Chapter 21: My Jaw

143K 6.3K 6.5K
                                    

I loved her against reason, 
against promise,
against peace,
against hope,
against happiness,
against all discouragement there could be.

I loved her against reason, against promise,against peace,against hope,against happiness,against all discouragement there could be

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

J A M E S 

"Where is she?"

"She needs a minute."

"That doesn't answer my question," I glare down at Annabeth's best friend, but she narrows her eyes at me just the same.

"I said, she needs a minute," she tells me curtly, "And you will respect her space."

"I'll respect her space when we're on the damn bus," I sneer down at her, "We're supposed to be leaving in five minutes, with our partners. Tell me where she is."

She just gives me a bored look, her lips sealed shut.

I grit my teeth. "Fine. Where's the other one? Elliot?"

"Yeah?" I hear a voice behind me, and I spin around to see the person in question next to Tyler- watching something on his phone.

"Evans- where is she?"

"Oh," he pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "She needs a minute."

"Are you fucking serious?" I bite out, "We don't have a minute, where is she?"

I can see Elliot glance over my shoulder at Bethany, and there's something in his expression that's almost worrying.

"Is something wrong?" I ask slowly, and Elliot's eyes snap back to mine.

"Of course not," he says a little too quickly, smiling tightly, "She does need a minute to herself though."

"She has had enough minutes to herself," I snip, "I'm going to go look for her, so you might as well save me some time. Where is she?"

They stay quiet.

I glare a little harder at Elliot because he was a lot easier to break than Bethany, and I see him swallow.

"She's near the greenhouse," he mutters finally, to which Bethany hisses out an 'are you serious?'- but I'm already off, briskly walking in that direction.

I can hear a few weak protests from behind me, but I ignore those entirely- making my way towards the said location. The corridors were empty too because everyone except little Ms. I need to visit the greenhouse to see how to take care of my plants, was outside waiting for the bus.

Her back was to me when my eyes finally found her, with her head tilted upward- towards the sky.

"There you are," I say impatiently, walking towards her, "We're leaving in five minutes- what the hell are you still doing here?"

She goes stiff. I don't think much of it.

"Oh, hi James," she says, her voice a little wobbly and higher-pitched than usual, "I-uh-I'll be right there. I um, I just need a minute."

Arc-en-cielWhere stories live. Discover now