Chapter 5 FROZEN IN THE RAIN

TASHA'S POV

“Slut…can't you hear me.”

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

"I asked you a question," Elsa said, voice sharp now, 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.

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

I felt my hair almost ripped off my scalp…the pain shit through me. 

Hurtful.

Pain rushed through me as well as my rational thought as I stood up and tanked her hair to the back. My hands coil through her hair really tight as I pull it right back.

Elsa shrieked, the sound sharp enough to carry across the entire field.

"Let go!" she screamed, stumbling, her 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 the ball stopped. Voices shouted. Footsteps pounded closer.

I felt hands grab at both of us, pulling us apart, and only then did I finally release my grip, breathing hard, my chest heaving, strands of dark hair still caught between my fingers.

That's when I saw him.

Jeremy.

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 could've screamed at me an hour ago.

My stomach dropped straight through the ground.

"Jeremy…" I called out…maybe I whispered even though I couldn't hear my own voice.

Taking a step toward him, but he was already moving, already turning his back on me like I was something he didn't want to look at anymore. 

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.

I could still hear the endless yapping and screaming from Elsa but it was void right now. 

My legs wouldn't move. I just stood there, hair a mess, breath still uneven, watching the space where he used to be.

He thinks I'm trouble…he probably thinks I was troublesome now. 

Thanks to this bitch. 

★★★

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 in front of me. 

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 a dozen times. But every time the classroom door creaked open, my head snapped toward it on instinct, hoping, and every time it wasn't him.

Hoping I wasn't sounding desperate. I just want to change my fate…and not 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 just had the silence where his desk used to make noise, pen tapping, chair creaking, the occasional huff when he was annoyed at a teacher. None of it. Just empty wood and 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 up, pulled my notepad into my bag, ignoring the sharp gaze of Roman. I went outside to look for him. 

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 running for the gates.

I grabbed my bag and stepped out under the covered walkway, eyes scanning the crowd before I even realized what I was looking for.

Him…

There it was Jeremy.

My heart suddenly lit up like I was given a lollipop after a long day of yearning for it. 

I ran through and stopped just a little close…I should poke him and ask him why he had flared at me but my mouth wasn't obeying this time.

I tried to say something but they kept burying only in my thoughts.

He was close to the school gate, phone pressed to his ear, shoulders tense, a slight frown carved into his face like whatever was being said on the other end wasn't good news. 

He wasn't paying attention to the rain at all, like it simply didn't register as something that could 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 them.

I started toward him, weaving through the crowd, my 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…. fuck.”  

I couldn't help but curse out as I tried to beat through the crowd.

Jeremy 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, breaking into a run now, rain soaking through my uniform in seconds, plastering my hair to my face.

He didn't stop.

I was pretty sure he heard me. “Jeremy!!" 

The car door opened. He ducked inside.

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

My heart racing.

The door shut.