The Heartthrob Won't Leave

Chapter Twenty-Nine (New Chapters)

She walked into the school building, still exhausted. She chose baggy clothes that day, with her backpack on her back and her winter coat. She could feel the layer of thick foundation around her eye, hiding the black eye underneath. Luckily there was only the slightest bit of swelling left, barely noticeable. Bridgett had put the makeup around her eye that morning, insisting she was good at it from the multiple times in her past she had to do the same thing. And Blake, looking in the mirror, had to admit that Bridgett was right. It was hardly noticeable at all, but that didn't stop it from feeling strange.

"See ya later!" Bridgett waved her as she left down the hall. Blake realized why she had recognized Bridgett when she had first saw her. Bridgett actually went to her school, but was in the grade above her. Blake had seen her in the halls, but had never talked to her before.

She just walked down the hall towards her locker, unlocking it and placing her bag inside. Suddenly, she was being huddled from behind, and couldn't help but let out a small laugh, feeling Mikayla's grip tighten on her back.

"You know, I need to go to class, right?" Blake asked, trying to shake her off with amusement

"I'm never letting you go again! Ever!" Mikayla responded "You're not allowed to be sick! Ever!" Blake was momentarily confused by her words, but noticed Jace from the corner of her eye at his locker. Their eyes held only a few moments, with a kind of understanding between them. She was grateful he hadn't gone around blurting to the world what had actually happened that had made her absent from school the day before. Footsteps thundered down the hall and she turned, knowing who it was already. Jane slammed the door of her locker shut in front of her, forcing Blake to face her.

"How dare you get sick and ditch us!" She exclaimed, looking angry

"I was-was-" Blake watched as she suddenly smiled.

"Dogpile!" Blake was suddenly rusted to the ground, with the crushing weight of two people on top of her, shoving her cheek further into the floor.

"Oh god" she could hardly breathe, but couldn't help but be happy. She had missed them so much, even if it was only a day.

"Sweet Sweet payback" Mikayla whispered into her ear, sounding sinister.

"Can I join?" She already heard the high heel clicks across the floor from Stella, and the weight piled on even worse on her lungs when the weight of a third person was added, crushing her.

"This is torture!" Blake called, breathless

"Good!" Jane yelled back "Janet! We need one more!" She couldn't even see where Janet was, she couldn't move at all.

"I will not, as I am not an imbecile" Janet responded to her right. The bell rang and she let out a breath of relief. They dispersed, and Blake found herself settling in history class, letting out a soft sigh. Lucian wasn't in this class, but the next class was a different story. She wasn't sure how she was going to face him at all after what happened between them. But, she suddenly felt foolish. She had no idea why he had been so upset in the first place, claiming that she liked him, and was so upset when she denied it despite that being a blatant lie. It wasn't like he liked her, that was impossible, no one ever liked her. Sometimes his behavior had the possibility of that being the case, but people acted against their true feelings all the time. It was ridiculous to think he could like her, impossible on every level imaginable. She was Blakelyn Elizabeth Collins, and no one liked Blakelyn Elizabeth Collins, even if they acted like they did. She concluded she would go back to normal, in a way, nothing had changed at all anyways. Why should she stress about something so ridiculous? She'd simply go back to the way her life was before he ever barged in, to begin with, that wasn't so hard.

So, when she walked into English class, she settled in her chair silent like she always was, opening her binder and preparing her books. She could feel his eyes, but she didn't look up, she was probably mistaken anyways. There was no point in indulging in pointless fantasy.

"Everyone!" the teacher called, getting her attention, she lifted her head "I reviewed your name slips for the project and have chosen your partners the best I could" Blake was suddenly confused, she hadn't heard anything about a project. But, concluded they must have discussed it the day before when she wasn't there. Odds are she would be by herself anyways because nobody picked her, she had no friends in this class so it was inevitable. It had happened many times before, and it would happen again. He started listing out the partners, and she just blocked it out, until she heard her own name suddenly.

"Blake and Lucian" her heart stopped for just a moment, looking up at the teacher with eyes of disbelief. He didn't look at her or anything, but that didn't stop her from staring at him like he had just spoken some alien sermon. Fuck. She had no idea how this was possible. If the partners had been picked through preference slips, how had this happened?!

"Get with your partners and discuss your topics" Mr. L called, and the room startled to bustle. Her thoughts reminded her of the time she was in that gymnasium the day that had done that dance class. Wishing she could just melt into the floor and disappear. Maybe he'll find someone else. It's not like the teacher actually kept track of these things. So, she sat there, not moving, hoping she could chameleon blend, but yet again to no avail when she heard the chair next to her scrape across the floor, and when he sat down next to her, dropping his books next to hers. She didn't move, she didn't even flinch, and she certainly didn't look at him. It was as if all her thoughts in the previous class about acting like normal and not caring just blew away into the air and she was stuck as a slightly shaking, little prey item. She noticed when he pushed the piece of paper in front of her, into her sight line. It was the information sheet for the project. So took it wordlessly, reading over the word. It was about creating an English paper based on a battle of some sort in the past of North America. She suspected she should say something, anything, to try and ease the tension of the moment.

"I thought these p-partners were chosen by who p-people p-picked" she joked gently, weakly if anything.

"They were" he didn't exactly sound mad or upset to her surprise, just kind of neutral. "I picked you" her heart jumped in her chest, and her hands started to shake, gripping the paper tighter as she tried to ignore the implications of his words and focus on reading the words on the paper, but she had been reading the same line like six times and still wasn't taking anything in.

"Did you have any ideas for the t-topic?" she tried to redirect the conversation, looking up at him slightly.

"I was thinking something easy, like The Battle of Vimy Ridge" he muttered beside her

"That's fine" she just didn't want to talk anymore. They had picked their topic, doesn't that mean he could go back to his own desk and leave her to recollect herself? He had no more reason to talk to her, right? They could just do different parts of the assignment apart and could re-convene at the end to blend them together.

"I'll ask the teacher if we can go to the library to start researching" her eyes widened. Wait, what? He wanted to go somewhere else with her, that thought had her panicking. He didn't even wait for her to respond before he got up and left, heading for the teacher's desk. This is too much, I need to go. Her hands shook as she collected her things, closing her binder and stacking her books. She glanced at the classroom door, wondering if she could escape before he came back maybe. Her mind was just in a frenzy. There was nothing more that she wanted than to spend time with him, the person she liked more than anyone else she ever had, but being around him was just so stressful, it had her anxiety flying all over the place.