Chapter 5 FROZEN IN THE RAIN

FROZEN IN THE RAIN

TASHA'S POV

"Slut. Can't you hear me?"

I dropped onto the steps, eyes still locked on Jeremy in the distance, ignoring the storm cloud standing behind me completely.

"I asked you a question," Elsa said, voice sharp now, all the honey gone from it.

I didn't answer. I didn't even turn around. I wasn't sure why I felt the urge to ignore her, but I did.

That wasn't the right move. The next second my head snapped back so hard my neck cracked, her fingers tangled brutally into my hair.

Pain shot through me, sharp enough that I felt strands nearly ripped clean from my scalp.

I stood, rational thought scattering, and my own hands found her hair just as fast, coiling tight and yanking back with equal force.

Elsa shrieked, the sound carrying clean across the field.

"Let go!" she screamed, stumbling, nails clawing at my wrist.

"You let go first," I snapped, pulling harder, ignoring the fire spreading across my own scalp.

We must have looked insane, two girls locked together, screaming, stumbling sideways into the grass. Somewhere behind us the rhythmic thud of a ball stopped. Voices shouted. Footsteps pounded closer.

Hands grabbed at both of us, pulling us apart, and only then did I finally release my grip, chest heaving, strands of dark hair still caught between my fingers.

That's when I saw him.

Jeremy stood frozen at the edge of the field, the ball forgotten somewhere behind him, staring at me like he didn't recognize the girl in front of him.

Not a shock. Not amusement.

Disappointment. Pure, quiet disappointment, the kind that hit harder than anything Roman had screamed at me an hour ago.

My stomach dropped straight through the ground.

"Jeremy…." I called, or maybe I only whispered it, because I couldn't even hear my own voice over the pounding in my ears.

I took a step toward him, but he was already moving, already turning his back on me like I was something he no longer wanted to look at. He shoved the ball away with his foot, grabbed his water bottle off the grass without breaking stride, and walked off the field with the rest of the team trailing behind him.

He didn't look back once.

Elsa was still yapping somewhere behind me, but the sound had gone hollow, meaningless. My legs wouldn't move. I just stood there, hair a mess, breath uneven, staring at the space where he used to be.

‘He thinks I'm trouble.’

‘He probably thinks I'm nothing but a headache now.’

Thanks to her.

★★★

Class felt like punishment.

I sat through every period in a daze, the teacher's voice fading into white noise, my notebook untouched on the desk. Jeremy's seat stayed empty. He didn't come back, not after lunch, not after the next period, not at all.

I told myself I didn't care. I told myself that a dozen times. But every time the classroom door creaked open, my head snapped toward it on instinct, hoping. Every time, it wasn't him.

I just want to change my fate, I told myself. I  don't want to lose the important one.

Why did it matter so much? Why did one look from a boy I'd barely acknowledged for fifteen years feel like it had cracked something open in my ribs?

I didn't have an answer. I only had the silence where his desk used to make noise,  pen tapping, chair creaking, the occasional huff when a teacher annoyed him. None of it. Just empty wood, an empty chair, and a hollow feeling I didn't know what to do with.

By the time the final bell rang, I hadn't absorbed a single word from any of my classes.

I stood, shoved my notebook into my bag, and ignored the sharp gaze Roman aimed at me across the room. I went outside to look for Jeremy instead.

It was raining by the time school let out, not a drizzle, a full, furious downpour, the kind that turned the schoolyard into a blur of gray and umbrellas and shrieking students sprinting for the gates.

I stepped out under the covered walkway, eyes scanning the crowd before I even registered what I was looking for.

Him.

There he was.

My heart lit up instantly, absurdly, like I'd been handed something sweet after a long day of aching for it. I pushed forward, stopping just short of him, wanting to ask why he'd looked at me like that, but my mouth wouldn't cooperate. The words stayed buried, tangled somewhere behind my teeth.

He stood close to the gate, phone pressed to his ear, shoulders tense, a frown carved deep into his face like whatever was being said on the other end wasn't good news. He didn't seem to register the rain at all, like it simply didn't have permission to touch him.

Students hurried past in clusters, bags held over their heads like makeshift umbrellas, racing toward the bus stop in shrieking, laughing groups. I barely noticed any of them.

I started toward him, weaving through the crowd, heart picking up speed with every step.

A black car rolled up to the curb just as I got close enough to call his name.

"Jeremy!"

"Hey, Jeremy…." I cursed under my breath, trying to push through the crowd faster.

He ended the call, slid the phone into his pocket, and walked straight into the rain without hesitation, like the storm wasn't even there.

"Jeremy!" I called again, breaking into a run now, rain soaking through my uniform in seconds, plastering my hair flat against my face.

He didn't stop.

I was almost sure he'd heard me. "Jeremy!"

The car door opened. He ducked inside.

I kept running, shoes splashing through puddles, my voice swallowed whole by the roar of the rain, my hand outstretched toward a door that was already closing.

My heart pounded.

The door shut.