Chapter 28

Aria's POV

I woke up in the middle of the night sweating. I couldn't remember my dream, only that the guard was in it, and so was the man who was always watching me. They were grinning madly, smugly, as if they knew something I didn't.

I lay in bed for a few minutes, staring at the ceiling, trying to calm my racing heart. Forest stirred from beside me turning over to look at me as he blinked open his eyes.

"Hey Aria, it's ok, did you have a nightmare?" He asked, looking concerned while wiping the tears I didn't even realise had fallen from my eyes. I nodded as he pulled me closer, kissing the top of my head.

"It's ok, it was just a dream, you're safe." I curled up closer into him, breathing in his calming scent as he stroked my hair.

My mate. He always kept me safe. He didn't mind staying up in the middle of the night because I'd had a nightmare.

I loved him, and I was ready to tell him.

I looked up at him, looking him in the eye before saying the three words I knew I meant to the bottom of my soul. "I love you."

His eyes widened before he smiled, a soft smile of true happiness, "I love you too, you are my world and I'm so happy I found you." He said before leaning forward and kissing me sweetly.

Forest was kissing me.

My first kiss and it couldn't be more perfect.

After what felt like forever but also not long enough we pulled apart, "Come on Aria, we have school later, you need to sleep."

I lay my head on Forest's chest, smiling happily before letting sleep consume me. "I love you Forest," I whispered and the last thing I heard before I fell fully asleep was,

"I love you Aria."

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Our final week out of school had been spent, for Forest unconscious, and for me collared to a pole, so not the best holiday of our lives and as happy as I was to be out of the collar I wished I didn't have to go back to school.

I woke up a few minutes before the alarm went off and although getting up did cross my mind I decided my time would be better spent catching the final seconds of peacefulness.

I smiled to myself, I was back where I belonged. I turned over looking at Forest, his eyes cloaked by his eye lids, hiding the stress which seemed to follow him around nowadays, mainly my fault.

I wished I could freeze time. Stay in this moment forever, the calm, the quiet, the warmth, the safety of my mate's arms.

Forest's eyes slowly blinked open and he sleepily smiled at me, yawning and pulling me closer to him, leaning down and kissing my forehead.

I missed this.

Then, of course, the moment was ruined by the obnoxiously loud alarm blaring in my ear. I groaned and threw my pillow over my face. Forest laughed at me before turning off the alarm.

"Come on, we need to get up for school." He said, pulling me closer to him giving me a quick kiss on the lips before dragging me out of bed.

I screamed as the cold air hit me before chasing Forest down the stairs yelling death threats.

I ran into the kitchen to see a very confused looking Atlas and a very amused looking Isla. "Forest," She said, shaking her head at him, "What did I tell you about dragging people out of bed in the morning?"

Forest laughed slightly before replying, "Don't do it because one day it's going to get me killed."

I smirked at that, "One day very soon," I said before Atlas distracted me by placing a plate of waffles in front of me.

I thanked him before digging in, trying to ignore the fact I had to go back to school today.

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All to soon though we were driving up to the school car park, there was no escaping this but at least Forest was beside me and Tyler was nowhere in sight.

As I walked the corridors to my first lesion I could hear every whisper, every jab, every insult and for the first time in weeks I coursed ever being a were wolf.

I slowly made my way to first lesson. Everyone was looking at me as if I was rubbish beneath their feet. As I reached the door to my class room someone came up behind he and shoved me, causing me, and my books, to go flying. Everyone laughed. Nothing had changed, in fact, things had just got worse. So much worse.

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First lesson was Food, and we had a supply teacher. We were cooking a swiss roll. I had been looking forward to it for ages and yet, as I stood here in the middle of the class room, covered in egg, flour and cake mix, I really wished I had just skipped school.

Some bright little so and so, thought it would be a good idea to purposefully trip me up while carrying a bowl of cake mixture.

Then someone else had the bright idea, instead of putting eggs in the mixture, lets pelt eggs at the bullied girl.

And of course, if someone is covered in liquidly mixtures, what better thing to do then break a bag of flour over their heads.

Safe to say, even though my brother no longer came to this school, his influence and the black spot he had put over my name, still dictated the school.

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After the little incident in first lesson I then had to spend the rest of the day in soaking wet clothes. I didn't actually see Forest until last lesson Maths, I had been given a lunch time detention in Food for 'messing about' and at break I had to go to English to catch up on some of the work I'd missed, all my other lessons seemed to be the other side of the school from Forest, I didn't see him the whole day, not even a glance, until Maths.

All day people had been jeering at me, calling me names, calling me a slut, a whore and a good for nothing son of a bitch, which didn't work because I'm a girl but, you know, whatever floats your boat. I had been tripped up more times than I could count between lesions and the teachers didn't do anything. They just laughed too.

It made me wonder, what did my brother say about me? What could he say to turn the whole school against me, the teachers who were usually so nice, even the students who usually left me alone where laughing, smirking, pushing and punching me.

As soon as I threw myself down in my seat Forest gave me his jumper, not asking for an explanation of why I was covered in egg, flour and cake mix, knowing I would almost defiantly tell him later. I was very grateful for his jumper, eggs, cake mix, and flour don't dry well when mixed together and so all day I have been damp and cold.

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I couldn't get out of that hell hole quick enough. It was so much worse than when I'd last been to school, I thought it was hell then, it's so much worse now.

While I was waiting in the car park for Forest people were walking past me pelting me with insults and rocks.

Even the teachers.

I had never felt so alone in my life, even though my brother wasn't there, even though I had nearly pushed my brother and Dad out of my mind, out of my life, their actions still affected me.

I just wanted to stop it, but I didn't know how.

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As soon as we reached home I ran up the stairs, not looking back or saying hello to Atlas or Isla, I flew through the house, grabbing some clothes and leaping into the shower.

As I stood there, water beating around me, I finally let go. I crumpled to the floor and cried.

Why did it have to happen like that, what did I ever do to them.

Why did everyone hate me. I was quiet and hardworking, I never messed about in class, and yet even my teachers seemed to hate me.

I could hear someone climbing the stairs, so I quickly tried to stop crying, if they knew I had been crying, they'd want to know why.

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As I walked down stairs I could feel their gazes on me. They wanted to know why I'd ran off, and Forest wanted to know how I ended up caked in cake mix.

"How was your day?" Isla asked, looking concerned. I shrugged and made my way to sit next to Forest on the sofa.

"It could have gone worse," I said before turning to Forest, "Although someone tripped while carrying their cake mix in food and spilt it all over me."

I laughed, hoping they would think it was an accident and see the funny side, hoping they wouldn't realise how unset I was over it.

Forest didn't look convinced, but he slowly nodded, although he didn't laugh. "Are you sure you're ok?"

I nodded, "I'm fine," I didn't want to burden them with my problems. They took me into their lives and all I've caused was problems.

I couldn't tell them. I would just have to suck it up. After all, I've had worse.

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For the rest of the week it just got worse. When Forest was around people were nice to me, smiling and being kind, but as soon as Forest left for his lessons the nice would turn horrid.

Everyone seemed to delight in tripping me up, punching and kicking and no one ever stopped them. No one.

By the time Friday came I was exhausted, emotionally drained and I just wanted to get out of this school whatever it took.

As the bell rang and Forest walked into his class room, I wandered down the halls, slowly making my way to my lesson.

As I walked to my class room, I noticed how empty the halls were and I wished I could just miss school, get out of this hell hole and return a completely different person.

"Hello Aria," A voice behind me said.

And that is when I learnt the true meaning of 'be careful what you wish for,' because wishes don't always come true in the way you might hope.

Eventually gravity will always pull you down, you can't have a high, without a fall.