@Vena| So, can I ask you something?
@Ilene| Sure, what is it?
@Vena| Tbh, what do you see in Hayden
@Ilene| Srsly?
@Vena| Yeah
@Ilene| I think he gets a darker part of me that no one understands or ever sees.. idk how to explain it, but he introduces another part of something, something I never knew.
@Vena| Idk, he just rubs me wrong
@Ilene| I don’t get why you have such a problem
Buzz!
Ilene paused as the notification of a message from Hayden dropped down. The bus hit a small bump in the road, rocking it for a second. Ilene dropped her phone and it slid under the seat of in front of her.
“Shit…” she muttered. One of the kids on the seat reached under him and grabbed it. A moment later, he turned back, a strange look on his face as he handed it.
“Thank you,” she said slowly, the student turning back around. She opened the message afterwards.
@Hayden| Hello, beautiful.
@Hayden| Ilene?
@Hayden| Can you answer?
@Hayden| Fuck, answer your phone
@Hayden| Ilene, I swear
@Ilene| Hey, baby, I’m sorry, I didn’t hear the notifications
@Hayden| Well, why didn’t you just check your chat yourself?
@Ilene| I was talking with my friend, Vena
@Hayden| And?
@Ilene| What?
@Hayden| Why would her responses be put over mine? I don’t understand
@Ilene| It’s not like I’m putting her over you, I was just talking to her. She’s my friend
@Hayden| I’ve noticed how you are around your friends, how closely you behave with them and how comfortable you are with them.
@Ilene| That’s not a bad thing, babe, it’s just my friends, I love them
@Hayden| You shouldn’t even need friends. If I wanted you to have only me, who would you choose?
@Ilene| The driver stopped for some reason, I’ll try and text you later, I’m sorry
@Hayden| Talk later?
@Ilene| Have a school project, sorry
She shut off her phone, then pressed her hand against her chest. Her breathing spiked, her jaw tight as she tried to stifle its potency, her lips quivering and eyes watering.
Entering the school, she shrunk among the plethora of students crowding the wide halls, opening and slamming lockers. She stopped at hers, her breath stuttering.
“Calm down,” she whispered. “Calm down, calm down…”
“Oh, my God, Hayden! That’s so beautiful!”
Ilene spun around to see, a bit further down the hall, Hayden by his locker beside a short girl. She had long reddish-brown hair tied into a ponytail, a round face, large oak-colored eyes, and big ground glasses over them.
“Thanks, Ari. I’m glad you could read it. I wanted to do something different with the form there, but I wasn’t sure it would resonate.”
Ilene gulped, turning back to her locker. Her foot tapped on the ground steadily, erratically increasing as she impatiently spun her code number. Opening her door, she threw several books inside before slamming it shut and storming off.
Hayden glanced at her as she went, raising his hand at her but she kept her eyes down as she disappeared down the hall.
“What’s wrong with her?” Ari asked.
“Not sure,” Hayden replied. “I’ll text her later. She said she can’t talk today, so I’m not really sure.”
He pulled out his phone and typed:
@Hayden| Something wrong?
A shadow of a slight smirk fell on his face.
“I don’t want to get in the way of anything…”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “Bell’s about to ring, should get to class. Thanks for checking out the poem, see you at lunch.”
Ilene sat with her friends at their table – Vena excluded – eating silence along with food. The twins glanced at each other, Philip opening his mouth before Danny held out his hand and shook his head. Philip sighed, looking down at his food, his brother mirroring.
Glancing up, Ilene noticed, beyond the crowd of people, Hayden and Ari sitting together, laughing as they ate.
She frowned, picking up her phone and opened her chat with Hayden.
@Ilene| I’m fine, can we talk after school?
@Hayden| Sure, sounds good
The children flooded from the doors of the school, jumping down the steps and into buses or cars with parents. Standing on a sidewalk near the main street, Ilene squinted as she searched among the exiting kids.
“Hey.”
Hayden stood behind her, hands in pocket, wearing a placid mask.
Ilene crossed her arms, frowning slightly. “Hey.”
“I thought you were bu-”
“What the fuck is going on? Why were you showing your poems to that random girl?”
“Ari? I just met her today. We had our lockers next to each other.”
“You were acting so weird with her, almost like you were trying to make me jealous.”
“Jealous? Heh. No.” He looked to the horizon, lingering for a moment, before closing his eyes.
“My day has just been fucking horrible today, okay?! You made me feel so bad about wanting to hang out with my friends and talk to them, then you show another girl your poetry and be with her like you’ve known her for years.”
“I think you understand it now.”
“Understand what?”
He opened his watering eye. “That’s how I feel, Ilene. That’s what happens when you ignore me, I just feel this pressure inside of me… great sadness, I don’t know. Something bubbles up in me and it manifests as anger. I can’t stand it when you put your friends over me like that, I don’t know why. But it makes me feel like how you do today, all the time.” A tear fell down his cheek. “I’m sorry I was the cause of your bad day. I don’t mean to be, I just… I just need you to understand.”
Ilene glanced away, her eyes stinging at the reflection of his tear. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I… I didn’t know that’s how bad you felt… I’m sorry…”
Hayden opened his arms and she rushed into him, squeezing him with her hold around his waist. He rested his cheek on the top of her head and snuggled her into himself.
“I can’t give up my friends, Hayden.”
“I know. I only ask for more love than them.”
“…Okay. I’ll try. But you have to stop talking to that stupid girl.”
“Done.”
Separating from their embrace, they smiled at each other, Ilene chuckling as she held his hand tightly.
When winter came, the tree feared the cold and thus Kore kept the snow from accumulating around him. When spring came, he wanted to beautify faster than the other trees, so she gave him her beauty.
The nighttime would come, and the tree would cry for fear of the darkness and being away from the sun. Kore took the darkness and sheltered it within herself, remaining always in it for his stead. And when the day came the tree would wither and die, through tear and sniffles and whimpers, he implored Kore for her youth. And so, she died in his place in the umbrella of darkness. All with a smile.
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