Between Love And Hate

Chapter Three

Raven

For two weeks, we tried our best to work together on the project, but it ended up with us almost killing each other.

I tried so hard to be friendly, refused the urge to strangle her so many times. I even tried to smile a genuine smile. But it wasn't working. We'd fought countless times these two weeks.

I was at the pizza place not far from school, and I only ever went there with Kat or our clique. But not today, Kat had gone home long ago, and I was waiting for Janelle.

It was almost half an hour when she walked through the door, crunching gum and pounding her boots as she walked—the first hint of a bad day.

I instantly felt a sudden need to puke. No, I wasn't disgusted by her or anything like that. I just needed to get rid of this one butterfly that fluttered in my stomach.

"Hey! I'm sorry bout being late. I had to get something. It was an emergency." she smiled, and as if to make matters worse than before, another butterfly was dancing around...

"Doesn't matter anymore." I shrugged my shoulders,

"I don't want to be stuck with you for the rest of senior year, and I know you don't want the same. But there's one thing stopping us from being at peace with each other,"

She stared at me, eyes locked with mine. Those eyes- Damn! I sucked air through my teeth,

"and that thing is our past."

I waited a few minutes after she'd started laughing. I didn't know, and I couldn't tell if her laugh resulted from nervousness.

I wiped my sweaty palms on my skinny jean. When she was done laughing, she began talking.

"You and I know very well that won't work. Our past is the reason why we hate each other so much."

I stared at her for a complete three minutes before returning my eyes to my project work, and we'd only made progress on the research part.

"It could be just fine. We could be frenemies until our project work is done. Our grades are in our hands, and we have to work together."

She nodded her head, agreeing with me. But something was wrong with her.

"Ya'know, I never wanted to be enemies with you or anything of that sort. But you just suddenly hated me. I don't even get why you hate me."

I stared at her again, shrugging this time. "You hated me as much. So, I don't get why I should believe you."

She looked down at her hands,

"you remember? Years ago, when we were just kids, we met at the children's park. I only wanted to say hi. I just wanted to be friends. I saw you headed for that teddy bear, so I followed. I figured you'd talk to me if we both agreed on playing with the teddy. That didn't happen, and we ended up pulling on both his legs until he was ripped into two. I wanted to apologize, but I couldn't. And no matter how many times I tried to say sorry at school or the park, you ignored me."

I was taken aback. I didn't expect this much from her. I'd never thought of how she'd felt.

She looked at me, her eyes were sad, and I instantly felt guilty of a crime I wasn't sure if I had committed.

She left seconds later. And for the first time since I was born, I felt a knot deep in my stomach. She could have said goodbye, at least.