Achieving Unbroken

-Chapter 14-

Achieving Unbroken
Chapter Fourteen

—

"How can you just leave me standing,
Alone in a world that's so cold?"
When Doves Cry | Prince

—

Lilla
[Thursday, May 18th, 2018 - Second Period English]

"Hey, Lilla?" Cannon slides into the desk next to me - God bless Mr. Stewart's free seating. Cannon doesn't normally sit next to me, usually I have Gavin on my left and Bianca on my right... But that changed weeks ago. Now it's Gavin, and Raquel Jackson, who is surprisingly nice.

"Hey, Davis. What's up?" I turn my body to give him my full attention, but he's too busy playing with his hands in his lap and avoiding my eyes. I quickly glance at the clock and see that we have three minutes until the bell rings, and I can't imagine what Cannon wants to talk about in those three minutes.

"Jason," he says, getting back my attention.

"What about him?"

Cannon looks up, but starts suspiciously looking at our surroundings.

"You've been bringing him around more. Are you two, like... A thing? Or-"

Why the heck does he care?

"No no no, we aren't a thing," I jump to correct him. "We just started talking recently after the fight. Does it bother you that he's hanging out with us? Weren't you guys, like, best friends?"

He ignores my first question, rolling his eyes. Time check: Two minutes.

"Key word being 'were'. I just wanted to warn you-"

"Warn me?"

"He's a ticking time bomb, Lilla," he aggressively rushes out. "He didn't leave his room for months, except when he came back for finals. He was diagnosed with PTSD before the school year started. Did you see what he did to Charlie last month? Y-" I cut him off.

"What he did to Charlie? God, Cannon, you're more of an idiot than I ever gave you credit for."

He picks up right where he left his rant. Time check: One minute.

"You think you can be his friend, make him forget, act like nothing ever happened, but you can't. Joey happened, Lilla. Jason is never gonna be the same after that."

"If you think I'm that stupid then you clearly don't know me at all. I know that Jason is never going to be the same person and I never told him he had to be. I never said he had to forget. You know what I can do? I can be his friend. And I am. But the fact that you, his best friend, are trying to take that away from him? I would be horrified if I were you."

He looks down again. Shouldn't the bell ring soon? And where is Gavin?

"Jason misses you so much," I say, voice soft. Cannon looks up, painfully. "But maybe he should put his efforts elsewhere." Coldly, I turn away and get my English materials out of my backpack.