Chapter Eighteen.

AMELIA.

"I keep telling you that you didn't have to do that," I said to Ava as we walked to Econ.

"Do what?" She asked, pretending she didn't know what I was talking about.

"Come on, Ava. That got you in the bad books of the baddest bitch in the school." I said, looking at her to make my point.

"You mean the bitchiest bitch?" Ava corrected, and I rolled my eyes.

"You have such a sharp mouth. But for real, on a more serious note. They are going to like to have a mark on you now. They will frustrate you and almost make you regret coming to this school." I told her, and she stopped.

I stopped, too, to look at her.

"Why did you stop?" I asked her, and she turned to me.

"Amelia, you're human, I'm human, and they are human too. I know there is a hierarchy in almost every school we attend, but that does not mean we should be treated like animals for that reason. And they were not even bullying you because you were on that lower food chain; they were bullying you because you were fat, over something you didn't have control over; that's brutal, Amelia. And it's not something you should tolerate either." Ava said, looking serious. She hardly took anything seriously, so seeing her this seriously was surprising.

"I know what you mean; I just don't want you to be on their radar because of me," I told her as we resumed walking.

"It's no problem. We are friends now, and these are what friends do for each other." She said, and I couldn't help but smile.

It reminded me of Dylan.

Dylan was my only friend, but we were not that again. Now, I only have Ava. I just hoped that I wouldn't be heartbroken at the end. That was something about me; no matter how hurt and broken I was, I still always found it in my heart to give it a try again.

I feel like that's why we were created on this earth in the first place: because of one heartbreak, we decide that we will not be friends with anybody again or fall in love; that will make us not human because we can't cope without these things.

So, yeah, that's how I am.

"So you were serious about it?" I asked her, and she frowned, glancing at me in question.

"Serious about what?" She asked me.

"So, you would still have been friends with me if I was still the fatso of the school?" I asked her.

She started laughing, and I wondered what was so funny about what I said.

"What is so funny?" I asked her.

"They really did call you fatso?" She asked me, wiping an imaginary test from her eye.

"Yes, they did," I repeated, and she started laughing again.

"They could have at least given you a prettier name." She said, and I laughed.

"Trust me, nothing they did was to make me feel pretty; they just wanted to make me miserable because I was fat and not skinny like them," I said, and she laughed.

"Well, I would have been your friend. It's not right to choose friends according to how they look or what they have. A friendship cannot blossom that way and in a very spiritual person when it comes to stuff like this. I don't just call anybody my friend; I take my time. But with you, it just came very easy. You didn't deserve all the evil they threw at you." She said, and I smiled.

Maybe Ava would be the one to heal the wounds that she didn't cause.

We finally entered the class, and I looked around to find a space for us; thankfully, I saw two chairs at the back and quickly grabbed Ava's hands to sit down.

I didn't want to make my presence known because I was still getting all the stares and all the remarks that made me feel uncomfortable.

We sat down, and I brought out my books for Econ; my eyes went around and landed on Dylan's. Valerie was sitting beside him, talking his ears off about something and unable to keep her hands off him.

The view annoyed me at first. I tried my best to loom away, but I couldn't. As if Dylan could tell that I was looking at him too, he looked at me, and my breath caught in my throat.

The way he looked at me got to me every fucking time. Even though I shouldn't be, even though he fucked me up, I couldn't help it.

Valerie noticed that his attention was not on her, and she drew his face back to hers after staring at me long and hard; it was like she was debating several ways to kill me in her mind.

Or maybe, just maybe, she wanted to maim me?

"The both of you are finished people, especially Dylan. The way he looks at you is charming."

"Oh, cut me out. There's nothing there. You think there is when there's nothing there." I told her playfully, and she gave me a smile that she knew I was lying to myself.

I knew I was, too; I knew I liked him very much, but what I didn't believe that he was cutely looking at me. Someone who wrote in his diary that he didn't like me?

It wasn't possible.

"Just keep lying to yourself, but always remember, the truth will always come out. Three things that can never be hidden for long which are: the sun, the moon and the truth." She said to me, and I raised my brows in confusion.

"Are you a Buddhist?" I asked her, and she just laughed.

"Well, I do a little bit of everything. I like to know stuff like that." She told me.

"But you don't like Mrs Williams's classes?" I asked her.

"Not everybody can be interested in it. The teacher is here." Ava said, and I looked forward to seeing the teacher strolling in.

Okay, here we go.