Chapter 27

I immediately walked out of the class to find Jennie. I walked through the long corridor to the cafeteria but was not able to catch a sight of her which made me more worried. As I walked out of the cafeteria, I heard a voice which sounded like Ryder's behind the cafeteria which made me head towards the direction of the voice. Jennie was sitting on a tree log with Ryder standing beside her looking worried.

Jennie looked alright so I didn't want to interrupt whatever was going on between them so I just stood at a distance and observe them from afar . After a while a waiting without being noticed, I decided to turn and leave for class when I heard Jennie call out my name.

"Ye ...yes", I responded before turning to face them.

"How long have you been there?", she asked walking towards me.

"Just some few seconds", I lied to her.

"I'd be on my way then", Ryder who had been standing staring quietly at us finally spoke and left without waiting for a reply.

"Are you okay?", I asked her when he left.

"I'm fine… just confused", she said hugging me tightly. She was getting me scared because of how she was behaving. Her face was even stained with tears.I pulled her out of my embrace to know what was going on with her.

"Did he hurt you? Did he bully you? Did he threaten you?", the questions just continued flowing towards her but she kept shaking her head saying no. "Then why do you look so miserable?",

"Ryder said he didn't mean to hit me the other time but he was threatened that they were going to hurt me if he doesn't ", she said but I didn't get the reason why she looked liked that after hearing just that so I signaled her to continue talking since she seemed to have a lot to say.

"Ryder said he has fallen in love with me and that is why they want to torture me and that he doesn't want to continue staying with Ryan and Reuben ", she finally seemed to have ended what she wanted to say , but I didn't know what to say about the last part since I wasn't expecting Ryder to open up to her so quick.

" Then why doesn't he just stay away from them if he doesn't want to be with them?", I found myself asking in a harsh tone.

"They will come after him even if they find out he has confessed to me, they would make his life miserable like how they make others", she said almost breaking down.

"And he also was able to confess his feelings for you?",

"Did you just say , he was able?", she asked in a surprise tone.

"Yes, why?", I sincerely didn't know why she was behaving like that before I realized I just sold myself out for knowing about Ryder's feeling for her.

"Did you know about it?"

"I wasn't really sure that was why I kept it to myself "

"You weren't sure", she scoffed and walked away. I called her but she refused to answer me. I followed her to class to explain things better to her but class had already began. I walked silently to my seat in order not to distract the class. I turned to look at her from time to time concerned but she didn't give any expression of looking at my direction. I just said silent prayers so that class would en soon so I could talk to her more.

Very soon, it was time for lunch and everyone started walking out of the class except Jennie, Keenan and I. Frankly speaking, I have never seen Keenan at the cafeteria since I stepped foot in Winchester High but I shoved the thought away since I had an issue to attend to. I walked to Jennie to speak to her but she placed her head on the table as she didn't want to talk to me.

I didn't know this could make her so angry at me but since I am at fault, I had to solve the issue myself. I sat on the seat next to hers and try to caress her back but she shot me a weird glare which made me retreat my hand.

"Why did you hid it from me?", she finally spoke giving room for me to explain.

"I told you I wasn't sure of his behavior towards you and I didn't want to make wrong assumptions either", I simply explained

"You shouldn't be hiding things from me, even this matter concerns me but you decided to hid it from me"

"I promise, I won't hide anything from you anymore", I said and she just gave me a nod.