For the next couple days, the couple’s life proceeded without much incident despite the ominous warning that Levi received. The morning was like any other. They woke up together. They made love in the shower. Eloise cooked breakfast. And now, Levi held her hand as he walked her to class. 

Eloise bounced along beside him while swinging their arms. It was a good morning. She had a lot of good mornings recently. However, the happiness she felt was marred with a little dread. Soon she would have to leave his side. 

The two reached the school’s gate where they would need to separate. Levi turned to her and placed hand on her cheek, bringing her in for a quick kiss on the lips. 

“Have a good time at class.”

As he turned to leave, Eloise caught his hand. He gave her a questioning look while she avoided his eyes bashfully. She didn’t say anything, but Levi still understood. She didn’t want to let him go.

Eloise knew that he couldn’t stay by her side all day long, but she still couldn’t help the way she acted. Levi just smiled that gentle smile of his. He spoiled her with another kiss, this time more slow and lingering.

“You’re going to be late.. I’ll see you soon.”

Eloise was still hesitating. Slowly and reluctantly, she let his hand slip from her grasp. Levi reached up and brushed a few loose strands of her hair behind her ear.

With that, he turned and left her there. Eloise leaned into the wall as she watched him go. There were other people in the yard watching her and laughing to each other. To them she must have looked awfully pathetic. 

She had only just arrived and already the rumors and talking behind her back had begun. Either they didn’t realize she could hear them or they just didn’t care.

“There she is making out with that guy again. Doesn’t she care how she looks?”

“Did you see the way he dresses? He’s some random nobody. Figures that the freak would find any bum off the street to be with.”

“I heard that she goes to the lower east side every day.”

“Really? Isn’t that the poorest neighborhood in the entire city? She’s lucky she doesn’t get mugged on her way to school.”

“That guy looks like a druggie. Who would've thought the daughter of Armel Faron would date someone poor.”

“She’s his foster daughter, not his real daughter.”

“Whatever. It’s still weird that someone from a successful family would be with such a loser.”

Eloise put her hands over her ears. She wished she could isolate herself completely so she would never need to hear them. They were worms, all of them. Did their opinions even matter?

A bell rang out from the school. All of the students who had been talking shuffled their way inside. Eloise kept her head down so that she didn’t have to see the way people would stare at her. They were always staring.

During the morning classes, Eloise took a seat by the windows. She rested her face in her hand as she gazed longingly in the direction she knew Levi must be. The lesson could do little to draw her out of her daydreams. A sigh escaped her lips as she tried to comfort herself. Only six more hours until she could see Levi again…

She glanced back to the doodle she had been drawing absentmindedly. Eloise had written her name alongside Levi’s. Her sharp and agitated handwriting wouldn’t be out of place if it was scrawled into the wall of an abandoned asylum. But when found in a young girl’s cutesy lavender school notebook, it did seem a bit strange. The way that she dotted her ‘i’s with little hearts further added to the idiosyncrasy. 

The girl tapped her pen against her lips. What she had drawn was alright, but it didn’t accurately reflect the depths of her devotion. It wasn’t meaningful enough. Something more was needed to make it a worthy homage to her beloved.

Eloise brought her hand up to her mouth. She bit down on the webbing between her thumb and index finger hard enough to tear the skin and draw blood. Then using her life’s essence, she smeared a heart around the two names with red watercolor. Finally, she squeezed a few extra scarlet droplets onto the bottom of the page. When she leaned forward and kissed them, an imprint of her lips was left as though made with ruby lipstick.

As this was going on, Eloise’s seatmate nervously glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. The poor boy was sweating bullets and dark circles formed under his armpits. He sat as perfectly still as he could make himself to avoid drawing any attention. Very carefully, he inched his seat away little by little without being too obvious.

After the morning classes came lunchtime. Eloise sat alone as she always did. When she would take a spot at a table, the surrounding seats would clear away in unison. She would then be left as the epicenter of a void zone. Whenever her peers would avoid her like this, she never acknowledged it or even seemed to notice. She had grown used to such things long ago. There was no one in the world who understood her or accepted her. No one except Levi.

Even though the other students avoided her like she had the plague, that didn’t stop Eloise from overhearing more rumors about herself. Two popular girls were giggling and whispering to each other as they kept glancing at her back.

“How long do you think it will take before that guy notices she’s not right in the head?”

“I don’t know, but I hope they don’t last long. At least when she was moping around on her own she didn’t make me gag every morning.”

“My money is on another week at most. No matter how desperate he is, there’s no way he wants a crazy next to him, right?”

“If I were him, I would have dropped her like a rock the moment that-”

Two girls talking were suddenly interrupted by a slam on the table that sent all the silverware rattling. The first girl swallowed slowly. Eloise had appeared beside her and stabbed a fork at her hand. By pure luck, the prongs landed in the gap between her fingers. Half an inch to either side and it would have impaled her.

“Take that back! That trash about Levi leaving me, take it back!”

Eloise held the fork under the girl’s chin like a mugger would threaten someone with a switchblade. The noise in the canteen had died down to murmur. Every set of eyes in the room was staring towards the commotion.

“C-crazy.. You’ll get suspended if you-”

“I don’t care! Take back what you said right now! Do you think I can’t dig out both your eyes before anyone makes it here to stop me?”

“I-I’m sorry.. I didn’t mean it.”

“Levi and I are perfect for each other. He’ll never leave me. Say it.”

“You’re perfect for each other…”

Those murderous eyes remained trained on her for another few moments before slowly turning away. The girl could finally release the breath she had been holding as relief washed over her. She felt like she just survived a brush with death itself.

Eloise abandoned her lunch and left the canteen. She didn’t feel hungry anymore and just wanted to find some place to be alone. What were they all staring at? They always treated her like she’s crazy. She’s NOT crazy.

The afternoon classes did not go any better. Eloise gave off the same energy as a feral cat with its fur sticking up on end. She hunched into her shoulders defensively, eyeing anyone who seemed to be talking about her and Levi. 

They were jealous. Every single one of them were jealous of what the two of them had and wanted to ruin it just to make themselves feel better. How could they possibly understand what a perfect relationship was like? Levi and her completed one another. She would die without Levi. She would kill anyone who tried to take him away from her.

The final bell that signaled the end of the day was a relief to both Eloise and her classmates. She quickly gathered her things without even bothering to stop by her locker. When she walked through the hall, the other students made way for the fuming girl. She had made it through another day. Soon she would be back beside her Levi where she belonged.

***

Headmaster Reeves hung his head and pinched his nose in consternation. As he sat behind his desk, Isabelle Durant, the school’s guidance counselor, paced back and forth through his office. 

“Miss Durant, is the girl’s mental state really as serious as you say? She would hardly be the first student that’s had a boyfriend or girlfriend distract them from their studies.”

The woman huffed at the ridiculousness of his question. Did the man have any idea what went on in his school at all?

“Her fixation on her boyfriend has gone way past a ‘distraction’. It's a full-blown obsession! And it’s affecting not just herself but her peers as well. Mr. Reeves, I’m very concerned about her condition. Eloise was a troubled girl even when she arrived, but it wasn’t like this.”

“I understand your worries, but there isn’t much we can do. She’s not a minor. We can’t restrict her to the dorms if she doesn’t wish to stay.”

Miss Durant finally stopped her pacing. She came forward and planted both her hands on the headmaster’s desk.

“Well, we have to do something! We must absolutely separate the two of them. I don’t know what that young man has done to make her like this, but he’s definitely bad news! He could be a groomer or an abuser… I’m sure you know better than I do the repercussions of something like this being made public. Especially for a student who’s the daughter of someone so high profile.”

Headmaster Reeves felt a headache begin to come on just imagining the fallout of such a situation.

“Indeed. If there is a scandal that compromises Mr. Faron’s political campaign, we’ll have enemies in the city council. Then we can kiss our funding goodbye for at least the next decade. What is it that you suggest then?”

“The girl needs an intervention. I’ve already contacted a colleague of mine, Dr. Sylvain Marion. He is a registered psychiatrist. Together with him, we should sit her down and clearly explain to her how unhealthy her obsession is. If Dr. Marion thinks that she is a danger to herself and others, she can be forcibly admitted to a medical facility for up to 72 hours without a court order. From there, she can get a full psych evaluation and if her condition is serious enough, she might be made to stay longer.”

“Such serious measures. Will all of that really be necessary? This is exactly the kind of incident that we want to avoid.”

“It’s better that then she stabs a fellow student or harms herself. And this is only the most extreme possibility. Hopefully we can simply talk some sense into the girl. Once we convince her that her boyfriend is harming her well-being, she might be more willing to stay in the dormitory where we can keep a closer eye on her.”

Headmaster Reeves stayed silent for a moment as he weighed the situation. His fingers drummed on the top of the desk. Finally, he came to a decision.

“Very well. Ask this Dr. Marion when is the soonest that he can make time.” 

“We should contact her family as well.”

“No, not yet. I would rather deal with this ourselves if possible. I’ve met the man before. Armel Faron does not appreciate when people bring problems to him while he’s in the middle of something important.”

Miss Durant clicked her tongue in disbelief.

“Even his own daughter isn’t important enough to pull him away from his campaign?”

“That’s just the way of people at the highest level in society. A free moment is a luxury that is hard to come by.”

“What about someone else? She had an older sister, doesn’t she?”

“Unfortunately, from what I understand, her sister has similar neurological divergencies. The two girls are blood-related and were both taken in by Mr. Faron at the same time.”

Miss Durant gave him a strange look.

“So he keeps one daughter by his side and dumped the other in a boarding school and forgot about her?”

“I won’t make any comments or speculate on the private affairs of their family, and I suggest that you don’t either, Miss Durant. It’s not our place to judge. We’re educators, simple as that.”

The woman just shook her head and let out a sigh of pity for Eloise. At least after she’s separated from that young man, she’ll have someone properly looking after her.