The next few days at school were worse. I barely saw Blake and then whenever I did, he always avoided me. Sometimes I'd pick up my phone to call him to know if he was okay, but then I'd remember what happened that day and I'd drop it. If he wanted me to "leave him alone", then that's what I was going to do. I think.

Clover asked multiple times about what transpired between us both, but I was never in the mood to talk about it. She kept trying to get me to talk to him, but I wouldn't budge. I saw her talking to Blake a few times and I secretly hoped he'd at least tell her what was going on with him even if he didn't want to tell me, but she also couldn't get him to talk. By the time Friday rolled around and her efforts weren't yielding results, she gave up.

Her relationship with Thomas on the other hand was blooming. They went on dates and made use of every opportunity to make me feel like a third wheel. Lucky me. Not.

I slept for most parts of my Saturday and for the remaining part, my mom was home and so we had family time while baking one of the finest chocolate cakes I'd ever tasted. Tyler also joined in as well, at least he tried to, until he spilled all of the cracked eggs onto the floor while reaching for a spoon. After that, my mum made him sit and just watch, much to his disapproval. When we were done, let's just say I had dessert three times.

We went to church the next day and I enjoyed the sermon. It kinda made me remember André and what he did, but then I pushed the thought to the back of my head. If I started to feel scared, my mum would notice and the last thing I wanted was for her to realize that we had almost been found....and I had almost died. He was in captivity at the moment, so there was nothing for me  to worry about.

* * * * *

The next day at school, I found myself searching for Blake's brown hair and blue eyes, which had gotten a lot darker lately, but he was nowhere to be seen. Not in the parking lot, not in the hallway and definitely not in the class we had together that morning. I was totally clueless as to why until during recess, at the cafeteria, when the sun turned blue.

Okay, maybe the sun didn't turn blue, but Steve came to talk to me so...same difference.

"You could've at least kept me a slice" Clover whined for the umpteenth time after I had told her about the chocolate cake my mum and I baked. We were sat at our usual table, having lunch. Thomas wasn't present though, he had to meet with his basketball coach over something.

"I wanted to, I swear, but it just kept calling me to eat more and you know I cannot say no to yummy dessert" I defended lamely.

"But -" she started but stopped when Steve arrived at our table with a long face.

"Can I talk to you in private Robinson?" He asked, hands in his pockets and dare I say, politely? Yes, he had become less of a jerk ever since the day I helped him treat his injury, but he was still Steve. I exchanged a look with Clover before nodding at him.

"Sure" I said and followed him out of the cafeteria.

When we got out, he walked away from the entrance a little before turning to face me.

"What's up?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

"It's about Blake" he said, making my heart skip a beat. No, make that two.

"What about him? Is he in trouble?" I asked not bothering to hide the concern that was evident in my voice.

"I don't know and that's why I'm here. Look, I know you guys aren't on talking terms due to the way he mopes around the house lately but I think he needs your help" he explained, getting me confused.

"My help? With what?" I questioned.

"Today's the remembrance of his parent's death" he said, making me throw my hands up to cover my mouth as a gasp escaped them.

"Oh my God" I muttered.

"Yeah. This day has always been a hard day for him but my mom helps him get through it everytime. This time though, he's not willing to talk to her. She's very worried and so that's why I decided to ask for your help" he continued.

"My help? What makes you think he'd want to talk to me? In case you didn't know, he's the reason we're not talking right now and still he keeps avoiding me" I explain.

"Of course he'd want to talk to you, he likes you." He stated, like it was the most obvious thing in the world "I may not know why he's avoiding you, but I think the only person that can help him out today is you. So will you come over after school today?"

"Yeah, sure" I agreed with a nod.

"Alright" he said and then turned to leave but stopped. He turned back, mumbled a quick "thank you" and then he walked away.

I stood there for some time, a million thoughts running through my head until I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned back to see Thomas.

"Hey, what are you doing standing here all by yourself?" He asked and then when he noticed my long face he asked "What's wrong?"

"Oh nothing, I was just talking to Steve" I replied.

"Oh. He told you about today right?" He asked.

"Yeah. You know too?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, almost everyone at school knows. His parents were really important to the school" he explained.

"Oh" I said, looking down.

"Yeah. Don't worry about him though, he'll be fine" he said, placing an arm across my shoulders as he walked me into the cafeteria.

When we got to our seat, I told them what Steve had said and asked if Clover could drop me off at Blake's house after school. She agreed.

Soon after that, the bell went off and we made our way to our various classes. I texted my mom not to come pick me up and that I was going over to Blake's house to work on our project which wasn't a totally complete lie. Okay, maybe it was. I still said it though.

After school, I met up with Clover at the parking lot and she drove us over to Blake's with the help of my directions.

"You should've told me about today, you know" I said to her as we went through the estate gates.

"I know, I'm sorry. It's just that you guys weren't on talking terms and I didn't know if I should bring it up. I'm sorry" she apologized.

"It's fine" I replied, running a hand through my hair.

She parked in front of his house and I reached for the door.

"Goodluck" she said as I opened it and got out.

"Thanks....and for the ride too" I replied.

"No problem, anything to help fix my favourite ship" she chuckled, making me roll my eyes. She was so quirky. She drove off after that and I made my way through the gates.

Honestly, I didn't know what I was going in to say or do. I'd never been good at handling emotions, neither mine nor that of another person, so I said a quick prayer to God to help me with the right things to say. I knew he was very vulnerable at the moment and the last thing I wanted was to make things worse for him.

Hopefully, at the end of today, I'd have accomplished two things. The first was to help pull him out of his grief and the second was to get him to open up about what's been happening to him lately.

I walked up the driveway to the front doors and knocked. I heard footsteps from inside the house and few minutes later, the door opened to reveal a middle aged woman in a black and white apron. I guessed she was Elsie's nanny.

"Good afternoon" she greeted with a light smile.

"Hi. Good afternoon. Uh, I'm Daniella, Blake's friend. I'm here to see him" I explained.

"Um, I don't know if that'd be a good -" she started to say but was interrupted by Steve.

"It's okay Penelope, she can come in" he said. He was standing a few feet behind her with a tray of food in his hands.

"Oh okay" she said to him and then turned to me "My apologies"

"It's alright" I said with a small smile and walked in.

"He's up in his room" Steve informed me before making his way to the living room.

I nodded and made my way towards the stairs. I climbed up and then turned right. Despite the fact that he had a lot of rooms in his house, I remembered where his room was and so I headed there.

The door was closed when I got there and so I knocked. No answer. I tried again.

"Go away Penelope, I said I'm not hungry" came his hoarse voice from inside the room.

"Hey Blake" I greeted softly.

"Dani?" I heard him say from inside the room, shock evident in his voice and then I heard some shuffling around. After sometime, the door opened to reveal a very stressed out Blake. His hair was sticking out in every direction, he had eye bags like he hadn't slept in days and he wore a baggy tank top and grey sweat pants.

"Hey" he greeted, his eyes lighting up.

*  *  *  *  *
Hey ya'll, another chapter done! I'm really excited right now, idek why 😂.

What do ya'll think of this chap? Please let me know in the comments 😁.

And also please don't forget to VOTE, drop COMMENTS and SHAREEE! Thank you in advance ♡♡