Worth Fighting For | Book #1

Chapter 15

It had barely been over a week since the twins were born.

And I was already at the breaking point of wanting to move out and spend the rest of the time for my parents to get back, elsewhere. The twins had kept the whole house up every night, except for James, who seemed to worryingly sleep through it all. I mean, they were cute at first, but after the first night of having them home, it had already worn off with them screaming at four in the morning.

Both Tom and I had agreed to take it in turns with Sarah and Jake to get up in the night, which was now a huge mistake when I look back on it. It was made even more difficult when one baby would begin to cry and the other would follow along like a game of copycat.

But what had made the situation ten times worse is that I was combining my detrimental lack of sleep with glaring back into Josh's eyes in the cafeteria every day, resulting in my life becoming much more exhausting than it should've been.

Thankfully, I'd avoided any interaction in the form of conversation with him. Just the thought of what he had said to me at Henry's still managed to build up a secondary anger inside of me and I had already given up on my mission for an apology seeing as I didn't plan on speaking to him.

I couldn't help but giggle at the fact that Valentina had been a little too inviting to sit at a table with Tyler, Harvey and Josh, but what was now an everyday occurrence at lunch, she would expel another reason for why Harvey was a "huge jerk" and shouldn't deserve to defend himself for what he had done to her. At this point, the topic of their history had become rather boring and repetitious as each day went by.

My head was currently buried under my arms with the oversized sweatshirt proving a decent blanket for my much-needed sleep. "Twins still keeping you up?" Valentina asked as she walked into our shared English class and pulled up the seat beside me. Thankfully, we'd chosen seats in the back at the beginning of the semester, giving us a great hiding spot from the front of the class.

I nodded beneath my cover before lifting my eyes forwards as the teacher began speaking. The last thing I needed was to be caught sleeping through class, as embarrassing as that would be. "It's only for one more night until my parents get back." I defended as my eyes continued to grow heavy with the weight of holding my head up in my hands.

However, as the class started, I felt my mind begin to switch off as my head slipped back down against my sweatshirt, out of view of the teacher.

"Miss James?" The voice sounded a little too loudly in my ear and I immediately pulled myself up, not having realised I'd snoozed for longer than I'd thought. Our teacher was now glaring down at me, his dark beard being clearly recognisable from my line of vision. Valentina was suppressing a giggle beside me whilst I internally scowled at the fact that she hadn't even attempted to wake me. "If you'd rather catch up on your sleep, then I suggest you do that down the hall in detention." His voice was loud and angered as he pointed his finger towards the door.

My cheeks flamed with the attention I had gathered around me from the class and the small chorus of laughs that had sounded. But it wasn't until I was actually walking towards the room did my stomach twist with the sinking feeling of who I would encounter once I was in there. My fingertips gripped tightly onto the handle of the door before I took a few deep breaths and pushed it open, welcoming whatever was inside to swallow me whole.

However, when my eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room, it was barely filled with just around six students, most being people I'd see come here by choice and not by force. But there was one haunting face that seemed to send a chill through to the back of my arms. And I had no choice than to lower my head completely when closing the door behind me.