when the wind cries

Against Better Judgement

Zo squeezed between a pair of teens sucking face before throwing her weight into the double doors leading outside. She felt like she was drowning - ears and lungs full of water. Her vision was hazy and she struggled to take a breath as she broke through her classmates and made it outside. She tried breathing in through her nose, lips in a tight line as she rushed across the grounds to the rear parking lot.

It all felt like some sort of cruel joke being played on her. As was much in her life in general.

She had dreamed about Grayson's death twice now, and now she was stuck partnered with him on a stupid assignment. He would be delving into her personal life, as if enough of it wasn't out there for display already. She couldn't look at him without seeing the life leave from his eyes as his soul surrendered to deaths cold hand.

She pretended not to hear someone calling her name as she neared her truck, stepping over a small concrete divider. She tried to contain a sigh when she noticed that Neal and crew where crowded around his truck and her own. And here she thought she would make it out of here without any further issues today.

She was tugged back sharply by her bookbag and stumbled until a hand grasped her by her right upper arm.

"Woah! Sorry Zo, I didn't think I pulled you that hard. I've been chasing you all the way across the building... Did you not hear me calling for you?" She blinked hard to dispel the vision of Grayson's haunted eyes from her dreams as she stared at him in real time, this version of him very much alive and looking upset, eyebrows furrowed.

She shrugged hard and tried to dispel his hand from her arm. "M' sorry, me. I guess I was lost in my own head again." It was a weak, but viable excuse. He wouldn't let go, if anything the pressure of his grip increasing and he leaned closer, the smell of sandalwood taunting her.

"Are you all right? Macy mentioned that sometimes you space out.."

Does this family not know the meaning of boundaries? 

A shout from behind them, followed by the sound of sneakers slapping on pavement makes Zo wince. Great, here we go with these coo-yans again...

She tossed a look over her shoulder and saw Neal staring at where Grayson's hand held on tightly to her arm. If Grayson noticed it didn't bother him as he still wouldn't let go, his grip much like a vice. 

Neal raised an eyebrow, "Am I interrupting something here?"

Zo shook her head with a croaked, "No", still trying to pull away from Grayson, who just wouldn't let go. What was his deal?

Grayson seemed to stand taller when he finally address Neal with a sharp. "What? Haven't you harassed her enough today?"

Neal, seemingly caught off guard, sneered back at the pair. "What's your deal man? You got a hard on for her?" Grayson let go of her, finally, and stepped up toe to toe with Neal - then an argument ensued.

It was the perfect distraction for her to get away, so she did, sliding around the two of them and any on- lookers. She tried to ignore the prickling sensation in the back of her eyes.

Zo, didn't even bother putting her seat- belt on before she was cranking the truck and shifting into reverse, backing away from the fighting boys. Grayson seemed to notice that she was leaving and she diverted her gaze from his hurt expression. How the hell was she going to deal with this the rest of the year? Actually, how was she going to deal with this until Grayson showed up dead.

She didn't even try to stop the tears this time..

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