Chapter 21: I am sorry, Alyssa

Sleeping late the previous night still did not stop Jessie from waking up early that morning. Even after Charles dropped her past midnight, she still had a few minutes turning around, not finding sleep. So, it was a surprise to her that she woke up quite early. As it was still past four, she decided to do the house chores before waking up Lucy.
After cleaning everything, she went down to the kitchen to prepare breakfast, and that was when she realized Luciana did not touch her dinner the previous night. Her little mind kept on wondering what the reason could be, but as nothing came through, she decided to let go of the thought, concluding that Luciana did not feel hungry. She went to the store, taking out potatoes to slice as she wanted to prepare fries with mac 'n' cheese. The ingredients in the store were almost running out, and she picked up her phone and set a reminder to go grocery shopping that day.
When she finished making breakfast, Jessie went over to Luciana's room to wake her. She called and she didn't get any reply, so she went to her, only to touch her and realize that her temperature was hot.
"Lucy..", Jessie tapped on her, trying to wake her up.
"Lucy", she called out again.
Luciana struggled to open her eyes, and when she finally parted them, she met a figure sitting close to her. Rubbing her eyes, she realized it was Jessie and smiled at her, "good morning".
"You are hot, Lucy. I think you are sick, I should call Mom"
"No, no... It's fine, I don't want to stress her. I was just cold last night, I will be fine", she reassured Jessie. After several reassurances she gave Jessie, Jessie decided to take it as a regular fever, hoping she will be fine soon.
"I have heard you, I won't call Mom. How about your eyes, what happened?"
"My eyes, is there anything wrong?", Luciana asked, trying to feel her eyes.
"Yes, the dark circles", at that moment, Luciana realized she had to think of a lie because Jessie was not going to listen to another of her excuse.
"I was reading into the night, I think that's why"
"You were? But when I came into your room last night, you were sleeping", Jessie asked, confused.
"Ohhh.. yeah, I was. I woke up, met your letter, and decided to read as I could not find sleep", Luciana answered, rolling off the duvet.
"Oh.. okay", Jessie nodded, "I am sorry for leaving you alone last night. Something came up"
"It is fine", Luciana smiled and fell into her embrace, "I hope you enjoyed yourself"
"Kind of. For now, you should get ready, so we can go early", she stated, as she stood up, making her way out of the room.
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Alyssa took deep breaths as she walked through the hallway of Chelan college. It was the third day since she got into an argument with Sophie, yet the talk of the happenings was still on every lip. She had been able to survive the previous days with the help of Jessie following her everywhere she went. But on this particular day, she was dropped off by her Mom, so she got to school later than Jessie, as Jessie had arrived earlier.
Walking through the chocolate brown painted hallway of Chelan, Alyssa could not help but feel the prying eyes of students, causing a prickling on her skin. She continued walking that way, till Jessie made her way to her when she was shoving her bag into her locker. Not being able to control herself, the first thing Alyssa did was to turn to her, then she fell into her embrace, mumbling, "I'm glad you are here "
"I am also", Jessie beamed before leaving the embrace. She was upstairs in the middle of a call, when she saw Alyssa stepping out of a car, so she tried to round up what she was doing and hurriedly made her way to meet her.
"How did you spend your night?", Jessie questioned, her eyes earnestly anticipating an answer.
"What?", Alyssa giggled when she noticed the stare, "I did nothing important. Just ate, saw a movie, slept all through"
"Interesting, If I was there, probably we could...."
"Hey", Jessie was cut in her speech abruptly, by Richard who made his entrance smiling.
"How are you doing?", He asked, turning towards Jessie.
"Well, I am good. I don't know about you", she replied, smiley.
"I am not bad, but I will feel better if your friend here decides to talk to me", he smiled as he fixed his gaze on Alyssa who only rolled her eyes.
"Mmm....", Jessie hummed. She wanted Alyssa to get back with Raymond, but as Alyssa's friend, she had to stand with her. Alyssa begged her to not talk about Raymond as she didn't want to have anything to do with him, so she had no choice but to adhere to it.
The few people that walked in the hallway had begun to focus their attention on them, looking for the next story that will make headlines. They probably expected that this time, Alyssa will slap Raymond, or Sophie will come to cause a scene again.
"I don't know, you should ask her if she wants to talk to you", Jessie replied, "for me, I will just go get a book from the library. I will join you guys later", she said as she gave Alyssa a reassuring glare, and left them to themselves.
The only reason Alyssa stood there, was because she was beginning to think that Raymond might be sincerely sorry, and thinking about it, it was not completely his fault. Sophie was the main person to blame, and Jessie did a good job explaining it to her the previous day.
"Alyssa....", Raymond said after they had maintained the silence for about three minutes, staring at themselves, "I'm sorry. I wish I could rewind all of it, I promise I won't have let any of that happen"
"Please, forgive me", Raymond pleaded and was about to go on his knees till Alyssa held him back.
"Don't, I've gotten enough embarrassment already. I don't need more stories flying about me", Alyssa said, turning her gaze away from him.
"I'm sorry, it is not my intention to cause you more problem", he pleaded, trying to hold her face to him.
"Then stay away", Raymond heard her say, and the words he wanted to utter got hooked in his throat, "if that is what you want, then I will ", he said, stepping back from her, and she walked away.
Raymond stared at her sadly as she walked away, muttering curses at Sophia for making him go through this much stress, and he resolved he was going to give her the space she wanted, as she had every right to be angry.