Chapter 4
As soon as the bell rang, I told Hero and Ayden that I would meet them at our usual lunch table, then rushed out of the classroom to find Violet.
I went to the first place I could think of where people go to cry: the restrooms. There were quite a few restrooms in Pineshire Academy, but I figured she would be in the closest one.
“Violet?” I called out.
No response.
I bent down and looked underneath the stalls to see if I could spot her fancy red shoes, and surely enough I did. I knocked on the stall door. “I know you’re in there. Come out, I just want to talk.”
“Go away,” Violet sobbed. “I don’t want to talk. Especially not with you, of all people.”
“I know. You’ve never wanted to talk to me,” I said, lightly chuckling.
“So effing leave, then!”
Staring at the stall door, I imagined her on the other side. Her teary eyes. The mascara running down her face. Maybe I did actually feel bad for her.
I swallowed, knowing I might regret the next few sentences I was about to spew out. “I’ll… be your friend. I’ll allow you to come back to my friend group.” I paused. “But if you ever play with their feelings again, I won’t hesitate to make your reputation worse than it already is.”
My best friends meant the world to me, and I would do anything for them.
“Like I would ever want to be in your pathetic friend group,” she scoffed.
“Pathetic, huh?” I smiled, knowing that was a lie. “That isn’t what you said in class.”
“Whatever,” she scoffed. “I know they wouldn’t want me back in the friend group anyway. Just leave.”
“I can convince them.”
“I said I don’t want to be in your effing friend group,” she snapped. “Go away.”
I stepped away from the closed stall, sighing. As I left the restroom, I could still hear the cries of Violet.
* * *
Entering the cafeteria, I spotted Hero and Ayden sitting down at our usual table, facing their backs to each other. Ayden swung his body around to face me as I sat down next to Hero. Hero stared into the distance, not even moving or acknowledging me.
“So,” Ayden said, leaning in. “Are you going to tell us where you went?” He arched an eyebrow.
“I tried to talk to Violet,” I replied, taking a bite of a candy bar that had been in my backpack for a month.
“You…what?” he asked incredulously, blinking.
“I may have also given her an invitation back into the friend group.” I paused, chewing the peanuts from the candy bar. “But she declined.”
“What is going through that head of yours?!” Ayden shot out of his seat, slamming the table. People were now staring.
“I— I was only trying to help,” I stumbled on my words, looking up at him. “I thought it would resolve the grudge you and Hero have against each other.”
He leaned in and lowered his voice. “You only ever make things worse. I can’t believe you would do something like that without consulting us first.” He then shook his head, swinging his backpack over one shoulder. “Yeah, no, I’m not dealing with this right now.”
“Ayden!” I called out, but he kept walking. I glanced to my right, where Hero was sitting, and he seemed to be in an entirely different world. He hadn’t reacted to anything Ayden or I had said or done. His eyes looked empty. Soulless.
“Hero? Are you alright?” I placed a hand on his shoulder.
My touch snapped him out of a trance, and his eyes darted around the room, noticing Ayden was gone. “Where did he go?”
“You didn’t hear our conversation?”
Hero shot out of his seat and left the cafeteria, muttering something under his breath.
I was left alone at that table, observing all of the students talking and laughing with their friends. It used to be like that with Hero and Ayden. It will be like that again.
I will fix this friend group.