Ravaged Hearts

Chapter 4

Stella

No one till now has enlightened me with the explanation of what happened last weekend in my pretty much abandoned Art Gallery while the lights were out. 

Precisely, not even my best friend, who's been radio silent since then. 

Not to mention she broke down in my arms after getting out of there that evening. Raelynn hardly ever goes through such type of emotional wrecks.

"I'm alright, it's just... I need some space and that day, uh, I was just not feeling okay about everything, and the others, you know?" She'd been saying that every time I asked her with that so called smile. The way she's been addressing Jacob and Aiden as 'the others' and not their names or any insults scares me, I'm not sure why.

She'd even rejected my suggestion, more like request to walk to school together. I went to pick her up with my car nevertheless but Mrs. Skylar said she'd left already about 20 minutes ago. Since when does she go to school THAT early? No one is at school around that time. Mrs. Skylar even told me to keep an eye on her. Even she said Rae had been acting weird and all at home. So I'm not the only one who's noticed. All in all, I'm concerned.

As I reach our campus, I quickly make my way towards our class, hurriedly putting in all the necessary things in my bag from the locker.

And she's making her study notes, as usual. I let out a sigh of relief and make my way towards her. She beams a smile at me when she notices. Maybe she's alright now. Or maybe not, she isn't supposed to smile like that normally- never mind maybe I'm just over-thinking.

"You good?" I ask casually and she convincingly nods "Yep, all good, you know, the Chemistry mock test will be up soon, so yeah... noting down everything," she speaks up, finally, much to my relief. Even the upcoming Chemistry exam feels like a good thing right now. "Oh right, well, do help me with the notes, Rae," I wink at her and both of us laugh. I peak at the next row from the corner of my eyes: Jacob and Aiden are laughing and joking with their friends like their life depends on it. Assholes. I turn back to go to my desk to keep the bag and-

What. The. Fuck.

My desk is in a huge mess. As if there was a huge storm that struck my desk and my desk only. And my books- MY BOOKS! Someone has scribbled over some pages of my copy of 'Iron Flame' and my text books- God, who has done this?! I quickly pull out the previously locked drawer, whose lock has been broken by the culprit. And I'm met with void.

My damn journal.

"Rae?! Did you see who did this?!" I yell in a voice full of rage; not at her, at the person who made this mess. She glances at my table and looks away immediately. "You... know who did this, Stell," She mumbles out. Why is she not even uttering their name? And I can see it written all over her face: fear.

I stomp away and stand face to face with Jacob, who's sitting on his desk, living his life. "You did that?!" I snap at Jacob, to which, I get back a smug reaction from him. He raises his eyebrows, looks at my desk and then at me, "And who told you that I did that?" I'm so furious right now that maybe I can also break his nose right now and scoop his eyes out. But I resist the urge. 

"No one. Who else could it be if not you, your Highness? May I know?" I mock at him and roll my eyes. "Well, do you have any proof that I did it? Any witness?" he continues speaking back, keeping his cool. I almost slip my tongue and say Raelynn saw, but I choose other wise. 

Because I cannot help but notice the way Aiden, sitting on the seat next to Jacob, is glaring at Raelynn as if he could kill her any second now. And Rae, still noting down for the upcoming exam, also has her hand in her hair, her fingers continuously brushing through the chocolate brown strands of hair, making it obvious that she is hiding her face, herself, from someone... from Aiden.