Chapter 7 – Olivia Clark

I have been avoiding Chase the whole time after what has happened. I can’t look him in the eyes after that. I’m sat in the middle of class, lost in thoughts and just staring at him, when he suddenly turns around. I immediately look away but can still see the smile forming on his lips. The second the bell rings I grab all my things, stuff them in my bag and run out the door without even saying goodbye to Mr. Stuarts, my favorite teacher. I feel really guilty to just storm out of the room and ignoring Chase, and my favorite teacher, but it’s for the better. I hurry to my locker, and see Jackson standing right in front of it, talking to his friends. As I approach them, his friends look at me and nod towards me with a smirk on their faces. He whispers something to them, and they immediately leave. I open my locker, and he leans against the locker next to mine. “What’s up, sweetheart?”, he asks me. I hesitate to answer, but after a while I say: “Not much, how you doing? I know that you and Chase had a little…uh… Conflict.” He just starts laughing. He must have noticed my confused look, and says “A little conflict? That’s definitely not the way to put it.” He looks past me but I just ignore it. “Did he hurt you badly?” I ask him. “Worried about me now, sweetheart?”. I start laughing at the nickname he gave me, I always knew that he isn’t as bad as he comes across, even though he has bullied me, as well as others in the past. “He can’t hurt me baby, I can sustain a lot of pain, don’t worry about me.”, he says. “I saw the cuts and bruises he had, they looked-“, I start, but Jackson interrupts me. “He’s an asshole, he deserved it.” I turn back to my locker and pack up my things. As I close my locker, I see him glancing over into the crowd with a smirk, but I don’t think too much of it. I look at the clock over the doorway and lean in to Jackson for a hug. I have never hugged him before, so I expected him to refuse it, but he hugged me back, also giving me a slight smile. He walks past me, probably to meet his friends for the next class. I’m free next period, so I decided to head to the library and study a bit, or just read a book. I open the door to the library and head inside. This is definitely my favorite place at this school. It’s so peaceful and quite in here. I go to the back of the library and pick the table next to the window. I sit down and see the dark clouds forming in the sky, as I mumble to myself “Great, it’s gonna rain”, and notice someone sitting down beside me.