Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Higher Ground characters in my story. All rights are reserved to whoever owns the show now. Yada, Yada, Yada. I'm sure you get the picture.
Summary: Scott and Shelby are forced to go their separate ways after they graduate from Horizon. Can fate bring them back together?
Category: Romance/Drama
Rating: I'll just say PG-13
Author's Note: It's been a while, I know. But I promise you right here and now that I am going to finish this story. I'm so excited that I've received so much feedback in the chapters that I've posted, and I know how bad it sucks to get into a story only to find out that it isn't going to be completed. I don't know how long it will take me. But I will complete this story. I just hope I have readers left that actually care. Anyways, here is Chapter 8. Thanks so much to everyone that is reading and enjoying my take on a Scott & Shelby fiction.
Chapter 8: Guilty Conscious
Shelby laid on her bed, staring up at the ceiling as the day continued to tick away. Her words last night replayed over and over again in her head like a broken record. She tried everything, anything, that she could think of to get her cruel words to Scott out of her mind, but it came to no avail. It wasn't long until she had just given up and let the words overtake her:
It's been ten years, Scott. I know what you want me to say, but I can't. It wouldn't be fair for me to say those things just because you want to hear them. It doesn't matter if you refuse to see it, but I've changed. Time changes people and I can't go back to the way things were ten years ago. I've worked so hard to forget the pain I went through over you. I refuse to subject myself to that again.
She wished she hadn't said them. She wished she could just take them back because at the end of it all, the dreamer that still lingered inside of her reveled in the idea of a second chance with her one and only love. The realist controlling her, however, knew that second chances weren't in the cards for them. Their entire relationship was always being challenged. Shelby wasn't so sure she could handle any more challenges.
"Shelby," she looked up as Katherine, Julliette, and Daisy entered the dorm. "You've been in this room all day. When are you going to get up, get dressed, and join the land of he living?" Shelby glanced down at the pajamas that she still wore as Katherine's words rang in her ears.
She frowned. "Why is it such a big deal? So I want to rest for the day. So what? The world isn't going to end. You do know that right?" Shelby's tone dripped with sarcasm, which earned a fake smile from Katherine.
"For us, Shelby?" Daisy asked, walking to Shelby's bed and taking a seat. "We don't like seeing you like this. If not for your own pleasure of getting out and getting some sun, then for us. Please, Shel?"
Shelby rolled her eyes, standing. "We're in the mountains, Dais. How much sun can I get up here?" her question was rhetorical. An audibly tired sigh escaped her lips as she plopped down on a chair positioned across the room. Shelby knew why they wanted her out. It was obvious. Her so-called traitors of friends just wanted to get her alone with Scott again. And she couldn't have that. Shelby wasn't so sure she could turn him down a second time. "Besides I distinctly remember asking you three to keep Scott away from me last night. You knew I wasn't up for seeing him. Yet somehow, he still found his way into our dorm. How was that?"
Julliette sighed, her permanent smile falling. "Shelby, when are you going to stop this? Scott is here. Nothing is standing in your way anymore. And you can finally be together. If you'd just stop being so damn stubborn and have faith for once."
"Faith?" Shelby laughed bitterly, standing suddenly in the heat of the moment. "I had faith once, Jules. Remember? And where did that get me?" she paused only to take in a deep breath. "I lost Scott. I had faith and I lost him, Jules." she lowered her voice. "I couldn't go through that again."
"Maybe you won't have to."
"Maybe isn't really a guarantee, is it?"
"In love?" Daisy raised an eyebrow. "There are no guarantees." she paused. "Look at me, Shelby. I didn't exactly plan on spending the rest of my life with Ezra. Throughout Horizon, we were just friends. Now, we're engaged. It's okay to be happy, Shelby."
"I am happy." Shelby answered defensively. Suddenly because she didn't have Scott she was grumpy? Scott didn't control her happiness, Shelby thought to herself.
"Look at yourself," Katherine began. "You're locking yourself up in this room, not wanting to see or talk to anybody. Do you call that happy, Shel? These are people you haven't seen in ten years, and you are refusing to even speak to them."
Shelby growled. "Fine. You want me to mingle? Lets go mingle." she replied angrily, her feet carrying her quickly out the door. Katherine, Daisy, and Julliette sat, her eyes lingering on the door long after she had walked through it, a smile slowly revealing itself on their faces. Maybe she wasn't so willing, but they had succeeded in getting her outside.
Shelby walked briskly, her long, blonde hair flying back with the wind. She watched her feet as she walked, stopping suddenly when she noticed that, in the heat of the moment, she had forgotten to change. Looking up, Shelby smiled sheepishly at the people watched her.
"What?" she asked, suddenly becoming unnerved by their eyes. "Never seen a girl in pj's before?" Shelby was half-way tempted to flip them off as she continued on her way, but quickly decided against it. Instead, she just merely walked passed them all. The crowd eventually pulled their eyes way from her as she continued her brisk walk into the forest. So she wasn't exactly going to mingle. At least in the forest she could be alone.