“Pru?”
“No, you need to leave. I’m not going anywhere and I’m not going to be some punching bag for you or for anyone. Please, leave.”
He didn’t want to go. Staring at her, he wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms, hold her, and tell her it would be all right, but what was the point? She wouldn’t believe him. “I’ll go.”
“That would be really good.”
He stepped out of the house and when she started to shut the door in his face, he put his arm out, stopping her.
“What?”
He didn’t say anything, merely looked at her one final time. It was all he wanted to do. To memorize what she looked like so he would never forget her. With that, he let go of the door so she could throw it in his face.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Time to get over it
The days blended together. Pru got up each morning. She had breakfast with her family. Since her mother didn’t go to work, they argued when her father arrived, but she wouldn’t feel guilty. If it hadn’t been for her mom, she’d have run. It would have been all too easy for her to do exactly that. To try to escape the hell she felt she was living, but that wasn’t the case. She couldn’t win by turning her back on those who would do her harm.
It was no way for her to live and she certainly wasn’t going to let those bastards think they’d won. They had humiliated her in the worst possible way and she wasn’t going to let them get away with it.
Sean still visited but she continued to ignore him. Her parents often took the time to chat with him, but she couldn’t do it. Friends didn’t do that to each other. He should have come to her, and even though she knew she had to forgive him at some point, he’d still betrayed her trust, after everything they’d been through. Sean was convinced they could make it and she’d get over her issues. As long as she saw Drake, it was going to be impossible to remember why she was ever friends with Sean.
Now, Drake, that was a whole new story.
He’d gone back to being the guy he’d always been. Mean, nasty, and he took it out on whoever walked in front of him. It was like the past couple of months hadn’t mattered to him. The only difference she saw was that none of his anger or hatred came at her.
She merely didn’t exist to him. Whenever they crossed paths, she ignored him. They were nothing to each other.
Like now, she stood at her locker and he was just a few feet away. There was a kid in the year below him. The boy had a serious case of acne, but Drake wasn’t letting the kid go. He kept on poking fun at him.
Just ignore it.
You don’t want to start this.
She reached into her locker and in the back were a couple of pictures they’d taken together. Selfies of their time. The smiles, the happiness. It seemed so foreign to her. There was no way she could have fallen for the bully in her life, but she had.
“Hey,” Sean said, making her jump. She put the pictures down, hoping he hadn’t seen them, not wanting him to know what she missed most. She didn’t say anything.
Glancing back at Drake and his group, she saw he was looking in her direction and quickly averted her gaze.
The last thing she wanted was to draw attention to herself. So far, since they had completely broken up and severed all contact, she’d been able to avoid him. She didn’t know what would happen if his friends were to bring her into any conflict. She liked to think nothing would happen, but she doubted it. All she wanted to do was get through the school year.
“I’m sorry,” Sean said.
“For what, exactly? For hurting my feelings? For getting caught?”
“For not coming to you. For being a giant dick about everything.”
She slammed the locker closed. “It doesn’t matter now, though, does it? Everything is back to the way it was.”
“They’re not hurting you. At least there’s that.”
She laughed. “I don’t know if you’re trying to be funny or not. They’d stopped hurting me before.” She shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“You can talk with me about anything.”
“I can’t, Sean. If I could, this wouldn’t have happened in the first place.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I know, and I’m sorry too. You have no idea how sorry I am, but I can’t change what happened and neither can you.” She looked over at the guys and it hurt.
She wanted to stop Drake from doing something he’d regret but it would only draw her back to him. They were nothing to each other and she had to accept it.