Chapter 28; The school's closure

*Unedited*

Enjoy the chapter!

*

Uncle Bart made the announcement of the school's temporarily-for now- closure to the entire school the next week, on Monday.

I didn't know about that because he told me. I also didn't know about it because Caleb told me.

I decided to take my aunt's advice and go back to the last school I transferred from. According to my aunt, it didn't take too long for them to accept me back.

I made my way to the school, and since it was close to my house I decided that a bit of walk won't kill me. It's been long since the last time I did anything related to cardio- well, I did do a bit of running at Woodblock high.

Besides, it was nice day, and though I knew it will be a lot warmer through the day, right now it was nice to a have a walk.

On my way to school, I saw a woman having hard time with her bags near a supermarket and decided that since I had a long time until school started, I'll go and check to see if she needed help.

"Hello, do you need some help?" I asked when I came closer to her, looking at her bags.

"Oh yes, thank yo-" She stopped when she turned to look at me, and I blinked at her. "Ms. Ross?" I asked, surprised at seeing her. From what I remembered, they didn't live anywhere near here. What was she doing here?

A big smile went on her face as she waved her hand, "Please, call me Liah. I haven't seen you in so long, how have you been doing, Rhi?" She asked as I gestured for her to hand me a few of her bags.

"Thank you," Liah said, sighing in relief. I wondered how Reagan let her go out to do the shopping by herself. From what I've see before, he was very protective of his ill mother.

"No problem, and I'm fine, though I've been better. What are you doing all the way into town? I don't remember you live around here," I remarked, walking after her to who-knows-where. Her breathing started to get faster and I gave her a worried look, but she seemed to have handled the weight very well. Besides, it felt wrong to ask if she wanted me to take all of her bags.- She looked strong, and I'm sure it wasn't her first time doing this. She wasn't some frail, week doll- she was Reagan ross's mother. I'm sure he got his strong character from her.

Still, I couldn't help but be worried about Liah's health.

"We live fifteen minutes from this supermarket. Usually I'll either take my car or I'll have Reagan to the groceries shopping. However my car broke down and Reagan is out. He was so upset that I didn't want to call and ask him for that." Liah answered me, making me frown. "Upset? What happened?" I asked, concerned. Was it because of me?

It's been two weeks since the boys found out about my lie along with everyone else. Caleb and I met up a lot, and I asked him why the boys didn't want to talk to me. He said that they talked about how they were upset with me not telling them another secret, and since then I thought it was for the best not to ask him again about them. I'll probably be disappointed.

"I thought you went to school with them. Didn't you know the school got shut down?" She asked, a bit surprised I didn't know that. This meant that Reagan haven't talked about it since who knows when. Did he tell her about what happened between us?

"I transferred," I replied, then added, "is he going to be okay?" I asked her, feeling worried again about him and the boys.

They've hurt me so many times and yet I still cared for them.

"I hope he will. He and the boys really do like that school, but from what I've heard it might not be opened again." Liah told me, but I already knew that. I sighed, and she must've thought that I got too tired to keep holding the bags because she gave me quick look before stopping. "I can keep going from here, but thank you so much." I immediately shook my head, "No, don't worry. I want to go with you until we reach your house. If that's alright with you?" She blinked at me and smiled. "If that's alright with me? Of course it is, you're Reagan's girlfriend." Now it was my turn to stop and look at her.

"He told you about it?" She laughed, shaking her head as we started to walk again.

"I'm sure it took him a long time, but yes- he told me. I was surprised, to say the least, but very happy for him. I'm sure you'll make him happy." Her words made a lump to form in my throat. Should I tell her about me not talking to the boys? About the things I didn't tell them?

"I haven't talked to them in a while," I finally say. She looks at me, frowning. "Why is that? Did they hurt you? Do those boys need some ass whopping?" If it was any other day, I would've probably laughed.

"I kept some secrets from them even after I said I won't do that." I told her, clearing my throat.

"So? Did those secrets had anything to do with them?" I thought about it for a second. "Well, not directly but-" "Did you owe them anything? To tell them every single thing about yourself? Did they do the same?" She repeated the same questions I asked myself before, but always buried them.

"They're my friends, though," I eventually replied.

"So?" She asked, "Friends don't owe each other secrets. They receive them, they earn them, they are there for you when you can't stand keeping it all by yourself. You don't owe them anything other then what they give you in return." Liah finished just as we get to her house.

"Well, thank you so much for helping me." She thanked me, giving me a warm smile before wrapping one of her arms around me, hugging me to her. I found myself hugging her back, and though she was a bit smaller than me in size we were around the same height.

"Boys are idiots, but they eventually figure out when they make a mistake. Usually." She told me, making me laugh at her words.

"Just make sure they understand their mistakes so they won't repeat them, yeah?" I nodded, looking at her once more before telling her goodbye.

On my way to school, I realized that my relationship with the boys- except for Caleb- was too rocky. It was a give and take relationship, but usually it was take and take from me. Only then give. I didn't like that.

But I couldn't give up on the boys either, and if they felt that way about me too- if I was as important to them as they were to me- they'll finally realize that I don't owe them things. Because that's not how friendship work. And perhaps, I wasn't the only one who didn't fully understand how it worked.

*

The day passed quicker than I thought, but it was quiet nonetheless. Except for Ms. Crone, that biology teacher I definitely didn't miss, no one paid any attention to me. I guess I forgot how it was here.

I tried to talk to a few people, and a few girls I talked to in art class were actually surprisingly nice. And yet, I couldn't help but think about Woodblock. And damn it, I missed my friends.

I missed my shy Caleb, talking only when we were around.

I missed stupid Klay, who entertained me and annoyed me at the same time.

I missed Elliot, the boy who was so grumpy when I first met him, but then turned out to be so caring.

I missed Thomas and his gentle, kind personally, not to mention his brain which kept us out of troubles more than once- because god knew we would've been screw otherwise.

I missed Oliver, and though he only just started warming out to me- I still liked being in his presence.

And I missed Reagan Ross, the first guy I ever had feelings for that didn't involve me wanting to punch him every time he touched me. Instead, I wanted him to. I wanted to be with him. I wanted to be around him.

I wanted to be around all of them.

"You look like your brain needs some time out from you." I heard someone said just as I exited through the gate, making me freeze in place when I realized who it was.

Klay. You've got to be kidding me.

I probably did something none of the boys, who stood next to Klay, thought I'll do.

I kept walking.

After a few moments, they finally caught up with me. "Wait, Rhi!" Klay called, but I heard the others running along with him.

A hand grabbed my own, making me turn and stand face to face to Reagan. I felt my heart skip a beat.

And then I remembered none of them talked to me for two weeks. So I took my hand out from his grip and took a few steps back.

"No, this is not what I wanted," I told them, looking at each one of them. Caleb came to my side, grabbing my arm.

"Rhi," He said quietly, but I wasn't looking at him. I didn't take my arm from him, though. Reagan noticed.

"This is the what, second time? Third time that you guys yell at me like that, expecting me to tell you everything about me? I thought you already realized it after the first time you came to apologize," I shook my head, and as they opened their mouth to speak I cut them off with my hand.

"Let's count every mistake I made so far, yeah?" I asked, a sarcastic smile on my face. "I lied to you guys. Oh wait, did I lie? Did I owe you guys anything? No. If I wanted to tell, I would've. Instead, you heard it from other people. What did you want me to do? I didn't tell them. I didn't mean for you to find out anything about me through someone else, but I also didn't know you'll react this way!" Elliot tried to reach me this time, but I stepped away, Caleb keeping his hold on me like he was worried I'll run away. Maybe if he didn't have his hand on me, I would've.

"Let's try and skip for now the last time I didn't tell you something about me, even though you guys did nothing to deserve to know about it. And yet I forgave you guys. I fucking forgave you, and you spit in my face and not talk to me for two goddamn weeks just because someone found out my secret, and told to the whole school."

"Rhi, please," Oliver pleaded, looking as much as ashamed as the others. It's about time they feel guilty about what they did. I was fine about it before, but not anymore. That talk I previously wanted to have with them had to happen.

"For two weeks, Oliver! Two weeks! Where were you, hmm? Thinking about how much of a terrible friend I am for not telling you who my uncle is? After I told you about my parents, and about my eyes! What else do you want from me?!" I was closed to tears, but I held them back.

I won't break now. They need to know how I feel. I need to tell them.

We were lucky we stood where there weren't any people right now, since I don't know how much I could've handle the stares.

"You're right," Said Reagan suddenly, looking at me with guilt in his eyes. "We pushed you too much when it wasn't fair of us. Even if we told you about ourselves, you still don't know every little detail about our life. It wasn't to be upset with you when we found out things you never gave anyone willingly. We should've went after them, make sure they won't do it again, and instead we acted like dicks. You don't owe us that, Rhi. I'm sorry." I looked at Reagan, and then the others.

"I appreciate you guys apologizing, but it's not enough. Not anymore, not after this happened more than once." Reagan's eyes filled with pain, but he nodded, dropping his eyes to the floor.

"What do we need to do? Aside from promising it would never happen again," Klay asked me, keeping his distance.

I thought his words over. Maybe...

"There might be something you can help me with, but you might not like it."

~*~

Okay, now that I've upload this two chapters I can breath. I really wanted to get them done, mainly because once I started I couldn't stop. And I mean, seeing as I didn't upload for so long it seems only fair I upload two one after the other.

If there are mistakes sorry about that. I did go over the story from start till where I stopped, so I tried to fix some typos and stuff. Some of you comment and let me know, so that actually really helps and I don't mind it at all.

On to another subject- I feel like this story is missing a lot. I think I'm going to try and slow down this last chapters, add things if I want. Like the boys- you don't really know them, and I want to really focus on that, aside from the main plot.

Also, Caleb and Grey deserve some screen time, but since they have a... certain personality, it feels out of place at the moment to make them do some PDA. I'm trying to build it up a bit, and since the story is almost done it shouldn't take too long- so have some patience, yeah?

Which reminds me- would anyone like some cute scenes from their points of view? I'm thinking of writing some after I'm done if anyone wants it, but I'm not sure... We'll see.

Lastly, I would like to thank all of you again for reading, voting and commenting. I could read your comments all day. I'm also trying to reply, but I always see a comment and think, yeah I'll get back to it later but then never do so that's how you guys end up with a reply to a comment you made about a year ago.

Can you tell my friends hate texting me? Yeah, I'm sure they do.

So, I really hope to upload soon, and now that the year's almost over (thank god), I have more time to write.

Oh, before I forget! I'll be really happy if you guys check out my two other stories and give them some love! I'll try to upload more on them as well, so I hope you check them out and enjoy.

Okay, that's all.-If you made it this far and read everything, then you're my favorite person in the world.

Thank you.

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