"YOU LOOK SO TERRIBLE," I make a move to stand, after looking around to ensure I'm alone, then cautiously, slowly, I swipe my hands over his forehead to sweep his honey coloured hair out of his face. "Like totally bad, it's unbelievable," I laugh, noticing how his hair slicked back makes him look more like Tieri than I could ever think possible.
"But listen," I whisper, taking his right hand and clutching it tightly in both of mine, "Miss Faren misses you. Nobody's there in Geography to be a smartass and answer all the questions – that's your job and sadly, we're not in eager to steal what's yours."
The room is silent, nothing but the staccato beeping of the heart monitor and my erratic breathing sound.
"And Josh and Darcy are over," I continue, "Can you believe it? After all these months, Josh just said he couldn't do it anymore. This is Elle's only time to jump back in there, don't you think? I know you think so too, you don't need to say anything. Everything's just shifted off its axis since you – you know..." I trail off, not wanting to say anything that'd make me cry again.
"I got an A in Economics, Mr Logan was so shocked when he handed me the test paper back. Missy got the next highest but she got a 73," I look back at his face, and let my eyes take in the familiarity of his features, hoping they'd calm me down the way the always have.
It is his eyes.
His big, blue eyes and his warm smile are what can calm me down in no time because they are just so soft and beautiful, but that's what's missing in this scene and I almost break down again.
"You're hot gossip in school and since I'm your best friend, I supposedly 'know all the dets' about your suicide attempt but 'I don't want to share'," I regurgitate the words that Amanda Heffner had thrown at me in Gym class, "but when I told her I didn't know she called me a lot of names." I laugh remembering how the red-haired girl had freaked out and flipped her long hair in my face as payback.
"But," I'm back to whispering and leaning closer to his right ear, "if someone asks me if I think you tried to kill yourself – which I doubt they would – I'd tell them no. There's absolutely no way that I'd ever believe you'd try to kill yourself."
"Someone tried to kill me and I think that same person tried to kill you, but what I don't understand is why I would be a target but I – I promise you Charlie, I'm going to find out who did this to you and me," I plant my lips on his pale skin and kiss it gently, "I'll make sure I find out because you mean a lot to me Charlie Armanio, you're everything to me."
"You have," I breathe out shakily as I reach into my backpack to pick out the orange letter that Jess ad given me earlier. It's happened to slip to the absolute bottom of my backpack because of all the running I had done from the hospital car park to the reception and to pull it out, I end up having to unpack everything in my bag. "You have a letter from an admirer. Jessica Harthow wants to tell you how much you mean to her," I push my cropped hair back and rip open the top of the envelop. "I really thought that you'd be reading this yourself."
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