Hope.

• Chapter 12 •

• Luca •

A week. It had been a week since I've talked to Jess. Every time I see her in the hallway she's walking side-by-side with Lily. Since when were they even friends?

She's been ignoring, every time her eyes even catch a glimpse of me she rolls her eyes before walking in the other direction. I don't understand, what did she want me to do? Tell her that suddenly I'm in love with her when I'm not? It made no sense.

Maybe I'm jealous that she's spending so much time with Lily and I'm not afraid to admit it. Jess is my best friend. But now all of a sudden they're suddenly inseparable. Betrayal. That's what this is a betrayal. I can't help the fact that I don't like her. And there's no way I'm going to lie to her.

I've tried way too many times to talk to her and I've had enough. If we can't be friends then so be it. I don't need her.

I still had Dickson and stage twins by my side so who cares if Jess isn't talking to me. Right?

Everyone keeps telling me to give her space, so here I am. Giving her space. I can't force her to be my friend, she can do whatever the hell she wants. Vete al demonio.

I don't care.

My books felt heavy in my hands as I treaded to my locker after the bell hand rang after the last lesson. I just wanted to go home and lie on my bed for the rest of my life. But if course, I couldn't do that. I needed to study for our stupid unit tests that out school was holding. "Nothing big," they say. It's just bloody 20% of our grade.

Nothing big?
Yeah okay well, how about you-

"Hey, Luca, right?" I heard a familiar voice say causing me to whip my head around to face the taller boy. Anirudh.

"Y-Yeah, hey, A-Anirudh," I said, his name sounding wrong in my voice.

"Just call me Rudh, it's easier," he did, letting out a small chuckle.

"Uh, yeah, sure," I mumbled, trying to balance all the history textbooks in one hand. Why can't history just have one textbook instead of five?

"Do you need help?" He asked, eyeing my books with raised eyebrows.

"N-no, I'm f-fine," I stuttered, using my knee to push them higher up my chest. Without warning, Anirudh scooped my books and held them easily in one hand.

"Where's your locker?" He asked, walking ahead if. I ran to catch up with his long strides as I pulled open my locker. He shoved the books into it and slammed it shut.

I shot him a grateful smile as I fumbled with the lock. "You didn't have it. I could have managed," I stammered, folding my hands awkwardly over my chest.

"It's alright, Luca." He said, smiling warmly at me. "Wanna get something to eat, I'm starving."

"You wanna h-hangout? W-with me?" I asked, dumbfounded. This was taro. There is no way someone like him wants to hand out with someone like me. I don't even know why he starts talking to me in the first place. The halls of the school were pretty deserted right now. And I was sure someone was going to jump out and yell "Pranked!" Or something.

"Yeah, I haven't really talked to you after what happened, so let's take this as an apology for what the guys did." He said, smiling sheepishly. It was going to take a lot more than food to get me to forgive them.