CHAPTER EIGHT #2
Two words. No, not even two words. A sound and a word. That was all the language he needed to convey such a sharp sense of disappointment with my answer.
Hello, obligatory guilt trip, how I missed you so.
My breath escaped in a whoosh. “Sorry, Dad, I just… I’m tired. School dragged on, and I’d really like to lie down and take a nap for the next decade.”
A small chuckle carried down the line. “Oh, is that all?”
Remorse soothed. Mission complete. “We’ll be home soon, I promise.” Ralph watched me closely, his expression carefully neutral, but I didn’t shy away from his study. “In fact, we’re heading that way now.”
Needing no prompting, the guys retraced our steps. Only the brush swish of our steps through the layers of leaves kept up a steady rhythm on our return march.
Ralph made one attempt to talk on the way back, but he paused, glancing ahead at Hunter and Kolton. Both, though outwardly focused on the walk, seemed tuned in, ready to catch our conversation.
Ralph shrugged it off, instead content to walk beside me, his arm brushing mine from time to time. Even when I scooted over to provide more room, five paces later, like clockwork, the trail married us together.
“Sorry,” I murmured.
He grinned at me. “No problem.”
Hunter glanced around, seeming to understand what’d happened. He rolled his eyes with a snort before continuing on. Kolton didn’t dismiss the matter so quickly. He turned often, his gaze lingering and stony in deep thought.
Between the weighted stares and the constant brushes, my home appearing through the break in the woods felt like a blessing.
They came inside for some quick goodbyes before they left as suddenly as they’d appeared.
Also in no mood for chitchat, I shoveled down three plates of food before retiring for the night, triple-checking that my computer was charging for the next day. I’d need all the help I could get.
Being right was an empty consolation. The school day started out with a heaping dose of gossip. I’d shouldered the looks and hushed conversations fine, especially since my second history class fared much better now that my computer was charged.
Kolton tried to catch me at the end of class once more, because I’d dodged them all before school. By some stroke of luck, he’d failed to corner me. Ralph too.
KOLTON: Wtf?
KOLTON: Hiding from us again?
Ralph’s and Hunter’s messages followed in the same vein—lots of questions after dinner, then some “where are yous” this morning that transitioned nicely into accusations. Accurate accusations, well-deserved accusations, but accusations nonetheless.
“Yes,” I muttered to myself without replying, putting my phone away and focusing on science class the best I could.
“Did you say something?” Manuel watched me with a curious expression on his face.
“Nope.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Really.”
He posed it like a statement rather than a follow-up question, but I didn’t need to explain.
My attention had tuned into the hushed conversation behind me from the table with Ben’s… ex? No, fun buddy? Friend with benefits? Who knew?
According to Kolton, I’d been Ben’s first real girlfriend. Ben had said as much as well, but I’d forgotten this in the face of everything yesterday. There’d only been room for grief and despair.
Today, I felt stronger and more rational.
Sure, they’d let me off the hook, but Ralph and, by proxy, Kolton and Hunter still had questions.
I had no idea how to answer the guys’ inquiries about how I’d gone to sleep for our first “sleepover” and woken up at a construction site, nor why Ralph had tagged along.
Had he driven us there at my insistence?
For now, though, they were still my friends, so the day seemed just a bit brighter.
“—was fighting leukemia all summer, and that’s why her hair is so short.”
My shoulders hunched.
“Huh, well, I heard she cut it because she found out she’s into girls.”
Scandalized gasps followed the proclamation with a few stray giggles sprinkled on top for garnish. They were cooking up some juicy rumors over there.
“Hey, Urena, what do you think?”
Her friends had done most of the talking up to that point. Despite myself, my ears perked up more, tuning into her answer.
She must have shrugged or given some nonverbal cue, because Kaylee prompted, “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” Urena cried, earning a stern but quick lecture from Mrs. Reed.
When it was safe to do so, Urena lowered her voice.
“How could you even ask that? My boyfriend’s memorial is coming up soon, and I have to sit here and just take notes?
Pretend my world didn’t shatter into a million pieces? ”
“Jeez,” Kaylee interjected. “Forget we asked, and you can tone down the drama. You’re deluding yourself about how important you were to him. He barely sent twenty messages when you were ‘together’ for months. I’m tired of you milking this for sympathy.”
Gasps sounded, and an actual chill settled over our back corner of the lab.
“Screw you, bitch—”
“Ms. Hayashi!” Mrs. Reed screeched. “That is—”
Before the teacher could finish, Urena burst into loud tears and tore from the classroom.
Mrs. Reed called the office for some help tracking the wayward, crying student down, and with Herculean effort, she pulled the lesson to a hasty close and assigned us homework. Her fingers flew across the keyboard as we worked.
Incident report, most likely.
Predictably, none of the students worked on the assignment with the teacher distracted. Well, I tried to because after learning from home, I craved to reclaim my no homework at home policy.
Manuel let out a low whistle. “That was a train wreck.”
“Hmm.”
He tapped his chin. “That was a pleased hum.”
“Sorry, I was aiming for neutral.”
His dark eyes sparkled with naughty knowledge. “Oh, I get it! You’re a trip someone instead of outrunning the bear kind of person.”
His bizarre sentence managed to peel my attention away from the work. “Say what now?”
“You know, you don’t have to run faster than the bear as long as you run faster than the person you’re with?
” At my continued bafflement, he rolled his eyes with a good-natured huff.
“I bet Urena’s dramatic exit from class will be the talking point by lunch, and anything that happened, say for example, yesterday, will be just that. Yesterday’s news.”
Ah, he was implying her outburst would draw the spotlight away from me. Honestly, yeah, hopefully it would. Did that make me a trip someone to save myself person?
I mulled that over, pursing my lips in thought. “Huh.”
He laughed as I returned to my work, and that was that.
If I could keep from acting like a spaz, then maybe it’d be smooth sailing.