Round and Round

Part 25

Go to school. Keep your head down. Avoid people as much as possible. Hide in the girls' locker room or an open, empty classroom during lunch. Then leave as soon as the bell rang at the end of the day, signalling that they could finally escape from this prison.

All Lovina cared about right now was surviving. Just surviving this hellhole.

And she wasn't even surviving for herself. She was doing it for her sister. Because she loved Feli—and she didn't want her idiot sister to worry about her when she had so few brain cells. She couldn't afford to waste any of them worrying about her.

Anyway, Lovina needed to survive, so she had developed a set of rules to follow while at school. They didn't always work, mostly due to the fact that there were groups of girls who enjoyed seeking her out in order to taunt her. No matter how hard she tried to avoid them, they were always able to find her...

And sometimes Feliciana would grab her arm and drag her to lunch, forcing her to sit amongst her friends and fake-eat.

But, for the most part, they were acceptable rules that at least made survival a bit easier. And she was almost used to everything by this point. Used to the stares and whispers and rumours and the ankles that would sometimes appear out of nowhere and attempt to trip her up...

She barely even responded anymore.

Which was why she was rather confused right now.

As nobody was paying any attention to her. There weren't any shouts or taunts from the girls that she passed. No one tried to knock her books out of her hands or anything. Instead, everyone was standing in clusters in the hallways, whispering amongst themselves in what was almost a frenzy.

"...Right in the middle of the hallway..."

"...Were they even going out?"

"...Broke down crying... Think they both left..."

"...Bunch of faggots anyway. I say good riddance. Maybe they'll end up in the slammer like Kirkland..."

She was incredibly confused, as she had no clue what anyone was talking about. Someone had broken up with someone else? But that usually wouldn't cause this much gossip. And something about prison? What?

She was broken out of her thoughts rather suddenly by the feel of someone grabbing onto her arm. Startling her enough that she almost dropped her textbooks.

"Ve~ Lovi! Did you hear?"

Why in the world did Feliciana have to always pop out of nowhere like a fucking ninja? Lovina turned to flash a glare at her sister... But immediately froze, shocked by the tearful expression that was etched across Feli's face.

And which immediately sent a wave of panic through her mind. Was she hurt? Was something wrong? "Wha—?"

Feli didn't even allow her enough time to ask what was going on. "Francis told Antonio that he hated him! Right in the middle of the hallway. He said that he never wanted to talk to him ever again and then he left and Antonio started crying! And then he ran off too and now nobody knows where either of them are and...and..." And now Feli started crying, throwing her arms around her sister in a death grip. "Ve~!"

Lovina's brain had pretty much just shut down, too confused by her sister's mile-a-minute ramblings and sudden tears to even begin to attempt to figure out what had just happened... That's what you get for coming to school late. Fucking dentist... Although she'd been absolutely ecstatic about missing a few hours of hell this morning.

"Wait... What? Francis and An—" Damn it. She couldn't even say his name. "They had a fight?"

"Ve~" Feliciana lifted her head from where she'd been sobbing into Lovina's shirt—leaving a wet patch, of course—to stare up at her with teary eyes. "Sì. But they've been best friends forever! And Antonio was so sad! He started crying and then he ran away..."

Lovina hated to admit it, but her first thought once Feliciana's words had finally managed to penetrate her brain was 'Ha, serves the bastard right'. Since...well, that's what he'd done to her!

But that sentiment was gone within a matter of seconds. As it was immediately replaced by the mental image of Antonio...crying... She'd only seen Antonio cry a few times in her life and she never ever wanted to see it again. Even if he was a bastard and a complete jerk.

Damn it. "Do you know why? Did he leave the school?"

"Ve~" Feli wiped at her eyes with her sleeve, frowning slightly in thought. "I think he left. And I don't know... He and Francis never fight."

Yeah, she was definitely well-aware of that fact. The two had practically been joined at the hip since they'd met. Which she'd oftentimes found rather annoying; since the blond was a complete pervert who had no concept of personal space.

But—the idea of Francis telling Antonio that he never wanted to see him again... It was impossible. It made no sense. And why would he say something like that? Especially in the middle of the school. Now Antonio was going to be the one that was the subject of all of the rumours. And he was so stupid that he wouldn't be able to ignore them like she did.

And damn it. Now she was getting pissed off. Which she shouldn't, since Antonio was a jerk who probably deserved it.

But at the same time...

"Damn it." She brushed her hair behind her ear in an irritated, distracted movement, glancing back toward the front entrance. She could leave and follow him. Except that he had no idea where in the world he would go... Definitely not home. So she turned back toward her sister. "If you see him anywhere, call me..."

Feliciana looked a little surprised by the statement. "O—okay. Where are you going?"

"I'm going to go look for him, in case he's still in this fucking building." Which was probably going to take forever. Although at least she knew where all of the best hiding places were by this point...

Damn it. She was going to headbutt him so hard when she found him. Make the bastard suffer for ditching her and being a fucking idiot.

"O—okay, Lovi..." Lovina didn't even bother to say goodbye to her sister before stomping off.

Which meant that Feliciana was left standing there awkwardly, unsure what she should do right now. Maybe she should make sure that Gillian knew what had happened? Or maybe Ludwig?

Maybe if she was lucky, she'd find both of them at the same place.

A/N: Short chapter, but it was one of those 'didn't need to be long' chapters. So...I didn't make it long.

And thanks for all the nice things you guys said after last chapter. You guys make me feel a lot happier... *hugs*

Things are...still pretty sucky right now. Since we're dealing with lots of financial shit with school and everything. And attempting to get a job. And...basically everything that I've been trying to make things better is just making things worse and it's really really frustrating...

But I basically came to the conclusion that there's absolutely nothing I can do to make things better right now so I might as well just suck it up and deal with it... Which...probably isn't the best conclusion I could come to, but...at the moment it's really the most optimistic I can get.