Third Person
Oeillet de règne Académie: Garden
7:29 A.M.
"Raine!"
Her blonde hair followed behind her as her flowy dress danced with the wind while she ran to catch up with her avoiding best friend. It's funny to think that she can't run with her sneakers when Raine was walking with her heeled boots.
"Raine..."
She persistently kept calling her name that her throat was becoming dry and coming out of her mouth was a raspy voice. It was the longest number of times when Raine would intentionally ignore her because of something that angers her.
"Come on girl... Talk to me!"
Her calls became whimpers as she slowly loses hope in getting the black-haired girl to converse with her. Racquel felt a prick of pain on her ankles as she tried harder to run when Raine was far ahead of her. Not long after, her legs collapsed and she received a scratch on her smooth legs.
Racquel moaned in pain before holding the wound, "Ouch!" She closed her eyes and bit her lower lip as she damped the bleeding wound with the end of her £3,000 dress. The girl was far more hurt when she saw the dress stained by her blood than when her wound wouldn't stop bleeding.
The poor blonde cried and just stayed there on the rough floor, not minding the sting on her legs. But then she heard a pair of footsteps nearing her location, she looked and saw another concerned female. Raine pulled a thick fabric scrunchie as she let her long hair fall from a perfect high ponytail.
Racquel was speechless when it was her chance to speak and apologize, but she was caught up watching Raine expertly wrapping the scrunchie to stop the crimson liquid leaking out from the scratch. Guilt came back to the blonde girl when her eyes spotted her best friend's bandaged hand.
It was because of the thorned roses.
It was because of them.
"You still don't know how to wear your shoes properly," Raine lectured her before untying her sneakers then tying it back to a better knot, "Nor how to tie a knot..."
Raine stood again and was about to walk away when the blonde girl bolted upwards to hug her tightly from behind, "I'm very sorry, Raine..."
"I was going to apologize for whatever reason I could think, but—" A tear was shed from Racquel's foundation covered face when Raine sounded different before she removed her wrapped hands around her waist.
Raine turned around and faced her with a new aura, "I couldn't think of anything I did wrong to you," her stare was not soft and innocent anymore, "I'm done apologizing, Racquel. And you should stop expecting I'll forgive..."
"It's Klavier! I'm accountable for less than the latter in that plan," Racquel explained in defense, "Raine. I don't want to lose one of my best friends just because of one boy..."
Raine looked down and let her bangs darken her eyes, "Racquel. My garden was burned—"
She turned around, biting her lip before continuing, "Two people were killed and Saccharide was the one suspected—"
As she closed her eyes, the welled-up tears ran down her face. She put her palm over her beating heart to calm herself before explodes because of the weight chained to her churning stomach. Opening her quivering lips, she let out all the words she could say to get some conscience, "He was diagnosed with a split disorder that can be dangerous with his PTSD..."
"His father was plotting against us. Somebody is trying to make us disappear," Her voice cracked at its peak, and moistening her dried throat was hard as all the waterworks gushed out of her eyes.
"See my point? It's always Saccharide with you, Raine," Racquel made her turn around and shook her by the shoulders, "Think for yourself. Just for once!"
"Please give me some alone time. I'm trying to think and just— process this," Raine walked away from her friend before handing her the fallen paper bag on the floor.
Racquel did not take the bag's handle and sarcastically smiled, "Think?"
...
"Maybe you could've done that before you decided to love Saccharide just because he knocked on the wrong door that night," the blonde female uttered and it made Raine widened her eyes again. A whimper escaped her lips as she gritted her lips and vice gripped the paper container, her nails digging into the flimsy material.
"I still love him..." Racquel blurted out, synchronized with a teardrop.
...
The blonde gal realized her mistake and gasped when Raine pushes the paper bag into her arms in force before walking away with a steady face. She can't see her face but the sniffles and whimpers made it clear that it stung the black-haired girl deep in the heart.
Even with her aching leg, she walked behind her, "Oh my gosh. I'm sorry, Raine," she called out while keeping the scrunchie in place. Grinding her teeth when she saw blood drip from the damped fabric to her newly bought sneakers, Racquel closed her eyes and continued to call her best friend.
"No, please. Listen to me!"
Raine won't stop. And Racquel was getting light-headed as she felt her legs draining of her essence. The warm liquid covered a quarter of her leg so, she stopped and leaned on one of the pillars. She looked at Raine's figure getting smaller then she shouted—
"Raine! You're being unfair!"
Raine stopped walking just before she disappeared from her sight, but she was frozen in her place. Racquel sighed and slid down to sit on the floor. Her heavy lids blinked, she turned her head to the other direction as her eyes trailed to the blood drips she left, they teared up.
It was truly hurtful. And it was just a scratch.
"I have no problem with you kissing him, Racquel..."
Racquel heard her name, she looked up and saw Raine appearing like an angel in front of the blinding light.
"When you abandoned me to get in bed with him, did I avoid you?" she asked while the other didn't dare to answer, "I still appeared in front of you like nothing happened, remember?"
Raine kneeled in front of her and pulled out a handkerchief. Just their luck that the clinic was closed because of the temporary closedown of the school so any clean fabric will do for tending bleeding wounds.
"I know you're also behind the late ride..."
Racquel hissed when the fabric touched her wound, but it was Raine's words that seared her feelings more.
Raine returned the scrunchie to keep the hanky in place, not stopping to enumerate all their heist to stop the date, "The complain of the guard towards my daring clothing..."
Racquel gathered the strength and held Raine's hands with her cold ones before explaining herself, "Look, he was forcing you to wear clothes you find uncomfortable..."
The blonde girl couldn't be more surprised as she gasped when Raine yanked her hands out of her cradle and declared, "Clearly, my best friends don't know me enough," she stood up and loomed over her, "I also know you gave the news about his DID because you thought I'll be petrified of him..."
"Raine I—"
She became speechless again.
"I'm accepting everything Racquel. I forgive both you and Klavier for squeezing this idea in my head that I'm dumb for loving Saccharide," Raine uttered in a low voice.
"I don't do that!" Racquel firmly grasped the end of her dress before shouting, "You're including me into the things Klavier clearly have done!"
Raine was amazed by how determined her friend to defend herself from the act, "You let him do that for you," she finally revealed.
Lips were automatically zipped and a migraine struck her head when Raine mentioned those words. Disregarding her look of defeat, Raine continued, "When Romien dropped him off my place the night of your interrogation. He's drunk. He told me everything, Racquel..."
"I don't! Are you hearing yourself?" the blonde female cried, almost dragging herself closer to Raine who was backing away slowly with each sentence.
"Always. You're always dumbing it down to me. Do I rant? No!" Raine's voice came out as like that of a lion cub's roar, "I smile and giggle like a princess being degraded of weapons because I don't want to lose our friendship."
Then she cried again. This time, out of relief that she vomited all the thorns out of her body. But that wasn't half of the thorns she wanted to eradicate from her system.
"—And the greatest thing you could do is to follow us and make our day a vast of hiding and seeking. You don't know how it felt when he'll randomly look around because he was anxious somebody was going to ruin that day..."
Her voice was like a part of a ballad psalm in the Renaissance period.
"We've had the chance to finally be a normal couple on a normal day, just like he always dream—" Raine paused and made Racquel look at her before sternly saying, "It was ruined by our close friends..."
Racquel's brows brought themselves together and spat out to Raine, "You changed! What did Saccharide do to our Raine?"
"The Gullible. Fragile. Fool. Doormat, Raine?" uttered Raine with a disappointed grimace on her face, "Sounds familiar? Those words came out from you, right?"
"Thank you..."
The black-haired girl stood straight and took a step towards the other direction before throwing the girl behind her one last look.
"Now I know what really am I to you..."
With a snap of a finger, she disappeared from Racquel's view. The poor girl panicked and called out, "Raine!"
Racquel ignored the pain in her leg and tried to use the wall for support, but her sweaty hands were unable to pull her weight up. She fell on her bottom with a bounce and thud, losing all the hope, she hugged her knees and tried to reach for her paper bag.
"Let her be, Racquel..."
She gasped when a pair of arms helped her up. Trying her best not to cry, she looked up to find comfort but Romien's soft eyes reminded her of her best friend's former meek appearance. Racquel noticed how close she was clinging onto the male brunette's shirt.
"What brings you here?" she asked and ran her arms over her face to wipe the tears, only to be worsened by the smudges of eyeliner, "Are you here with Sir Edward? He left the hotel early this morning..."
Racquel looked like a heap of wet painting canvas, but the boy didn't mind it. She looked beautiful in any way for him. The male remained silent and directed his eyes on her wound before saying, "Let's get to my bike, I have bandages inside the back compartment..."
"I'm fine!" she came back to her usual self and talked to the boy like nothing happened, "We could use your bike to get to the garden..."
She giggled but Romien maintained his serious face before picking up the girl by surprise in a bridal style. Racquel became squeamish with their position and struggled as Romien continued to strive for the other direction, not making any comment.