Immortal Souls (The Immortal Souls: Magic & Chaos)

Chapter 39

The lunch bell finally rang. 

Scott felt like he'd been in that class all day and it was only one o'clock. He made his way out of the room, through the halls to his locker. As always, he took the long route, which led him straight past Sam's locker. He couldn't help feeling disappointed when he found she wasn't there.

He walked to his locker, put his math book inside, then took out his lunch and made his way to the cafeteria. As soon as he'd pushed through the doors, Madison waved him over to her table.

Scott inconspicuously scanned the cafeteria crowd for Sam's blonde head.

Another wave of disappointment ran through his chest when, yet again, she was nowhere to be found.

He took a seat next to Madison, which was where he usually sat for lunch. "Hey Scott," she said as he sat down.

"Hi," he replied, trying not to show how upset he was.

Scott had known Madison for his whole life, they lived directly across the street from each other and had been best friends up until junior high, when they went their separate ways. She was popular. Scott wasn't necessarily. People liked him, but it wasn't like he was captain of the football team or anything.

He started hanging out with Madison again when they entered high school. But that was because Madison and Sam were friends, and Sam and Scott were dating. But still, they'd been friends for so long that he felt comfortable enough talking to her about pretty much anything. He looked around the table to make sure that no one was paying attention to him. Elle was flirting with that new kid, Elliot.

Everyone thought that Elliot was cool, but Scott got this eerie feeling around him.

The guy was creepy.

But he wasn't paying attention to anyone other than Elle right now. Aaron had his back to Scott and was in the middle of a heated discussion on something to do with sports with Mike and Chelsea. And Chelsea was flittering in and out of the sports talk, and talking to Madison.

When Chelsea tuned back into the discussion, Madison turned to Scott. She took one look at him, rolled her eyes and asked, "What's up?"

Scott took a breath. Is it wrong to still be obsessing over Sam after all this time? Everyone else seemed to think it was. But Scott couldn't help how he felt about her. It was like a sickness that lived inside him and only grew stronger with each passing moment.

Filling up his brain with constant thoughts of her.

And no matter how hard he tried, it was impossible for him to let her go. It had been two years, it should have gotten easier to not have her around, but it had only gotten more difficult.

"You know that guy Sam's been hangin' out with?"

Madison sighed. "I only talked to him for like ten minutes that one time, so all I can tell you is his name is Jamie and that he's, like, foreign or something. And that he has a major crush on Sam."

Scott bit into his sandwich. He knew there was something going on between them. With all the time they've been spending together how could there not be? "Do you think she likes him like that?"

"In my female opinion?" Scott nodded. "Sam is very hard to read, so I'd say if she does like him she doesn't realise it. Do you want another opinion?" she asked. Again, Scott nodded. "Get over her," Madison said bluntly.

"I tried," he replied quickly. "But I can't." He shook his head and looked away. "You just don't get it."

Madison sighed. "I do get it," she insisted. "You have feelings for somebody who doesn't feel the same about you. Lots of people go through that same situation. They deal with it by finding someone they can have so then eventually those other feelings go away."

"But I love her," Scott said lamely.

"Well she doesn't love you!" Madison said loudly. The sting of her words bit into his heart like a needle made of ice. A few people turned to look out of curiosity. Scott quietly gathered his things and made his way out of the cafeteria.

Out in the halls he started to walk faster, wanting to get as far away from Madison's words as possible.

"Scott, wait!" Madison called after him. Scott kept on walking, barely resisting the urge to break into a run.

Madison grabbed onto his arm. He turned to look at her, not bothering to mask his pain. "I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to be so harsh. It just came out."

Scott looked at her. A lump formed in his throat. "You're right," he said, shaking his head. "She doesn't love me. I just—" Scott covered his face with his hands. He would not cry in the middle of the hallways. "I don't know how to not love her."

Madison wrapped her arms around him. "You know I'm here if you need me," she whispered. Scott nodded, Madison was a good friend. He knew she hadn't intentionally tried to hurt him.

He let a breath and took his hands away from his face when he was sure no tears would come. Then he wrapped his arms around Madison and returned her hug. "Thanks," he mumbled, as he let her go.

"Do you want to skip out early?" she asked. "We could go hang out somewhere."

Scott shook his head. "No, I'm fine." He smiled as convincingly as he could. "Thanks anyway."

"You sure?" Scott nodded. Madison thought for a moment, chewing her lip. "Are you going to the dance?" she asked. Scott was grateful for the subject change; he knew she was trying to take his mind away from Sam.

He shrugged. "I don't know, I don't really have anyone to go with."

"You could go with me," she suggested.

"Aren't you going with Aaron?"

Madison waved her hand dismissively. "We broke up, like, two whole days ago."

"Oh," Scott said, wondering why she hadn't mentioned it before now. "Sorry?"

Madison shrugged. "We only went out, like, four times. It's not like I planned to marry him."

Scott smiled, a little happier. "Sure, we can make a night of it." He figured having a day out with a friend would keep his mind busy enough to forget about Sam.

"Cool," Madison smiled. "You better be coming to my party."

Scott grinned and rolled his eyes. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Good," she said.

They both started walking back to the cafeteria, but before they made it to the doors the bell rang. Scott sighed. "So much for lunch time," he muttered, voicing the thoughts of his stomach.

He and Madison said their goodbyes, then Scott went to his locker and took out his chemistry book. When he was ready, he made his way to the chem labs.

One by one, the seats in the lab filled up with students.

And once again, Sam wasn'tthere.