Tragedy ✔️

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen: The Pep Rally
Sophia Crawford

It was strange seeing the gym so full; there were cheerleaders in their red and white uniforms, football players in their football gear, teachers and students on the bleachers, waiting for the pep rally to officially start.

I was used to seeing eight chairs positioned in a circle, Oliver occupying one and seven other students, including me, occupying the other.

Gone was the smell of polished floors; instead it smelled like sweat and food.

The wood from the bleacher was strangely comfortable—except for the ache in my back from having no support to sit with my back against, and the fact that there were a ton of students sitting around me, all in which who had a great view of the scar on my cheek, was definitely not comfortable, but having Ana beside me helped with the anxiety of having to sit around so many people.

I was, after all, here to support Cole because of the big game he has tomorrow, so I had to set the anxiety of being around so many people aside so that I can be here to support him.

I owe him for helping me around the school grounds, after all.

Ana nudges me with her left shoulder. “Are you okay?” She asks me over the loud cheers coming from the students around us.

“I’m fine.”

“If you want to leave, you can say the word.”

I shake my head. “I’m not going to let a few students get the best of me.”

The person I wanted to avoid the most, River, wasn’t here. I didn’t think he would come, anyways. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would give up his afternoon to support the football team he has quit since he changed. And even if he was here, I wouldn’t let him get to me, either. I have apologized time and time again and he doesn’t want to forgive me.

There are only so many apologies I can mouth before I give up, and I think I have finally reached that point.

I understand that he’s angry that I brought up Beck at his house the other day, but he can surely understand that I wasn’t trying to pry. I was just trying to make conversation, to join in on the fond memories his and his aunt shared because I don’t have those kind of memories I can share. If I broke a window with a pen like Beck did, my mother would have disowned me then and there. She wouldn’t have laughed it off. So I was just trying to make conversation.

But he doesn’t want to listen and therefore I will not try to explain myself again.

Ana nods and offers me a few of her jelly beans. I decline politely. My stomach was still churning from having to sit between everyone with their warm breath fanning me from all sides and loud cheers coming from all around me.