. I furrowed my brows, hearing a frustrated groan leave his lips as I tucked my hair behind my ear. Did he know I was in here? I listened closely, biting my lip nervously as the sound of his footsteps walked further away before nearing again. Still, he never came over to even touch the doorknob of the room I was in.
Eventually, the sound of his footsteps walked away and I didn't hear them come back, but I waited just a little longer just to be sure. I knew Reed liked to play stupid games in which he most often won. I just didn't know if this was one of them, so I figured it'd be better to play it safe.
When I was sure he wasn't around, waiting for me to come out so he could get me, I slowly and quietly pulled open the door. Okay, so I wasn't completely sure. Just kind of, but that was good enough for me. I stepped out, adjusting my backpack as I lightly shut the classroom door and glanced up and down the hallway. It was empty, aside from me, thankfully. "Oh, thank god." I whispered to myself.
I slowly began down the hall, tip toeing on my feet as if Reed were going to jump out from nowhere or drop out of the ceiling to force me into talking to him. When I reached the end of the hall and still found no sign of him, I relaxed more and headed towards the cafeteria, though not to go inside. I spotted the school doors, hurrying towards them and shoving them open. A gust of cold air blew inside, blowing my hair back as I left the school and let the doors swing shut again.
I began a walk home, not caring that the school day was not yet over. I didn't feel like staying there for the rest of the day, not while knowing that Reed was seeking me out so he could talk to me. I didn't want to talk to him and he couldn't do that if I wasn't there.