【COZEN】Bloody Painter x Reader

❥Chapter 30

"Hey, (Y/n), um..." Annie trailed off for a bit when she let go of the hug, "I know it's very soon to say this, but there's gonna be a party in a few days in the school dorms, of course they told me not to invite you after the whole thieving incident and stuff. But you're always welcome to join me."

You were surprised at this, you of course didn't want to join due to the fact that you really didn't have the energy to do anything, not after what happened with Helen.

"Judy is the one who's throwing off the party, it's gonna be before Halloween so I'm not sure if you wanted to join me, I also asked Aiden a few days before, but I don't know." She says rubbing the back of her neck.

You stayed silent for a second, putting some thought to it, if Annie invited you then why not, "I'll think about it, Annie, I just need some time to recover... and I need to check on Helen too so." You responded a bit shy, trying not to be rude.

She understood though, she just nodded and smiled, "I'll check on Aiden for you, I'm not even sure if he's gonna show up, I really hope he's doing okay." She says, a lot of worry in her face.

__

Days passed and you kept on checking on Helen, but everytime it was either a no response or his parents answering for you and telling you that he doesn't want to talk to anybody.

You sighed as you still endured the pain from Ban, your hatred towards him grew bigger after he crushed your only special memory that you held from your dead best friend, that necklace meant more than anything, and even if Helen gave you that necklace those feelings towards Ban would have been the same.

The fact that Ban told you Helen would be better if he was dead threw you in such a wrong way, wishing death on somebody was never the right thing to think about. So him insulting your friend made you more angry.

After a few days you finally see Judy, she would skip classes just to escape from miss Anderson's scolding. But once she heard she quit she showed up more, and once she started to be more present in the classroom she noticed your presence, and she made sure to let you know that you weren't wanted in here.

You couldn't help but get up from your seat and walk towards her, slamming your hand on her desk, putting Ban into alert as he also got up, her eyes looking up at you as she brushed her hair with her hand, "where in the world have you been? You suddenly disappeared after accusing my friend of stealing, and I'm sure you knew it was someone else." You say, eyes glaring at her.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Judy responds as the corners of her mouth slightly twitched, her eyes making eye contact with her other friends who were snickering.

It wasn't only her accusing your friend of stealing, is her still announcing a party after someone died, "it's not only that, Judy, you have the audacity to still announce your little party to the whole school after someone died, what goes into your head–"

You were cut off by none other than Ban who decided to push you away from Judy's desk, "back off, (Y/n), or do you want another round?" He asks, ready to fight you any moment again.

"All of you are disgusting!" You yelled at every single one of them, you made up your mind, even if Annie invited you there was no way you were going to attend to this stupid party, it felt like celebrating someone's death.

You walked away, only to hear laughing and mocking from the other students, making fun of you for standing up and trying to call out Judy.

There was nothing you could do.

Though as you turned to the corner you stumbled upon a boy, a familiar boy, you look into those brown eyes and there he was, Aiden was finally here, you were in shock, the corners of your mouth twitching, you frowned and yet you smiled as tears were coming out of your eyes, so happy to see Aiden in person, "Aiden!" You yelled out his name happily as you wrapped your arms around him.

He slowly returned the embrace, "hey, (Y/n)." He responds softly, he sounded so tired and sad.

You pulled away to look at him, the way he looked at you reminded you so much of Helen, the dark circles under his eyes and the red bloodshot eyes, he looked so pale too. "Aiden... how are you feeling."

"I'm feeling tired." He responds rather quickly, he also saw the bruises you had on your face, his face showing shock and worry, "(Y/n), your face..."

You quickly back away trying to brush it off, "I'm fine, don't worry about me." You try to change the subject, the fact that you're seeing Aiden again made you happy, "look, I've been trying to get in touch with Helen, but he's not responding... I just I don't know what to do."

Aiden only stayed silent, his eyes were empty for a second at hearing his name, he looked terrified, "sorry, why are you trying to talk to him? Didn't he kill Tom?" He asks, a little bit shocked that you were looking for him.

You in the other hand, you were taken aback by the fact that he thinks he really killed Tom, "Aiden... he didn't kill Tom, I can assure you it was an accident." You respond, trying to defend Helen.

Aiden backed away a bit, bit of tears coming out of his eyes, "how would you know... you weren't there." He retorted.

Of course you couldn't help but frown, "well you weren't there either." You respond back a bit defensively, "a few students saw what happened, but others decided to not listen and just believe Helen killed Tom." You tried to explain, you saw more information about it, students saw the commotion and yet nobody listened to them, because the others just simply wanted to believe that he killed Tom cause he was portrayed as a stealer from the beginning, and these students wanted to taint him with more bad reputation.

Aiden stayed silent as he looked at you in disbelief, but he simply shook his head, "I just... I'm sorry. Tom was right, you're only defending Helen because you like him." He says in such a disappointed tone, "Helen murdered someone that I cared about, I genuinely thought you were gonna stop defending him after I told you about his weird behaviors, and now look where it got him." For the first time ever, you saw anger in Aiden's eyes, you realized how he decided to side with the others instead of you.

He didn't let you finish talking, he just walked away leaving you by yourself in the empty hallways, his footsteps slowly fading away.