10
garrison abbey
“Ready?” I ask Willow.
“Ready.”
I open the door.
We step into the school, halls congested like most mornings. Instead of rushing to classrooms, friends huddle in groups by lockers or wander around, searching for a familiar face.
Willow walks in a diagonal line, almost inwards towards me. She avoids bumping into a few passing students.
“What’s your locker number?” I ask while she adjusts the strap of her backpack.
I almost set my hand on her shoulder, but instead I just let her hover close by. As soon as she unfurls her schedule, she hands the paper to me.
It’s a little damp, like her palms are sweating.
I’m not going to be a dick and mention it though.
I glance at the locker number with the code written out. “You’re over here, further down.”
She nods mechanically.
I understand the kind of nerves that just completely eviscerate you. Only I don’t feel them on the first day of school, or the second, or even the last. They hit me when I bike near my house. When I drive by. When I’m feet from the mailbox and then the front door.
When I step inside. Knowing my brothers are there.
They’re gone. They’re at college, I have to keep reminding myself.
Thank God.
“Sorry,” Willow apologizes in a whisper. I think towards me, but I realize that someone barely brushed against Willow’s arm on the way to a locker.
The girl shoots Willow a weird look, probably unsure of what she said.
We move along, out of her sight.
“So there are vending machines in the middle of each hall,” I tell her. “We can grab some waters before first period.” I’ll see her in second period, Calculus. Our first periods are different.
She’ll be okay.
She left Maine all by herself, didn’t she? Bravery exists somewhere inside of her. She just needs to remember that.
Two guys crash against my right shoulder with complete disregard. It knocks me into Willow. I catch onto her waist so we don’t both slam into the floor.
Shit.
She stiffens but holds onto me for support too. Once we’re stabilized, I take my hands off her and try to find the two assholes. I spin around.
“Really?” I snap, extending my arms at them, but as soon as they turn to face me, my arms drop immediately. One of the guys—he’s a friend-of-a-friend who I’ve fallen out with.
He flips me off. “Watch it, Abbey,” Pat Hayes snaps. Honestly, I expected worse than a shoulder-check and the middle finger.
“No thanks,” I rebut and then walk forward, away from them. Willow keeps my pace. I glance at her. You okay?
She seems a little shaken.
The universe is basically saying: Garrison Abbey, you’re the shittiest welcome committee. Take a backseat and let someone who’s actually well-liked show this sweet girl around.
I don’t want to hurt her.
Still, the thing I’ve always sucked at is leaving people when I should. I end up staying too long, too late. I’m not going to leave Willow alone, not now.
Maybe I should at least tell her I’m cursed.
I hear Pat huff angrily behind me, still enraged. He’s captain of our crew team, an adversary of Dalton’s lacrosse team. Our football team is shit, so all the country club sports are put on pedestals. Dalton’s track, swimming, tennis, crew, lacrosse and equestrian teams are all top in the state.
Pat shouts, “You ran into me, Abbey!”
Bullshit.
I say loudly without turning around, “If that’s what you think, then maybe don’t have a fireside chat in the middle of the hall.”
Pat shouts out a “fuck you” before a nearby teacher scolds him for his language. We’re too far away from one another to keep combating. Thankfully.
Willow keeps muttering “sorry” every five seconds, and by the time we make it to her locker, I feel relieved for her. She wipes her forehead with the back of her arm. A strand of her hair is still stuck to her damp cheek.
I motion to her face. “Can I…you have something…?”
She’s confused for a second and tentatively nods at me.
I pick the strand off and tuck it behind her ear.
She swallows once and stares at her feet and then her locker.
“Are you going to pass out on me?” I ask with concern, already trying to figure out the distance from her locker to the nurse’s.
I think I could carry her there, no problem.
Willow shakes her head. “I’m not good at this…I forgot to warn you.” Maybe she means that she’s not good at being the new girl in a school full of strangers. Or maybe even more general: being surrounded by a lot of people at one time.
“You’re doing alright.”
She glances at her skirt. “How’s the bow?”
My lips pull up a fraction. “Without a doubt, you have the best bow in the entire kingdom. If I were a princess, I’d even be jealous.” I pass her schedule back as she begins to smile. “Fifteen, thirty-seven, twenty-seven.”