Chapter 14
The diveback into the reality of the end of the school year was harder than Azalea had anticipated. While she’d done her best to try and prepare for it before so she could take a true spring break, she hadn’t done enough. The end of the year always seemed like a rush. The entire week it was class after class after class, day after day. By Wednesday, she was exhausted. By Thursday, she was just going through the motions.
Thursday evening was her first bowling game in two weeks. She had debated on calling Jean and bowing out because she could barely keep her eyes open through sixth period. Dragging her feet, Azalea grabbed her bowling bag and set it on the passenger seat of her Suburban before sitting in her driveway and pressing her forehead to the steering wheel.
She was so tired. She couldn’t figure it out, either. Vacations were supposed to energize and rejuvenate, but she felt like all hers had done was suck every last drop of energy from her, and it hadn’t replaced any of it. She had one more day of classes before she could take the weekend, catch up on some grading, and prep for the next week. The amount of work she had to do was overwhelming. She wondered if Jewel felt the same. The spring concert was in six weeks, which meant they were in crunch time. She rarely saw Jewel during these last few weeks of school each year.
Azalea groaned. What was going on between the two of them? They hadn’t talked about anything. On the one hand all they had done was talk, but on the other, they hadn’t come up with any definitions or boundaries. It was so unlike her. That last night at Indigo had been so unlike her, but waking up to Jewel looking so nervous, so worn, so tired, and so welcoming had been the push she’d needed. And it had been so good.
She smiled at the memory, waking up in the morning with Jewel wrapped around her, their skin hot, blankets tangled, rain falling softly outside. It had been the best way she’d woken up in a long time, and she’d wanted it to happen again immediately.
Sitting up, she straightened her back and glanced at the clock. If she was going to make it to bowling, she had to leave soon. She just hoped Brady wasn’t there again. That had been blissful about their week away. They’d barely talked about Brady, but more importantly, he hadn’t been around at all. Considering how the last time she’d seen him had gone, she didn’t want to run into him anytime soon, though in a town their size, they definitely would see each other.
What would she even say? That’d be a fun conversation. He’d thought they were together before, and now? Now, he was right. Cursing, Azalea put the car in reverse and backed out of her driveway. She took the roads slowly, knowing she had time. It wasn’t like it took more than two minutes to get from one side of town to the other ever. The parking lot at the bowling alley was packed, but thankfully she didn’t see Brady’s truck anywhere.
Grabbing her bag, Azalea went inside. She and Jewel had barely talked that week, which was so abnormal. She hadn’t had the time to think about a conversation or checking in, or the energy to start that conversation and see it through, but she knew they needed to talk. They needed to see where they stood together.
“Hey, Azalea,” Jean’s warm voice greeted her.
“Hey.” She dropped her bag a little harder than normal before plopping into a hard plastic chair to change out her shoes and get her ball ready.
“How was your spring break?” Jean performed the same ritual of getting ready that Azalea did.
Azalea shrugged, trying to be non-committal.
“Didn’t you go up to Indigo? Eli’s new place?”
“It’s hardly new,” Azalea muttered. “She’s been running it nearly three years now.”
“Has it been that long?”
“Yeah.”
Jean gave her a pointed look. “So did you go?”
Azalea gave Jean a pointed look, not happy about where the conversation was headed. Surely there had to be some rumor around town about them and what they’d done over the break, or really just them in general. Small towns loved rumors. “Yes.”
“How was it? I’ve been thinking about taking John up there for a weekend.”
“You should go. Eli’s put some trails around the grounds you can walk, or you can just lounge around inside.”
“I think John will want to go see what she’s doing with her herd.”
Azalea snorted. That did sound like John. He’d want to check on her and make sure everything she was doing was up to par for her old man and report back to him exactly everything he’d discovered. She’d have to warn Eli if Jean and John did go up there for a visit.
“How is Eli doing, anyway? I heard she’s been dating someone.”
Nodding, Azalea wasn’t quite sure how specific Jean was going to get and how much she was going to have to side-step around some of the details. But Eli was far more out in their community than she was. On the other hand, she hadn’t made a public declaration of her girlfriend either, especially since Sarah was on tour more than half the year anyway.
“You’re awfully talkative tonight,” Jean chastised.
“Sorry,” Azalea muttered. “I’m tired. Last week was not as relaxing as I had hoped. I mean, I hadn’t done enough prep work on my lesson plans to take an entire week off from doing them.”
“Oh?”
Azalea shrugged again. “I should be caught up by end of next week, hopefully.”
“You need to take regular breaks.”