RACHEL

A few days later, I entered the briefly empty history classroom and found Will sitting next to the window in the second row. By being busy in his own notes, he was oblivious to me standing before him with a smile on my face. It felt good to have him back in my life. It really did.

"Morning," I said.

Will's head jerked up from his notebook and his dazzling sky blue eyes met mine. A smile tugged on his lips by the sight of me.

"Rachel, hey. Morning," he said, the slightest of surprised. However, it only lasted for a few seconds before he smiled brightly.

"Is this seat taken?"

"No, but not anymore."

I grinned and so did Will. I sat down next to him on the empty seat before he shoved his notes to the side and focused his attention on me.

"I never asked. How was your first sleepover with Madelaine a few days ago?"

The past few days Madelaine and I had sleepovers every night and it truly was fun and comforting.

"It was great. Maddie opened up completely to me and so did I. It felt so good to just talk and listen to each other. I really had a good time," I answered.

Will smiled. "That's awesome."

I nodded before offering a smile of my own.

"Can I ask you for something?" He asked, slightly nervous.

"Of course."

"I want to go on a date with you," he said.

Flustered and astonished, I narrowed my gaze while my eyes froze on him.

"Not a date, but like an ending date to our romantic relationship and a start to our friendship relationship. I just want to end what we had in a a completely different way. Nothing like how I ended what we had by leaving you in that condition that night. I want to make up for what I did and I want us to end what we had in a good way. We can do it on the school roof just like old times. Is that okay? You can say no if you want to. I mean, I don't want to force you or anything,-"

"I want to," I cut him off.

Will looked at me with a surprised expression. "Really?"

"Yes. That sounds really nice. I also want to end what we had in a good way and then start our friendship relationship with no guilt and no regrets," I admitted.

Will's expression brightened with a hint of relief. "Okay then, great."

We both exchanged a smile before the bell rung and students came rushing in along with Mr Louis.

~

After history ended, I was on my way to the boys dorm when I crashed into the one and only shithead. I looked up and narrowed my gaze by the sight of Elliot's slightly pained expression. His face was a mix of blue and green while the paleness dominated.

"Shithead?" I looked at him, worriedly.

"H-hey, redhead snake," he said with a stoic expression, but failed miserably.

When I noticed small beads of sweat on his forehead and his heavy, painful breathing, I quickly grabbed his arm.

"Hey, what is it? You're sweating and you're so pale. What's wrong?" I asked, hurriedly while helping him enter the library where we sat down on a nearby couch.

"No, it's nothing. I just...don't feel very good," he admitted, squeezing his eyes shut of the pain as he leaned back.

I frowned when my gaze stopped on his palm pressed against his stomach, the spot where his wound was. The wound he got from getting into fights at his old school. The ex bad boy's scar.

"Elliot, is it your wound?" I asked, stroking his arm.

Elliot nodded, his palm pressed tightly against his wound as he winced of pain.

"The doctor sent the medication to you a few days after you guys talked on the phone, right?"

"Y-yeah, he did," he replied, trying to breathe steadily.

"You've been applying it right?" I asked, my heart beating loudly in my chest of extreme worry with a mix of fear.

For a moment, Elliot looked at me before pressing out a nod. "Yeah."

"Then why...?" I asked, swallowing hard when he winced once more and squeezed his eyes shut.

"Come on, lets go to the nurse. We need to inform your mom as well," I said.

"No!" He rapidly grabbed my hand.

"I mean, j-just....stay. Don't go anywhere. I...I don't want to move right now," he said, tightening his grip around my hand.

"But Elliot," I began.

"Rachel, please? Please, my cute little idiot?" He pouted.

My tensed muscles relaxed and I smiled, crookedly. "Okay," I whispered, softly.

"You should at least lay down," I said, but before I could do anything to help him lay down, Elliot pulled his legs on the couch and turned before lying down with his head resting in my lap.

He grinned at my astonished expression before closing his eyes and relaxed by exhaling a deep breath.

"Dear professor Elliot, by lying down, I didn't mean in my lap," I said with a sarcastic smile.

Eyes remained shut, he grinned once more. "I like it better here."

I folded my arms across my chest. "You know I can push you down on the floor any second now, right?"

"You won't. You care about me too much to push me off and cause me more pain than what I'm already going through," he said with eyes closed.

Feeling my cheeks flush red, I gazed at Elliot smiling peacefully in a calm position. Feeling a soft smile crawl upon my lips, I gently stroked Elliot's forehead, my fingers running through his hair. Elliot exhaled a deep breath as if a heavy load of burden was lifted of his shoulders. As if he was finally taking a break. Break from life.

"Wow, your hands are like a balm," he whispered, fascinated.

I grinned. "Good to hear you're enjoying this."

With his eyes still closed, Elliot smiled. While stroking his forehead, my gaze stopped on his stomach. Elliot had removed his hand from it. I quickly glanced at him and didn't see any sign of pain across his face. Only calmness.

"Are you feeling better?" I asked, gently.

He nodded in reply. "But that doesn't mean you can stop," he said, pulling my hand back to his forehead.

I chuckled while rolling my eyes. Elliot opened his eyes and smiled back.

"I wanted to tell you that I can't study this evening. I'm spending the evening with Will," I informed.

Elliot narrowed his eyes. "You seem to be skipping a lot of tutoring these days. Hope you can find sometime for me in that busy schedule of yours."

Me.

As the word echoed in my ears, I felt my cheeks flush.

"Hey, don't say that, I'm sorry. I just...I mean, I...,-"

"Woah, relax. I was just joking. You just made up with both Madelaine and Will. Two very important people in your life. You need to spend time with them," he assured.

I sat still and stared at him while Elliot chuckled.

"Thanks, Elliot, but I don't want to be unfair with you. You give up a lot of your time in the evenings to tutor me. I shouldn't take advantage of your time. I'll study with you today, but could we do it a bit earlier? In that way, I can spend time with Will afterwards and you can be with your mom," I suggested.

Elliot looked dumbfounded. " When did you become so smart and nice...to me?" He asked, placing a hand on his heart with a dramatic expression.

I smacked his arm, playfully. "Shut up."

Elliot grinned widely while I rolled my eyes.

"So um, you and Will are back together?" He asked as I continued to stroke his forehead and run my fingers through his hair.

"No, we have decided to stay friends. That's why we are sort of having an ending to our romantic relationship and starting as friends," I responded.

Elliot nodded. "That sounds nice."

"Yeah."

~

That evening, I put on a white lacy dress, let my red hair hang loose and in the end I put on some makeup to look less paler. I stared at myself in the mirror. I noticed I had gained weight. Elliot had been feeding me well the last few weeks. Sometimes he didn't let me eat to much and other times not too less. I wondered if the meals at the cafeteria had changed, because they were different from how they used to be 7 months ago and the previous three years I had been a student at this school.

My arm were bare, wrists were covered with deep, dark scars and completely ruined the beauty of the dress. I was tagged as the depressed princess. And I did it all by myself. I set up a trap for myself and walked right into it.

After Madelaine told me I looked beautiful, I gathered some dignity for myself and half believed it. When I climbed out of my window and
up the roof, I found Will waiting for me on a stripy blanket with candles circled around him and a basket of treats. Just like old times. I never thought I would call this for old times.

Will was handsomely dressed in dark jeans and sky blue buttoned shirt. His eyes met mine and every depressed thought faded. We exchanged a gentle smile before I stepped inside the circle of candles and sat down next to Will.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey. You look nice," he replied, smiling as his eyes traveled up and down my dress.

In most cases, beautiful was better than nice. However, in this case, in my my case, nice felt more believable than beautiful. No part of me was beautiful anymore. Scarred, broken creatures, but most of all, sinners weren't beautiful. They were depressed and I had never despised depression more than I did during that moment.

Depression took everything away from me. My happiness, my hunger, my sleep, my dreams, my beauty, my future, but most importantly my desire to live.

"Rachel? Are you okay?" He asked, placing his hand on my arm. He was looking at me with a concerned expression.

"Um, yeah. Of course. I just...really missed this and...you," I confessed, holding back the tears.

Will couldn't help but smile by my confession. He wrapped a comforting  arm around me and I rested my head on his shoulder.

"I missed this and you as well," he said.

My gaze stopped on the baskets and I grinned. "Please tell me that's the cafeteria's ice cream?" I almost begged for an answer as the vanilla scent entered my nostrils.

Amused, Will laughed."Yep." He reached for the basket and pulled out a box of ice cream.

"Pure vanilla ice cream straight from the cafeteria's refrigerator. Just like old times."

I grinned widely while he grabbed two spoons and gave me one before we dug in. I let out a soft moan when the ice cream melted in my mouth, the vanilla flavor resting on my tongue.

Will grinned and we continued to eat while I gazed up at the starry sky.

"How's everything at home?" I asked, glancing back at Will who licked the ice cream off his upper lip before his eyes met mine. The stars reflected in them, giving them a beautiful enchantment.

"Everything is great. Mom and dad are doing well in their business while the nanny at home is taking good care of Julia. Mom and dad come home more regularly now and call me twice a week too."

Julia was Will's younger sister. I met her when I visited Will's family during our first summer together. The 7 year old sweet and cheerful girl and I became good friends. To be honest, Will had immensely caring parents and a loving sister. And I was so happy that he had them.

I always believed that family was the most important thing in everyone's life. With a family you felt safe, happy, belonged and you always had one to return to if something in life went wrong. I had lost my family, Madelaine's was wrecked, but I was so happy that at least Will had one.

Pushing the thoughts aside, I smiled. "That's good to hear."

Will nodded and we continued to eat the extremely delicious vanilla ice cream from the box. I wondered why he wasn't asking about what happened on that dreadful day.

I gulped nervously and with a gentle voice asked, "Aren't you going to ask about what happened that day?"

Will stopped eating his ice cream before he reached for my hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "No. I figured you must've told Mads so I asked her and she told me everything. I'm sorry, maybe I shouldn't have, but I guess I thought you didn't want to repeat the whole story once more."

He looked at me with an apologetic look, but I couldn't help but smile of admiration. "Thank you," I whispered, honestly.

Will was about to smile back, but his face darkened completely when his gaze froze on my wrists. His head immediately shot up an he looked at me with shock and horrification spread out all over his face. Then all at once his expression saddened.

"Rachel, no," he whispered, his voice cracking. He studied each cut, each scar on both of my wrists while his jaw clenched. His warm thumbs rubbed gently over my scarred skin.

"I was going to cover them with makeup, but I really wanted to be true to you and real. I didn't want to hide anything," I informed, smiling sadly.

"I'm glad you didn't," Will whispered, rubbing his thumb gently over the words help me written by Elliot.

"Elliot?" He assumed as he looked at the letters written with a black marker before lifting his gaze to meet mine.

I nodded before he scooted closer to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "This might not mean anything, but I know how much you loved your dad and it was not your fault. I know I can't do anything with these scars. But everything is going to be okay. I promise," he confessed.

I wish what he said was true, but it never could be. Everything would never be okay. Never. It was too broken too be fixed.

With his arm still wrapped around me and my head resting on his shoulder, I nestled closer to him too feel his familiar heat and we continued to eat the ice cream.

"Remember when we first met?" Will asked in an attempt to cheer me up. And it helped because I burst out laughing in reply and so did Will.

"I could never forget how we first met. I never will," I assured, still laughing.

"Your face was so red," he reminded me, grinning of amusement.

"Maddie said I looked like a tomato," I chuckled.

"We had two amazing years together, you and I. Both sophomore year and junior year was the best time of my life with you."

I nodded in agreement. "True. I feel the same way."

"Will, can I tell you something?" I asked, drawing back to face him properly and took his both hands in mine.

Will nodded and entwined our fingers with each other. I smiled, genuinely.

"You will forever own a piece of me that I can never take back. And I want that piece of me to stay in your heart forever. No matter what happens in the future, I want you to cherish what we had forever, because I definitely will," I said, wholeheartedly.

Will's expression softened and for a moment he stared at me as if each and every moment we shared the past two years replayed in his mind.

"I promise," he vowed, the honesty reflecting in his eyes.

He pulled me to him, my head resting on his chest as we laid down, stargazing one last time together. It was just me and him on the roof with candles circled around us, illuminating the darkness and one starry sky above our heads and their sparkle reflecting in our eyes.

~

An hour later, Will and I climbed through the window and jumped into my dorm. Our night together had come to an end.

Will turned around to face me and cupped my face in his palms, taking me in to his wonderful touch.

"Thank you for tonight."

"I should be the one saying that," I chuckled.

An approving smile appeared on his face.

"I'm happy. I got another chance to end our story in a good way. I'm also extremely thankful for meeting you, Rachel. You are so amazing. With or without scars, you will always be beautiful. Thanks for being my first love. I'll cherish what we had forever. I promise," he confessed, honestly.

I smiled. "I'm happy too. I'm glad we ended it this way and I had a really good time with you tonight. I'm also thankful for you being my first love. I'll always will be. I'll cherish our memories forever, because you are a huge part of my life. And I love you so much."

I caught a glimpse of tears in Will's eyes. "I love you too," he whispered before pressing a kiss to my forehead.

He pulled me into another hug. "I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight."

I nodded and when he drew back, we exchanged a one last smile before he turned around and left.

So this was it. Will and my story had come to and end. A beautiful and peaceful end. However, it still hurt to see him walk away. I knew I'd see him tomorrow and we would still be close and care for each other, but it would be different. What Will and I shared had ended, only leaving friendship behind. Just friendship.

When he stepped out of my door and closed the door behind him, I burst into tears, my heart shattering once again, leaving an echoing gap between each piece. There was only one hope left in me for Will. I hoped he cherished a piece of me in his heart forever, because I definitely would. He may not have turned out to be my everlasting lover, but he would always be an everlasting memory. What we had and shared would always be a magically beautiful and everlasting memory. Always.

********************

Okay, Will and Rachel's story has come to and end. Hope you liked the chapter even if it didn't include a lot of Ralliot. You'll see more of that in the next chapter. Way more ☺️❤️

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