Healing Slowly But Surely By R. Joseph novel Chapter 264

264 Many reasons why.

264 Many reasons why.

Leilani.

EIGHT YEARS AGO.

I stood at the back of the line, lost in my world while the other girls chatted amongst themselves, talking about the events that happened in last nights’ run through the woods- not like I was invited.

By this time, everyone at the pack had already begun to suspect that I do not have a wolf. They already knew the curse that I was; So it was no surprise when the Alpha’s and Luna’s invitation cards to the run didn’t drop out of my locker when I opened it two days ago.

Goddess, I could even still remember their snickers, their snide way

comments, the they had laughed between themselves when they quietly stood behind me, waiting to see if anything would fall out.

But then nothing.

Their sounds dissolved into white noise. Their jests felt like dust against my skin.

Tears brimmed in my eyes but I had refused to let it drop. Or maybe it would’ve dropped if it wasn’t for Jennifer and Agnes, my best friends, who then leaned over, friends, who then leaned over, their breaths fanning both sides of my neck as they whispered;

“It doesn’t matter.”

“I never liked places like that anyway.”

I turned to look at them, my bottom lip puckering, my knees wobbly. I was naive, too naive- and my naivety was what had pushed me into asking;

“So you both wouldn’t go?”

“I won’t!” Jennifer had been the first to respond, her blonde eyebrows scrunching up in annoyance as she regarded me and Agnes. “I do not wish to be around Betty and Abby and Chalice. They’ve been trying to force me into becoming friends with them.”

“They what?!” I snapped, feeling my heart begin to race in my chest.

Chalice always wanted everything I had. Goddess, she had it all but always liked to take whatever was mine along with the abundance she already has- be it clothes, family affection… and now, my friends?

1502

O

“They want me to be their friend. They say that I am close friends with the triplets which they wish to be close to.” She answered softly, looking down at her feet.

“But I won’t!” She added, as if in a bid to reassure me. “I do not like them. I do not talk to the triplets that much. Moreover, whenever they talk to me, all they do is ask about you.” She cried, and as soon as I heard that, my heart fluttered in my chest.

It was no secret between the three of us that had a crush as huge as the whole of Antarctica on the triplets, but because I was too young, barely sixteen when most of the people in the same class as us were already pushing eighteen, my friends always advised me to never act on it.

I blushed and turned to Agnes. “What about you? Are you going?”

“I can’t,” she simply said, “my parents are too poor

I have no other friends besides you both.”

to afford my running gear. Moreover

So at the end of that day, we had all agreed that we would all not go there.

We had decided not to show our faces.

So now why was I hearing from these girls that Jennifer had been to the after party? That she had left a few hours into it with the triplets?

Goddess, why are they all looking at me like I was some pathetic little wench?

Usually, whenever they looked at me, there was always this sense of disgust or resentment in their eyes, so why is it different today? Why does it seem like they… pity

me?

Before I could voice these thoughts, I saw Agnes running over. Her hair was all over the place and her dark eyes were even more sunken, glistening with tears that ran down e sunken, glistening with tears that ran down her face with her mascara.

I froze at the sight, my heart falling into my stomach as I came to a halt. My voice sounded like it was being scraped against the graveled floor as I croaked out; “What happened?”

Deep down, I knew that it was nothing good but I just had no idea the extent to which the news was bad.

My hands were shaky- too shaky- when I planted them on her shoulders and asked; “Agnes, can you talk to me?”

“I…” hiccups, “I can.”

“So talk to me!”

15:02

|||

214

“It’s Jennifer!” She cried, her voice sounding so sharp, I squeezed my eyes shut to stop the wracking headache now tearing through my skull.

“She’s… she’s dead! She was found last night behind a dumpster!”

The words hit me like a freight train, tilting my world in its axis until all that was left was white noise and pain. A scorching pain that tore through my chest and guts, threatening to split my heart into two as my knees crashed to the floor.

Tears filled my eyes and I made no attempt to stop it when it began to slip out.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify