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I mentioned this in the previous chapter, but I'm going to mention it again just in case it got overlooked. This is a modern au story so some things are going to be different, but most of them are going to be the same.
I rushed to my locker as soon as class ended. I wanted to get out of here as fast as possible; I needed a shower and a nap in the worst way. Puking in a high school bathroom stall made you feel pretty disgusting and seeing two different murders happen really took it out of you.
When I closed my locker, I nearly wet myself –Emma Bloom and Bronwyn Bruntley were standing on the other side of it. Why did this entire friend group think they needed to talk to me because I sat by Enoch in one class? It was really weird.
"Uhm, can I help you?" I asked, twisting the button on my cardigan as I waited for them to answer. "I have to go pick up my little brother from school."
"This will be quick," Emma reassured me. "We just wanted to tell you that you can talk to any of us about what you're seeing if you want. We know what it's like to be seen as peculiar by others for something you can't control."
That was the truth, Emma had a flare for pyrotechnics while Bronwyn could bench more than any guy in school. "I don't know what exactly you're hinting at, but I'm not seeing anything. I really have to go, excuse me."
It might have been a little rude, but I seriously didn't want to talk about what I saw. If my family and best friend didn't know about me being the literal entrance to the afterlife, what made them think I would tell them about it? Just because they were okay with people thinking they were peculiar, it didn't mean I should be, too. I liked people thinking I was perfect and well put together, I worked very hard for them to think that and wasn't going to throw that all away.
I tossed my backpack into the backseat of my car and drove to the middle school, thankful for Elliot. He was the best way to get out of things people wanted me to stay after school for. I used him before and I would definitely use him again.
When I pulled up in front of the middle school, I saw him standing outside with another boy. The two of them had their heads bowed together and were reading a book so I honked my horn and saw him look up before running over to the car.
"What were the two of you reading so intensely?" I asked once we got back on the road.
"Just this book about peculiar children and their history. It was interesting," he told me, pushing his glasses up his nose with the back of his hand like usual. "Like, there was this one about a giant who helped these animals get to the top of a mountain so they would be safe and ended up being turned to stone and stuck in a lake forever."
I've heard the word peculiar more today than I've ever heard it in my seventeen years of life I'm pretty sure. "That does sounds interesting. What's your new friend's name?"
"Horace," he replied, looking out the window thoughtfully. "He actually talks to me and wants to be my friend. No one ever wants to be my friend."
Elliot was quiet and really enjoyed reading, things that made him stand out from the other twelve year olds. It broke my heart that he had no friends, but it didn't really seem to bother him much. I was probably happier of his budding friendship with this Horace kid than he was. I was just glad he finally had someone who didn't think he was weird because he didn't live for sports and fart jokes.
"I'm sure mom and dad would love to have him come over sometime," I hinted as we stopped at a red light. "Maybe have a sleepover or something."
"Ivy, friendships aren't as important to me as they are to you. No one understands me, I'm sure Horace will realize I'm different and stop talking to me soon enough. I'd rather not get attached," he replied, pulling a book out of his backpack and ending the conversation.
I sighed before reaching over to ruffle his hair affectionately. "I just wish everyone could see how cool you really are, kiddo."
He made a noise of agreement but didn't look up from his book. I turned the radio up a little and drummed my fingers along with the Good Charlotte song playing. I saw Elliot nodding his head along to the beat and grinned. At least he wasn't so upset that he couldn't jam to music with me, that was when I knew something was really wrong.
I parked in our driveway and grabbed my backpack from the backseat. Elliot was following behind me as I unlocked the door and headed into the kitchen. I sat my backpack at the table before getting the things together to make grilled cheeses for the two of us. My parents would be home in a couple hours and my dad would make dinner, but that was still a while away.
"El, do you want pepper jack on your sandwich or just Swiss and cheddar?" I shouted, washing my hands and discarding my sweater.
"All three please!" he shouted back from upstairs.
I made up the sandwiches and sat them in the pan, letting them cook while I grabbed my textbook from my backpack to do my reading. I sat the book by the stove as I flipped the sandwiches over and put the tomato soup on for Elliot.
Once everything was finished, I set our food on the table before shouting for Elliot. We ate together before parting ways to do our homework. Well, I pulled up my trigonometry homework while I changed into leggings and a sweatshirt and took off my makeup, pulling my hair up into a bun on top of my head. Then I took out my contacts in the bathroom, placing them in their little container, and replacing them with my glasses. Then I started doing my homework.
I had at least three hours of it ahead of me, and I was not excited about it. I was trying to focus on the Pythagorean Theorem, but my mind kept flashing back to all of Enoch's friends looking at me during lunch. What did he tell them that made them all look at me? It had to be something crazy enough that Emma and Bronwyn approached me after school.
My mind didn't stop whirling until I swore to myself I would ask him about it tomorrow. I just hoped he would tell me the truth.
When I got to school the next morning, I was already a frazzled mess. I'd seen a person get run over by a car this morning while at a stop light and that was the only thing that save Elliot and me from getting into an accident. Thankfully, the scene played out before the light changed or it would've been harder to hide. I don't think Elliot noticed I spaced out, he was too interested in his book.
"Space cadet, what's up? I've been trying to get your attention for, like, five minutes!" Noel sighed, snapping her fingers in front of my face. "Did you do the trig homework last night?"
I nodded and pulled it out, letting her take pictures without her having to ask. This was how our friendship went a lot of the time, I did the work and she copied it. It was a lot easier than fighting with her, this way things stayed mellow like they should be.
"So, have you thought about who you're going to homecoming with?" she asked as we made our way to meet up with our other friends. "I think John Peterson is going to ask me and he's super cute so I'm going to make him sweat a bit before I say yes."
I nodded, but my mind was on talking to Enoch so I wasn't paying much attention to her. "Yeah, that sounds good."
"Whoa, what's up with Ivy?" Scarlet, another one of our friends, asked as we approached our spot at the stairs. "She almost took out that freshman."
I looked up from the floor and saw she was right. A freshman boy was righting himself beside me from where I'd almost completely taken him out. I apologized and he nodded before rushing away from us. His face was red and I realized it must've embarrassed him to be ran into and the person not even realize it. If I wasn't so distracted still, I probably would've chased after him and apologized more.
"Sorry, guys, I didn't get much sleep last night," I told them all. "Actually, I need to do some last minute tweaks to my history homework from last night. I'll see you guys later."
I was gone before any of them could say anything, walking quickly toward my history classroom. I slipped inside and sat down, surprised that I wasn't the only person in the room. I recognized Hugh from biology and Enoch's lunch table so I smiled when our eyes met. He returned it genuinely, not the fake smile people flashed when they were caught staring. So maybe whatever Enoch told them wasn't scary or weird, maybe Emma and Bronwyn just wanted to be my friends… after all these years. Yeah, I didn't think it was very convincing either.
Enoch was already sitting at our table when I walked into biology with Noel. She wished me luck before going over to her empty table, preparing to deal with her unrequited love interest. The second I sat down, Enoch turned to look at me with an annoyed expression. Whatever he was about to say was probably going to be rude and slightly offensive.
"I'm sorry you got upset because I tried to help you yesterday," he forced out, avoiding my eyes.
It was one of those apologies that didn't count, but I wasn't going to point that out. Instead, I chose to question him about his topic of conversation at lunch yesterday. I felt like if I pointed out the apology thing, it would just turn into an argument and we would get nowhere.
"So, is there any reason your friends decided to come and talk to me yesterday after school about me seeing things?" I asked, figuring it was better to take the bull by the horns than beat around the bush.
His face paled and his jaw dropped open a bit before he recovered and said, "I have no idea why they would do that."
"I just figured it had something to do with your conversation about me at lunch..." I told him flippantly, taking my notebook and pencil out of my bag as I did so.
I wasn't watching him, but I head the pen he was tapping against the table stutter to a stop before starting back quicker. I looked back over at him and saw that his face was subtly pinker now. That was basically as good as him telling me that they were definitely talking about me. I'd never noticed quite how expressive Enoch's face was before.
"You seem to think highly of yourself," he told me, and I would've believe him if I hadn't see the show of nervous he'd put on earlier. "But not everyone talks about you every second of the day."
I rolled my eyes and turned my body to face his, crossing one leg over to other and fluttering my eyelashes at him. "But I'm so fun to talk about, Enoch. Why wouldn't you want to talk about me with your friends?"
I watched his Adam's apple bob as he swallowed thickly, trying to come up with a response and failing. The thought of him having feelings for me never once crossed my mind, but it was definitely taking root now. We existed in such different worlds, the thought of them ever intersecting in that way was crazy.
"Fine, you don't talk about me. My ego isn't that fragile, believe it or not," I told him as Mr. Trenton walked into the room. "But that still doesn't explain why your friends thought I saw things and wanted me to talk to them about it."
My admittance made a rare smile flicker across his face and, up until now, I didn't know he was capable of doing so. "I may have mentioned something about you being upset when I found you, and I didn't know if you had any friends to talk about it with. Noel isn't exactly the ideal person to talk about deep things with."
He was right, but I wasn't going to tell him that. "Thanks for taking an interest in me, but I have friends. And I already told you I didn't see anything, I was just taking a minute to myself."
"Whatever you say," he told me before turning to face the front of the classroom where Mr. Trenton had started writing notes on the board.
He was lecturing about the respiratory system of amphibians when I felt icy fingers drag down my spine. No, no, no! Not in class, I couldn't see something in class! It would be next to impossible to keep it a secret with all of these eyes. My vision turned black and white and I gripped the side of the lab table, hoping to keep myself centered enough to at least stay quiet.
Alyssa Merriweather was in front of me with Jerald Bentley coming up behind her fast. She jumped and turned to face him, hiding her face from me, but I could still see his. He looked really upset and reached out suddenly, wrapping his hands around her neck. She was letting out choked noises as he pressed his thumbs against the soft part of her throat.
My breathing was becoming labored and my grip on my pen was becoming too tight, but I couldn't make my muscles release as I watched Jerald's eyes turn evil. I couldn't look away from the scene playing out in front of me, even when Enoch placed his hand on mine. Jerald's hands wound even tighter around her throat and I forced myself to flip my hand over so I could grip Enoch's, too far gone to care about appearances at this point. I kept it clasped tightly in mine until Alyssa stopped struggling in Jerald's grip and he dropped her to the ground.
I closed my eyes as soon as my body allowed me to, but I kept my grip on Enoch's hand. Even if he was rude and slightly off-putting, it was nice to have someone want to help me. Once I completely came back to myself, I removed my hand from his and pulled my knees up onto the top rung of the stool so I could clutch them to my chest. I'd never had a vision of anyone I've known before and this was the girl that sat in front of me every single bio class.
"Now get with your partners and work on the assigned questions," Mr. Trenton instructed, going back to his desk to grade papers. "They're due by class Monday."
The dull sound of talking filled the room, but I couldn't bring myself to unfold my body just yet. I was more than surprised when I heard Enoch talking to me in a calm, soothing voice very unlike his usual one. The more I listened the more I realized he was saying definite words I could hear him saying, the only thing that was different was his tone.
"Even though you're not seeing anything as you've repeatedly told me, it's gone and you're relatively okay," he said, actually looking me in the eyes for once. "Can you stop your meltdown and help me with this assignment? Because I know you don't want to tell me what you didn't see. And you also get really annoying when you think I'm talking down to you."
"You're literally the worst at consoling people," I told him shakily, unfolding myself and picking up my pen with slightly shaky hands.
Alyssa laughed in front of me and drew my attention up to her, making my heart beat faster. This wasn't something I could just let go, I had to tell her. The only problem was I'd never seen her around Jerald Bentley before, but that was definitely who I just saw with her. I needed to talk to someone about this fast and try to figure out what to do.
"Say I did see something, could I talk to you and it not get back to your entire lunch table?" I asked, not looking away from my notebook. "Hypothetically speaking, of course."
He seemed to be thinking for a couple minutes and it made frustration bubble in my stomach. He'd done nothing but insist that I tell him about everything I saw. Then when I was finally ready to open up to him about it, he decided to clam up. My frustration made me stubborn, well, more stubborn than usual and I decided to do some clamming up of my own.
"Never mind, I'll just figure it out on my own," I told him, opening my book to the assignment. "I'll do the evens and you do the odds."
I tucked my head down and started doing the even numbers. I made it number six before he sighed in frustration and placed his hand on my paper to block where I was writing. That was all the answer I needed, he was going to talk with me and keep it a secret. Maybe this could be the start of a fumbly, awkward friendship…or not.
Stubborn Ivy and stubborn Enoch are quite the pair, eh?
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