Prepsworth Academy

Chapter 29 - "Don't."

Dylan

Elle walked up the stairs into the sunlight, a shadow against the day. After such darkness, for so long she didn't so much as blink, she just walked away, as if drifting on the wind. I wanted so badly to run after her, to reassure her. There was something lost in her eyes. She was not the same girl I knew. Maybe I'd known it since I first saw her in the pool, still dripping wet and huddled up. But I couldn't give up on her. I'd done that to someone else and it had nearly broken them further. I couldn't dace that again. I cared too much to let that happen. I had begun to walk after her when Amy grabbed my hand.

"Don't." she warned, her eyes dark. I resisted the urge to snap at her. What did she know about Elle, about how Elle felt? Maybe she just needed space, or wanted to get out of the dark, miserable room."I I need to help her. I can't let her run away from this." I said emphatically. Amy's sad eyes looked into mine, far too knowing.. I I didn't let myself hesitate as I turned and ran after Elle.

Elle was sitting next to the floor-to-ceiling windows in her dorm, looking out across the grounds.

"Elle." I said softly. Elle turned around, her face indifferent to my voice. There were fleeting hours when she had smiled the sound of my voice, some days when she grimaced. Now she just looked like she couldn't care less.

"Elle, you've got to listen to me. Please don't push people away, don't push me away. It only makes things worse. I know how you feel, trust me, I know better than anyone else. Please don't do thiss, don't throw what we have away." I pleaded. Elle frowned, slightly confused. Confusion was better than indifference, but barely.

"Dylan, we never had anything. There's nothing between us. I'm not pushing anyone away because there's no one to push away. Whatever you think we "have" isn't real, no matter how much you think it's true. I'm not deluding myself, and neither should you. We're not...we're not even friends. I'm no one to you and you're no one to me. That's just how it is, and how it' always been. You should just forget me and find another girl to chase. It's not like you've ever had a problem with it before." Elle began, her voice emotionless, before letting out a sigh.

"Please, just do us both a favour and leave." Elle looked up at me expectantly. I shook my head slowly, confused. I felt like someone had cleaved my heart in two.

"Elle, you don't have to be like this. You don't have to be in pain. You don't have to be alone." I started crying, tears rolling down my cheeks. The world was tilted and jumbled. I felt like I couldn't breathe, my throat closing up. I painfully sucked in air. Elle looked at me like I wasa small child, not being able to understand anything.

"I never was in pain. I never had any problems." Her voice was monotonous and flat and she spoke slowly, like I couldn't quite grasp what she was saying.. She was completely void of any emotion at all.

I stared at her in shock, feeling betrayed. So that was it then. She just decided to forget me entirely. So I was a stranger to her, not even dirt on her shoe. To her, I was no one. She had said as much.e. I stood, motionless, my hand that had been pressed against the glass now curled up, as if I were trying to grip the glass. I felt like I was going to fall over. I knew if I did, I wouldn't want to get back up. Elle didn't look at me, didn't acknowledge my presence as I choked in breaths, all the while the strange sense of betrayal coursing through me.. Finally, Elle stood up, brushed imaginary dust off her skirt walked away, leaving me standing next to the window, all alone. Again.

Amy

In the past week, the worldhad seemed wildly off kilter. The joking sidekick had taken a stand and turnedinto a bitter rebel. The soft-spoken dancer turned into the unforgivingleader. The perfect girl and therebellious boy had both dared to dream before coming crashing down. The perfect couple had parted then cometogether, forgetting everyone else. The school leader had collapsed, had gonecrazy over pain and hope over a a suddenly solemn class-clown. The sports-starsworlds had been torn apart in a flurry of secrets and revenge. It was if worldhad been flung upside down. And so the boy with the sapphire eyes was leftstanding alone in the rays of the pink sunset, the broken-hearted girl stormingdown the corridor. And so the dancer and there rebel walked away, carefullykeeping their distance. And so the queen-bee and the head of the soccer teamdiscovered they needed nothing but each other, that if even for a brief momentthey forgot their past and they could pretend to start again. And so theperfect student and the class clown came together and swore to never let go.And so the world ended and started again. But secrets have a way of revealingthemselves