Taunt

Chapter 8- Taunting Partings

[] A M E L I A []

"Poor, poor, Amelia. Poor and so, so pathetic," he whispered. "Don't worry. I won't do anything. Not for now at least."

For now.

He said he wouldn't do anything for now.

That thought caused a storm within me.

Suddenly, it was as if I got my voice back. Without thinking twice, a loud screech escaped my lips.

In a flash, the hand that was caressing my hair was ripped away from my face. Then I heard the sound of retreating footsteps.

But I didn't feel it. I didn't feel how and when it happened. All I knew was that I was shaking to the point where I couldn't feel anything anymore. I don't even know if I stopped screaming or not.

I just wanted to block it all out.

I needed to block it all out.

Suddenly, a rough shake jerked me out of my reverie. I shoved away whoever was gripping my shoulder and jolted upwards.

I feverently looked around me, but I saw no signs of him. I continued searching, hoping I could catch a glimpse of him in the shadows somewhere, but it was useless.

It's like he was never there.

But suddenly, another sound caught my attention instead. I looked to my side where the noise came from, and a gasp escaped my lips as I saw someone lying on the ground beside me, groaning.

It was too dark for me to make out a face, but I could still see that it was a young male who had made the noise. He was sitting upright, with a hand behind him on the ground, as if he fell back onto it. He was wiping something away from his lips and it took me a moment to realize it was blood. It took me another moment to realize that he was probably the one who was trying to shake me out of whatever void I had gotten myself into, and I just swatted him away.

I slowly reached out to him and he suddenly looked up at my gesture. The light illuminated over him, finally revealing the person that was hiding under the hood.

A gasp escaped my lips as I saw that it was Leo.

We stared at each other for the longest time, my hand still hanging in the air, ready to reach out for him. He stared at me with an explainable expression and I found myself lowering my hand. I looked away from him and licked my dry lips.

I quickly wiped away at my face, trying to get it to be as clean as possible, then I slowly gathered my backpack and everything that had fallen out of it. I stood up as quickly as I could, trying to avoid Leo's gaze on me. He got up from his spot when I did, and that's when I finally gathered the courage to face him.

"What are you doing here?" I mumbled, looking down to my feet.

"I was just in class," he said.

I nodded.

"I'm sorry about your-" I said, pointing to his lip.

To my complete surprise, he smirked.

"Don't worry about it. I'm surprised you got it in you," he said, looking down to my scrawny arms.

I rubbed them uncomfortably out of instinct.

"Thanks," I mumbled, embarrassed about what had just happened.

Leo didn't say anything. Curious, I looked up to him.

His eyes had an intense emotion, one that had me furrowing my eyebrows in confusion. Suddenly, he looked away and started walking away. Surprised, I stared after his retreating back.