Halfway There | COMPLETE ✔ + Sequel

Chapter 33 - Final Goodbye

Nova's POV

"Stella, we need to leave 10 minutes ago!" The both of us were scrambling around the room as the loud annoying sound of the alarm clock blasted from the bedside table.

I had come up to bed last night, surprisingly exhausted, after speaking with Angie trying to stumble around the room without making any noise. In my sleepy state I had set the alarm at the wrong time.

"That's not my fault!" Stella argued back as I threw a shirt on over my shoulders and she rushed past me with a hand full of clothes into the bathroom. I quickly pulled on a pair of pants that laid beside my bed, not bothering to see if they were clean or not.

"Let's go, Stella! Don't waste time brushing your teeth; I have gum in the truck!" She came out of the bathroom as she pulled her arms through a thick jacket. I scooped up her school things, grabbed my backpack on the floor and yanked the door open. She was hopping on one foot as she attempted to put on her shoes as she walked.

I looked down in a panic when I realized I had almost forgotten my shoes. I groaned in frustration as I realized that I wouldn't be able to make it two feet in the parking lot without my feet turning blue. Stella took this opportunity to take a seat on the floor to put her shoes on properly. The cold wind swirled through the room, making me shiver.

The shiver started at the base of my neck and followed through all the way to the back of my heels. I took a sharp breath and inhaled a strange feeling. It wasn't anxiety. It wasn't stress. It was something I had never felt before. Something wasn't right and I needed to get to Dani right away. As soon as I stood up from the bed, where I had sat down to put on my shoes, I grabbed everything that we needed and bolted out the door.

"Nova!" Stella called after me. I listened to the sound of her light step, running on the old wood.

The truck was on and in reverse by the time Stella made it into the car. She struggled with her seat belt as I peeled out of the Motel. She gripped onto the edges of her seat as I burned rubber every time I had to turn the corner.

"Nova! Why are you acting like this?!" I couldn't hear her. All I could hear was the ringing in my ears. Something was wrong. I needed to get to Dani.

Stella's day didn't start for another hour so her school parking lot was mainly empty besides a couple of teachers' cars. You could probably hear the roar of my engine through the brick walls.

If either of us weren't wearing our seatbelts, I knew one of us would have flown right through the windshield when I finally stopped in front of the school, "What is wrong with you?!" Stella shouted at me.

I gripped the steering wheeling, impatiently. "Stella, I need you to get out right now." She only stared as I waited. "Stella! Now!"

The look on her face broke my heart. What was I doing? Stella was just as important as Dani, more so if I was being honest with myself, but I was acting as if she was being a nuisance. Before I could apologize for the way I was acting, she grabbed her school bag that sat at her feet and jumped out the car without another word.

I watched Stella disappear behind the safety of the school fence. I contemplated for a moment if I should go after her before I looked down at the time and realized that I needed to see Dani soon.

"I'm sorry, Stella." I whispered to myself.

The entire car shook and vibrated around me as I raced down the street. The streets grew thick with cars as I got closer to campus grounds. I had almost forgotten to turn off the car when I finally parked in the first open spot I could see. I left everything behind when I finally bolted down the parking lot. I didn't even notice the cold wind piercing my skin.