GUN IN MY HAND

CHAPTER 15: RAGING STORM

Today, in the header, we have the song but also a beautiful cover made by the talented gem @brokenxlilxarcher Thank you so much, my friend! So this chapter is dedicated to you 😘💕🤩

'You cut out a piece of me, and now I bleed internally

Left here without you, without you

And it hurts for me to think about what life could possibly be like

Without you, without you'

Strongs gusts echoing in whistlings at every corner, dark clouds going in every direction, and that electric heaviness, a storm was brewing, and not only in me.

The scenery was the same behind the window, though no one could predict when the first thunder would echo outside. Would it wait for the lunch break?

As the leaves jiggled faster above the shades of purple and indigo, and the familiar bell made me jump, I concluded everything would happen at lunchtime.

"Miss Duncan, can I have a word?"

I lifted my gaze to the man, who was neatly gathering sheets and tapping them on his wooden desk, the great quantity of paper making the sound echo almost as much as the screeching of chairs and chatters around, while I shoved my notebooks and pencil case in my bag.

I winced at my watch as I walked towards the small dais. Yet I couldn't decline a teacher's call, even if my stomach was twisting as Mr. Alexanders finished to tuck all the papers in a folder, and my fingers were itching to shuffle the sheets like the wind in the trees outside.

"What is it?" I pressed politely instead.

"I wanted to talk to you about the letter."

My eyebrows furrowed as the words 'dear DD' in a familiar handwriting flashed before my eyes, and he surely noticed it, as he added,

"The recommendation letter."

"Oh, this, yes, um..." My eyes pinched closed as I went back through the whirlwind of last week in search of this memory, yet it must have got lost with everything. "I didn't really get the opportunity to talk to my parents about it." I averted my eyes down as much because of the last memory I had as because of the sigh Mr. Alexanders let out.

"The meeting for the late admissions is next week, so if you want my recommendation letter, you have to give me an answer rapidly."

Next week, how could I have forgotten the deadline I'd so carefully written? Maybe because the notebook and all the arguments I'd prepared for my parents were somewhere in the pile inside my closet, like everything with Spencer's mark.

"If you really want to study astronomy?"

I was brought back to the conversation with Mr. Alexanders's lifted eyebrow gauging me.

"Yes, yes, of course! It's my dream. I've always loved astronomy," I rushed the words before he'd even finished his question. "And I've prepared everything, it's just– I'll talk to them today." I shook away the blur of last week with a confident nod.

"Good, because I believe you really have a great potential, Miss Duncan." He offered me a small smile, which was rare on his bony features, and although I was used to compliments from my teachers, this one hit differently, filling my chest with belief.