downpour / mileven au.

fourteen.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN;
WHEN THE PANIC SETS IN.

it'd been a whole three months since the ruthless shelly had broadcasted all of el's deepest secrets to the school, and while things had died down and her peers stopped staring at her every time she walked the halls, the pain was still very apparent.

what made it worse was seeing him.

correction: seeing them.

it didn't take long for brooke to reclaim her title as mike's girlfriend. despite the immense hurt the sight of their rekindled love brought her, el wasn't surprised. it was actually a well-needed reality check. she'd been delusional to forget that all he wanted out of their arrangement was brooke, and, at el's expense, that's what he got.

she knew he tried to talk to her. at first, he would stop by her house. thankfully, joyce covered for her, telling him convenient lies that she was at the library or in the shower. then she caught him lingering by her locker, causing her to duck away before he caught a glimpse of her. eventually, it seemed he got the message and ceased all of his efforts.

mike also began sitting with brooke and her friends at lunch. el was pretty relieved about that as it meant she could keep sitting with her friends. of course, her friends were still his friends, but things were definitely different. there had been a dramatic shift in the atmosphere after that day. when they were with el, they didn't dare to bring him up -- and vice versa, she assumed. she hoped so, at least.

she didn't want him to know how broken that day left her. clearly what she felt for the curly-haired fool was not to be compared to her relationship with troy, nor was the pain he left her with.

then again, if he even had the audacity to ask their friends about her, she wasn't sure if they even knew. she'd worked hard to hide her frowns and wipe her tears. not to mention that her friends had their own, far more exciting lives to live than to worry about her. to summarize it all: max and lucas were kind-of working out their issues, dustin was dating a new exchange student from vietnam named mai, and will seemed to be fighting his own battle.

as for will, well, he stopped hanging out with shelly after telling everyone about the case of chlamydia she caught over thanksgiving break. he apologized to el just about every chance he got, knowing the only way shelly got her hands on the journal was from being invited over by him. el accepted the apologies, but they were nowhere near being the attached-at-the-hip siblings they once were.

her parents, god bless them, didn't ask questions. she was thankful for how respecting they were of her privacy. the whole situation was hard enough and she was grateful for their lack of acknowledgment. the last thing she wanted to do was explain the mess to her parents -- specifically her father.

she sighed, shaking away her reflecting thoughts and refocusing on the book in front of her. she was back to riding with will to school which, in turn, meant she was back to spending most of her free periods stuck in the library. she didn't mind, though. while she loved when mike would ditch his last class for them to go eat fries at the diner, she missed the serenity hawkins high library brought.

as she flipped the page, an abrupt ringing stole her from her daze. she looked up, confused as she knew that wasn't the sound of any school bell.

"everyone, please, exit the library. this isn't a drill!" her eyes widened at the petite librarian's words as she shouted over the loud fire alarm.

el frantically shoved her book into her back, not bothering to mark her page before rising to her feet to exit the library. she hurried out the door, ushered by a nearly dozen students who were also spending their final hour of school with the books.