𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘀 ━━ 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗵𝘂𝗱𝘀𝗼𝗻

five. delia

WHEN TWO SHATTERED HEARTS!
( five.     you're the reason — calum scott )

━

the next thirty minutes before english were dry. i sat in the library working on my advanced physics project in the peace and quiet. layton had first block off every other day so, unfortunately for me, i sat replaying the mornings events in my head over and over again, in attempts to figure out what i was feeling.

being the new student this year, i had many warnings about chase hudson and his crowd. i should've said no when he offered the ride. i should've said no when he offered a playboy sweatshirt. he was too proud of himself, giving me a sweatshirt everyone knew was his. i was new, yes, but it was spring, i had enough experience here and enough knowledge to know this was apart of his plan to make the entire female student body fall.

and it was working.

the first warning bell rang, informing me that i had five minutes to get to class. english was on the second floor, so i quickly made my way to my class.

i sat in my seat only a few seconds before the tardy bell rang. letting out a sigh of relief, i couldn't stop myself from scanning the room to see if chase was here on time. not to anyone's surprise, he wasn't seated in a desk. i opened my current book, The Great Gatsby, which i read for fun two years ago, and scanned the pages as my teacher rambled on about the new unit and project we were starting after break.

"this project will take us to the end of the year," her old voice bore me, but caught my attention at the same time. i was still fairly new to public school, but i had never heard of ten week long projects, not including spring break which was next week. "it will be done in partners and the project will be split up into four sections. a poem analysis essay, a presentation over the poem, a modern short story inspired by the poem, and an original."

the class groaned around me in disappointment, but i couldn't hide my excitement. i absolutely adored all poems and was constantly writing my own when i was bored in class. i totally disregarded the fact that it was a project done in pairs because with all of our recent projects, i had convinced the teacher to let me tackle it individually.

the teacher had instructed us to come see her after class for our partners -or in my case convince her to let me work alone- and she finished the lesson an hour later, giving us five minutes of silence before the bell rang.

each block was an hour and a half, giving us four classes and lunch in the day. We had separate classes every other day, splitting our schedule into 'A' and 'B' days. I was thankful that today was friday and next week was spring break, giving me the perfect amount of days to get over the feelings that had sprouted inside me.

The bell screamed through the hallways and the yellow classroom and the class rushed to her desk, in hope of getting out of class so they wouldn't be tardy to the next. After about five kids, i stood at the desk with my speech that i had been preparing ready.

"Hi mrs. dean. I was wondering since i've always worked individually on projects that i could do the same for this one. I see myself work best when i am alone, probably because i've been homeschooled most of my life. So if you would-"

"Miss smith i see where you are coming from and i do believe that you could excel at this project working alone. Although, this project is a lengthy one and was built around the fact that it will be done in partners." my heart dropped as i thought of ways i could save myself from the inevitable truth.

"But-" i started

"You will be partnering with Chase Hudson. Have a good spring break"

My stomach jolted inside of me, filled with mixed emotions i couldn't control. I wasn't upset when chase didn't show up to class, but i did want to see his face. I knew there was no way i was going to be able to get this project finished being distracted by him and my feelings, but if i didn't let chase help me, it would show. Why did he take advanced english if he didnt show up to class that much anyway?

My next class, advanced writing, went by in a blur. I shuffled to the cafeteria for lunch, layton not in sight. I took a seat at our usual table in the corner, which was oddly empty. Laytons calc class was right by the cafeteria just down the hall. I knew she was here today because of the text she sent me about the guy she sits next to in calc who fell asleep on her shoulder. There hadn't been a single day that i got to lunch before her.

Three minutes later, layton took a seat next to me, causing me to jump and turn my attention away from my phone. "Where were you?" i asked and she pulled her lunch out of her backpack.

"Um, nowhere. Just got caught up in calc. You know how my class is." her voice sounded like one that belonged to a disney princess, and she hid her lie pretty well behind a forced laugh. I knew she wasn't being truthful, but i didn't push it. It was probably something irrelevant anyway.

She tucked a black strand of hair behind her ear as she noticed my sweatshirt. "Is that yours?" she questioned, cocking her head to the side and gesturing towards chases sweatshirt. I took a sip of water, quickly skimming my mind for a good excuse.

"Yeah, um, its delias, actually. You know how she was." i lied, i hated uses the my dead sister card, but it always stopped a conversation i didn't want to have.

I knew layton since i was eleven when i first moved to california. Growing up in multiple states, i always attended private schools, but when i moved to california, after the accident, i was homeschooled.

Delia was the polar opposite than me. She had brunette hair and a nose piercing, she liked to party and hang out with her boyfriend. She had sweatshirts similar to the one i was wearing now and she dressed skimpier on the weekends. Given she earned those traits from my parents, i was the odd kid out. I wore more modest clothing and liked to keep myself clean cut, it masked the fact that my life around me was a mess.

My parents were the exact same in their highschool years so they were more laid back when it came to Delias behavior. she was six years older than me, given my parents claim she was a mistake, and a junior when she was victim to a drunk driving accident the summer before we were supposed to start our first year at public school. She would've been a junior like i am now.

we were not super close but i did miss her a lot the year following. After her death, my mom started to drink a lot and ended up moving out two years following. I lived with my dad, but he worked too much for me to see him during the day. We decided that my junior year i would start public school, just like delia did. She wasn't the best student but my parents had more of a connection to her. I vowed to finish what she couldn't even start.

Lunch went by slow, layton didn't speak much, per usual, and i meditated on memories of my life before it went to shit. The bell rang for lunch to be over and i quickly made my way to my third class. As i was climbing the stairs to the third floor, my phone dinged in my back pocket. I pulled it out to see a message from an unknown number.

unknown

Coffee tomorrow?

AUTHORS CORNER!
this chapter is much longer than the others so far wow!! i didnt want to have two separate chapters that didnt involve chase, so i kind of wrote them together. since things are picking up, im thinking the chapters will get longer too. i wrote half of this on my phone and uploaded on my computer, so if its messed up again my bad lol. thank you for reading.

SONG!
this song is probably for a breakup but i think it perfectly embodies auroras thoughts about her sister. she wants her back, obviously, but she regrets not getting closer to her sister while she had the chance. and her sister is the reason she agreed to go to public school when delia could not.