Chapter 30
Angela finally arrived school, a few minutes late. Due to all the stress that happened yesterday, she found it hard to get some shut-eye. She finally forced herself to sleep in the wee hours of the morning, and she still had to go to school today, so it was a very short sleep.
She wanted to have some more sleep. She need more rest, badly. These past few weeks had been crazy to say the least, and some rest could help. If it was possible, she would've tried to skip school again, but she had been doing too much of that lately. Skipping school again was almost impossible.
Plus, she needed some time away from her mum...
She walked through the gate into the school with a loud sigh. She caught sight of her friends standing at the corner of the school, as usual. They seemed to be waiting for her.
She scoffed.
She didn't have time for them right now. She was angry at them, but she was too tired for any confrontation and any unnecessary interviews, so she decided to behave like she hadn't seen and walk straight into the building..
Unfortunately, her eyes met that of Claire before taking them away and attempting to almost speed walk into the school building.
"Hey, Angela!", Claire yelled, abd that got the attention of the rest of the squad and they started running towards her.
Angela on the other hand behaved like it wasn't her they were calling, abd she increased her pace into the school building.
"Hey, Angela! Wait up!"
"Wait for us!!", they yelled as they tried to catch up with her...
Just before she could enter the school building, Debbie ran fast enough to catch up with stood in front of her, blocking her from entering the school, while the other two finally stood by her side.
They were too exhausted to talk. They had too take some time to catch their breath. They placed they hands on the hips all panting...
Although Angela was trying to show it, but from the small beads of sweat that formed on her head, and they way she fought to control her breath, it was obvious she had a fair share in the run, and was caught up in breathlessness...
"What do you guys want?", Angela asked with a frown when she finally got herself together.
"What do you mean by "what do you guys want?"", Gene asked as straightened herself up vertically, taking her hands off her hips and taking a huge exhale.
"We haven't seen you for the past 24 hours or so. When we call you call, it's either your phone is switched off, or it'll ring and you'd not pick. We've been spamming you with messages for only God knows how long", Debbie said.
"What the hell happened?! What is wrong with you?? Why would you go AWOL and not tell anybody where you went?", Claire asked
"And most importantly, where the hell have you been??!!! ", Debbie asked with worry in her eyes.
"And why you do you girl ask?", Angela queried and folded her arms in anger.
Her actions shocked the whole group. They didn't understand what she meant by that. They didn't know what was going on with Angela at all.
"What's with all these questions that you're giving to us? We're asking you about you whereabouts, and you keep throwing our questions back at us. What's with you?", Gene asked, obviously vexed and exhausted.
"I should be asking those questions. Why are you asking me questions?", Angela asked with a straight face.
"Because we deserve to know where you were, for Twilight's sake!! What's wrong with you?!!!", Debbie yelled at Angela, angry with all the stupid questions she was asking.
Before Angela could give a retort back at Debbie, Claire stopped her before things would get worse than it was already.
"Look, Angela. We're you're friends. We need to know. We care about each other. We need to look out for each other at all times. The fact that you were nowhere to be found for 24 hours was really scary for us. It's the emotional stress that's getting to all of us, and we know better than to let that bring the worst of us. We're just looking out for you. Please Angela, where have you been?", Claire calmly asked Angela.
"There's no need to ask. You girls got it all wrong. I don't need to tell you anything about my whereabouts. You don't DESERVE to know ", she said, looking straight into Debbie's eyes, "And if you guys really care about me, and are looking out for me, you would've covered up for me while I was away", she retorted.
"How could we cover up for you when we don't know where you were, or the fact that you were nowhere to be found in the first place?!!", Gene asked, confused by Angela's question.
"Does it matter? When I'm asked about my whereabouts, you should know that something is up, and you could've easily said something else when mother called to ask if I was with you girls. That way, she wouldn't have been worried", Angela said.
"You expect us to lie to your mother about your whereabouts? Especially when you caught us off guard?!! Really, Angela?!", Debbie asked in anger.
Claire was about to step into the situation when Angela stopped her with a wave.
"I don't have the strength or the time to talk about this. I need to be alone", she said and walked past Debbie and they watched as she walked into the school building, leaving her friends shocked at the entrance of the school building.
*****
School had never been this tiring for Angela for Angela before. She just wanted school hours to be over so she could go home and scream in her pillow, and probably cry.
The banter she had with her friends earlier this morning outside the school building was still on her mind. No matter how hard she tried to get it off her mind and focus on the lessons the lecturers were teaching, the thought still played in her mind.
She wished she hadn't done that to them. She knew she was angry. They were concerned, and like Claire put it, they were emotionally stressed too. It was just that she was overwhelmed.
She hated that her mother was worrying over her the whole time, and she wished her friends had told her something different.
Now, her mum had warned her to stay against Dmitri. She wished she could escape all this mess that the Moon Goddess had put on her...
It was break time, and she went to the cafeteria where everyone was. She took her food from the counter and stood around, scanning the hall.
If she had a way, she would've taken her food back to the class and eaten it there by herself, but that was against school rules.
She found her friends sitting around a table in a circle. She wished in her that she was actually scanning the room for find a seat among her friends, but that wasn't the case. In fact, it was opposite. She was actually scanning the cafeteria so she wouldn't run into her friends. She was avoiding them.
She could see that they left a seat conspicuously vacant. She knew it was meant for her, but she wasn't going to seat with them. At least not yet. She was still overwhelmed and a little bit angry.
She went round and sat alone on a table. She whipped out her phone and scrolled the internet absentmindedly as she forced the tasteless food into her mouth from time to time. She didn't know if it was because her numb taste buds, or that the food today was actually wack. The cafeteria food didn't usually taste this way...
*****
School was finally over and she immediately packed her bags to leave the school premises. She was longing to go home and be on her bed. She was also trying to dodge her friends. Chances were that they were going to try to talk to her again after school, or try to coax her to walk home with them.
She going out of the class, rushed down the stairs, a d down the hallway. She was almost at the end of the hallway when she saw friends standing at the same place they had their fight this morning.
She stopped for a while, and continued walking, not looking their way.
"Angela", Claire called when she walked past them.
Angela stopped and turned to them.
"Won't you follow us home?", Debbie asked.
"Don't feel like. I'm not going home anyways", Angela said.
"Oh"
"Come on. You can't still tell us that you're angry with us", Gene asked.
"I just need to be somewhere urgently. Bye", she said and turned, taking her leave and ignoring their calls.
She left the school as fast as could, not wanting to look back and reveal the tears the tears that had welled up in her eyes.
****
She walked home alone, trying not cry as she went. She took a separate road from the usual road she and her friends usually took, so there would be no odds of running into them. She wasn't ready to look them in the face right now.
When she was almost at her house, she saw a figure sitting at the corner of the road. She could tell that it was man, and his back backed her.
Her blood began racing, dreading and hoping that it wasn't who she thought he was. She prayed that he wasn't Leo..
She began to retreat a little, beginning to wish that she didn't take this road. The person heard her footsteps, stood up and turned to her.
When she saw that it was Dmitri, she placed her hands on her chest in relief.
"Hey", Dmitri said as she walked to her and stood before her.
"Hey, Dmitri", she said.
"How are you feeling?", He asked.
"I'm holding up", she replied.
"I wasn't expecting you to be here. You actually scared me", she confessed.
"I'm sorry about that. It was just that I worried about you're safety since yesterday, and since I couldn't get to see you earlier in the day, I decided to wait on you here", he said.
"That's sweet of you", she said with a smile.
"How are feeling?", She asked, her eyes on the bandaged area on Dmitri's body.
"I'm getting better. I'll be fine very soon. Don't worry about me", he said.
"Look, I want to to thank you for being with me all the while-", she was about to keep going when her stomach grumbled loudly.
She looked at her tummy, and back at Dmitri's face, which now wore a smile, and her cheeked flushed with embarrassment.
"I guess someone's hungry", he said with a smirk.
Honestly, it felt like she hadn't eaten anything in ages.
"Come on, let's go get some food", he said to her.
*****
"I just feel tired. I wish I could run away from all this. I wished I could wake up from this nightmare...", Angela said as she stuffed her mouth with food.
Dmitri held her hand that was one the table, causing her to look into his eyes...
"I want you to know that you're not in this alone. I'm with you in every step of the way...", He said.
Angela was about to reply when Leo walked into the eatery...
She immediately took her hands away from Dmitri's, turning lake with fear at his sight.
Dmitri watched him enter, and they exchanged glances. After a moment, Leo walked out of the eatery.
"Don't worry. He won't do anything. You're safe."
****
As Angela went to bed that night, she thought about everything that has happened today.
She thought about the brawl she had with her friends, and she felt bad about it.
She thought about Leo's appearance in the eatery. It didn't seem like he was following her. It seemed like he wanted to buy something, but on seeing them, he turned and left. She was shocked and happy at the same time.
Slowly, her mind went blank, until she fell asleep.