Across From Me

Twenty Seven

Beth didn't get much sleep that night.

Her mind raced with every new revelation. How long had Violet been smoking? How did Ezekiel and Clementine know each other? Why did they seem to hate each other so much? Every possible answer only led to a billion more questions. Elizabeth was driving herself crazy trying to solve it.

As this was happening, the schoolwork was getting more heavy in preparation for mid-semester tests. Beth had little free time in the day to let it occupy her mind and yet it did. Clementine did not contact her, nor did Beth try to. Beth always tried to give Clementine space, especially with what Clementine had said yesterday.

But Beth couldn't help but feel a little annoyed, mostly because she felt like she deserved a bit of an explanation for the past few weeks of silence. She had been patient, hadn't she?

Clementine was avoiding Beth now. Beth noticed she could barely even look her in the eyes when the two of them passed by each other in their third period. Violet was also trying not to talk to beth. They hadn't talked since last night and the air hung heavy with awkwardness.

Beth so badly wanted to trust Violet, trust that she knew what she was doing. But something about Violet was that she was never good at knowing her limits, and Beth knew one day it could get her killed. So Beth worried over her constantly, despite her being the younger sister. Beth struggled with the idea of telling her mother. She could only imagine the reaction to such a thing, it scared her so much her heart dropped to her stomach. She loved her sister. She didn't know what to do.

Beth really tried at the end of the class to talk to Clementine. She knew that both of them needed to confront what happened, but her hands shook, and she felt a feeling she hadn't felt in a long time. She was very nervous. In all aspects of her life, middle school was coming back to haunt her once more, and she hated every part of it.

Beth walked up to Clementine, who looked as put together as Beth felt, and looked her in the eyes. Clementine's lack of expression almost made Beth want to walk away, but she continued, "Hey, can we talk?" Beth asked.

Clementine stared into Beth's eyes, little to no emotion or reaction on her face. She shrugged, and without a word, she walked away.

Beth stared in confusion as Clementine left. First, it was the sinking feeling of shock that slowly let over you like a blanket, and then it was horror, confusion, and wonder. She didn't know what warranted that sort of reaction.

And then came the hurt.

Beth didn't have time to think, she didn't have time to ask about it. Beth had worked the entire rest of the day, and maybe that was to distract herself. Maybe she wanted to try and forget what happened. But it still tried to come back to her, the image of what happened trying to materialize in her brain before she pushed it away again to focus on her schoolwork. Each problem she solved, each paragraph she wrote, she could feel herself start to slip away.

Her sister always said she was good at forgetting her problems when she was absorbed in work.

Beth had agreed to help her English teacher in the library after school. This wasn't rare for her to do. She enjoyed doing it, but today was not a good day. Beth was dragging her feet after her last period, but she was the type of student to never back out of anything, no matter how bad she felt or how tired she was.

There were a few other people who also helped after school, and exactly two of them she dreaded seeing. The two of them, she now knew, had a sour history with Clementine and that is exactly what made her dread going. Adrianne and Ezekiel.

Before she ever learned who Adrianne was from Celine, Adrianne never stuck out in her mind. She was aware she helped out at the library, and that Beth never had a problem with her. Until she learned about what happened from Clementine, that sort of ruined it for her. She couldn't even imagine what today was going to be like since she had witnessed the argument last night. Beth hoped the both of them wouldn't be there today.