"So you're mad at Mercy?" Jaxon's voice rang in my ears like a bell, loud and clear and pure over the chaos that was the lunch room. Neither Mercy nor Eve had dared to show their faces at lunch that day, not that I'd be able to see them anyways, leaving me alone with Jaxon as not even the two E's had bothered to show up at lunch that day. I chewed on my peanut butter sandwich that my mom had made, but it tasted like ash in my mouth. I'm pretty sure anything would after today.

Mondays always had sucked.

"Yep," I said, popping the p, as I took another bite of the sandwich. Chew, I thought, giving myself mental commands. Now swallow, I told myself and forced myself to swallow the small bite of sandwich. 

"Why?"

"She's a liar," I spat, setting the sandwich on the table, all but through with its thick peanut buttery taste. "I can't trust her," I continued. "She's just like my last friends," I said, resting my head on Jaxon's shoulder. "I don't want to go to my next class," I sighed, my voice just above a whisper in Jaxon's ear.

"You have to, Raindrop," Jaxon said, his voice warm. "If you don't face Mercy in your next class then when will you face her?" He asked, his voice getting louder as he continued. "Tomorrow? The day after? The next week? Next year? Or will you just keep putting it off, so that you never have to face her?" I didn't move, didn't say a thing. I couldn't. I felt weak, almost pathetic. In a way that I hadn't felt in a long time. Not since Jordan and Marissa. Not since Chris. Yet Mercy, the person I trusted more than anyone else in the world, had made me feel this way.

Jaxon sighed, then moved as if he was about to stand up, but I wrapped my fingers around his arm and pulled him back down. "Don't make me," I whispered, my voice softer than it had been in a long while. 

"I can't." Jaxon's words were firm, undisputable. "I can't make you do a thing," he promised, his voice just as soft as mine. Our voices matched, both whispers so easily drowned out by the chaos behind us in the cafeteria. "You are the one who has to do it. No matter what I say can change your mind once you have it made."

"How did I ever get stuck with someone like you?" I asked, my head still on Jaxon's shoulders, feeling the heat of his body, the soft cloth of his shirt on my cheek.

"Well Raindrop, the day we met, with you sitting in the rain, I knew there was something about you I liked," Jaxon said. However, what he said next was something I never forgot. "Something so familiar, that I'd only seen before in myself," he whispered so softly, that I almost missed it. I immediately knew it hadn't been meant for my ears. I said nothing, acting as if I hadn't heard his words, as Jaxon shifted in his seat. "Anyways, are you going to apologize to Mercy for overreacting?"

"I wasn't overreacting," I muttered, although I knew it was a lie as soon as it left my lips. 

Jaxon snorted in amusement. "Sure you weren't, Raindrop," he said, and I could practically see him rolling his eyes on the dark screen that I was eternally staring at.

Somewhere under the chatter of the cafeteria a bell rang, the click going unheard even by my trained ears, as the cafeteria began to slowly drain of students, leaving me and Jaxon alone in the cafeteria with the exception of a few janitors, busy wiping down the tables, and cleaning up the chaos left from lunch. Jaxon stood, and I did too. My feet already knew the path to the Meteor Zone from years of experience, yet they stayed planted in the cafeteria, my sightless eyes staring at Jaxon.

"Will you tell me what you look like?" I finally asked.

I could practically hear the smile in Jaxon's voice. "Now, now, Raindrop. Remember our deal," he said, and with that he walked off, leaving me alone in the now empty cafeteria.

I sighed, then finally broke away from my roots and moved through the halls like a ghost, an empty shell of the person I was as I made my way to the Meteor Zone, feet dragging, stomach churning with both anxiety and guilt. That small patch of guilt had begun to form as soon as I had muttered my unheard vow to Mercy, and had spread through my body, crawling up my spine and tickling at my brain. At first it was like an itch that I just couldn't scratch, but it had spread, becoming worse and worse, until it consumed my whole being.

When I turned down the hall that led to the Meteor Zone it was deserted. There were hardly any classes in this hall in the first place, but I was later than I usually was. My footsteps seemed to echo down the hall, as I dragged my feet, trying to slow my demise, like a prisoner about to be executed. I felt sick and my head throbbed. I wasn't ready to face her. Not just yet. Jaxon was right about one thing and that was I was the only one who could make myself face Mercy after our fight. 

And I wasn't ready to face her.

Yet my feet kept moving, and soon I heard Mr. Meyers's greeting, welcoming me to the classroom, where I'd stare death in the face, but his words may as well have been in another language, as they rattled through my skull, in one ear and through the other. I took a deep breath and floated across the room. Even though the room was dead silent I knew she was there. I knew Mercy was in that room, sitting there, glaring at me. I took a seat next to her as I had done every other day this year, and starred forwards, ignoring her eye daggers.

It was time for this war to really begin.

AN:

Thanks Jen