Chapter 56: #FIFTY-SIX

NICHOLAS’S POV

The next morning, I dressed in a jogging suit and pulled on my running shoes before leaving my room. I wasn’t planning on staying in the house any longer than necessary.

After spending almost the entire previous day locked away, I needed somewhere to go, even if it was only outside for a while.

I made my way downstairs and was almost at the front door when I noticed Elijah sitting in the living room. He looked up as soon as he heard my footsteps, and for a second, he seemed genuinely happy to see me. "Good morning, Nicholas," he said with a small smile.

I stopped and looked at him, and the smile disappeared from his face when he saw my expression. "Don’t do that."

He frowned slightly. "Do what?"

"Don’t smile at me and act like everything is fine between us because I took the food. It isn’t." My voice was sharper than I’d intended, but I didn’t take it back. "You don’t get to wake up this morning and greet me like we’re going to go back to how things were before. I’m still angry with you, Elijah, and I’m still suspended because of what happened. Nothing has changed just because you decided to bring me food yesterday."

"I know nothing has changed," he replied, getting to his feet. "I am not going to try and tell you that. I just wanted to say good morning."

I crossed my hands. "Then say it and leave it there."

"I also wanted to talk about what happened."

"I don’t." I scowled.

Elijah looked tired, the smile wiping off his face. "Nicholas, we can’t keep avoiding this."

I stared at him. "You already avoided it when it mattered."

His expression tightened, but he didn’t argue immediately. "I know I handled it badly. I’ve told you that. I’ve been trying to explain myself since yesterday, but every time I come near you, you shut me out."

"Because I don’t want to hear it." I snapped.

Elijah stared at me for a long time. "You don’t even know what I’m going to say."

"I don’t need to."

He took a breath and tried to keep his voice calm. "I understand why you’re angry, but I need you to give me a chance to explain why I couldn’t speak when the principal confronted us. I know what it looked like, and I know how badly it made everything worse for you, but I wasn’t standing there because I wanted you to take the blame."

I looked away. "Save it."

He threw his hands in the air. "I’m serious."

"So am I." I reached for the door.

"Nicholas, please."

I turned back to him, already irritated by the desperation in his voice. "I said I don’t want to talk. If you actually care about giving me space, then give me space. Don’t keep following me around the house trying to force a conversation because you feel guilty."

His mouth opened, but I didn’t wait for his response. I walked out before he could say anything else.

The morning air was cooler than I’d expected, and I immediately started running.

At first, I focused on keeping a steady pace, but that didn’t last long. The farther I went, the more my thoughts returned to everything I had been trying not to think about.

Ugh. This was annoying.

I had decided to come for a jog because I needed to clear my head, but somehow the thoughts still clouded my every thought.

Good luck trying to keep my head clean then.

I mean he could have stopped it, he could have told them the truth and he could have looked at the principal and said that she had misunderstood what happened. But he didn’t.

That was the part I couldn’t get past.

I ran faster, hoping the physical exhaustion would make it easier to stop thinking, but it only made my breathing heavier. I kept replaying the same moment until I barely noticed where I was going.

Then a scream broke through my thoughts. "Help!"

I turned my head and saw a young boy riding a bicycle several metres ahead of me. He was clearly panicking, his hands gripping the handlebars as the bicycle moved faster than he could control. His mother was running behind him, shouting for him to brake, but he seemed too frightened to understand what she was saying. "Stop! Put your feet down!"

The boy screamed again.

Shit. I wanted to look the other way and pretend I didn’t care but that wasn’t really something I could do.

I immediately changed direction and ran after him.

The bicycle was moving toward the road, and there was no way I could just stand there and watch. I caught up from behind and reached for the handlebars, trying to slow it down while running alongside him.. "Hold on! Don’t jump!"

"I can’t stop!"

"Keep your hands on the handlebars!" I yelled.

The bicycle swerved, and I grabbed the boy around the upper body before pulling him away from it. The sudden movement threw both of us off balance, and we fell onto the grass beside the pavement. I landed awkwardly, scraping my elbow against the ground, while the boy rolled onto his side and immediately started crying.

"Are you hurt?" I asked, pushing myself up.

He shook his head quickly, though tears were running down his face.

His mother finally reached us, breathing heavily as she dropped beside him. "Oh my goodness. Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?"

"I’m okay, Mum." She checked his arms and legs before pulling him into a tight hug. Once she was satisfied that he was fine, she turned toward me and noticed the scrape on my elbow. "You helped him. Thank you so much. I don’t even know what would’ve happened if you hadn’t been there."

"It was nothing. He’s alright, that’s what matters." I tried to wave it off, ignoring the sting of the wound.

"Your arm is bleeding."

I looked down at my elbow. It wasn’t serious, just scraped and dirty from the fall. "I’ll clean it when I get home."

"Please let me take you somewhere and have it treated. I feel terrible that you got hurt because of us." She insisted.

"Really, it’s fine. It’s just a small scrape."

She continued insisting, but I politely refused until she finally stopped trying to convince me. After making sure the boy was alright one last time, I left them and continued toward home, though I slowed my pace after the fall.

By the time I returned to the mansion, the house was quiet. I stepped inside and immediately noticed Cassian and Adrian sitting in the living room. Cassian had his laptop open, his attention fixed on whatever he was working on. Adrian was sitting across from him, looking through something on his phone.

Cassian glanced up when I entered and his eyes moved briefly to my elbow. Then he looked back at his laptop and he didn’t say anything.

I almost laughed.

Of course.

Adrian noticed the injury a moment later. His expression changed immediately. "What happened to your arm?"

I stopped walking. For some reason, that simple question hit me harder than it should have. "Nothing."

Adrian put his phone down. "It doesn’t look like nothing. Did you fall?"

"I said it’s nothing." I hissed.

"You’re bleeding, Nicholas. At least let me clean it." He stood up.

"I don’t need you to."

He stood up anyway. "You’re angry with us, I understand that, but you don’t have to refuse help just because you’re upset."

My throat tightened. "Why do you care?"

Adrian stopped. "What?"

I turned to him, anger burning in my eyes. "You heard me."

"Nicholas..."

"You all keep saying you care. You keep knocking on my door, bringing me food, asking whether I’m alright, but where was all of that when I actually needed someone?"

Cassian’s fingers stopped moving over his keyboard and Adrian stared at me.

I could feel my voice beginning to shake, but I couldn’t stop anymore. "You weren’t there. None of you were. You weren’t standing beside me when everyone was looking at me like I was some horrible person. You weren’t the one who had to walk out of that office after being suspended. Elijah stood there and said nothing, and now all of you suddenly care whether I’m eating and whether my arm is bleeding."

"We do care." Adrian muttered.

"Then why didn’t anyone do anything? Or even go to the school after to plead my case."

Adrian took a step toward me. "We didn’t know what was happening until it was already over."

I barked out a laugh. "How convenient."

He sighed. "That’s not what I meant."

"I don’t care what you meant." My voice broke, and I immediately looked away because I didn’t want either of them seeing my face. "Just stop asking me if I’m okay. I’m not okay. I’m angry, I’m embarrassed, and I don’t trust any of you anymore. So don’t stand there pretending you care when none of you cared enough when it actually mattered."

Adrian’s expression fell. "Nicholas, we do care about you."

I shook my head. "No, you don’t."

Cassian finally closed his laptop but he still didn’t speak.

I wiped my eyes angrily and turned toward the stairs. "Just leave me alone."

For once, they actually listened.