The extra attention I usually find annoying, tonight I welcome because it isn’t until someone points it out that I notice. The leader of the hellhounds nowhere in sight.
“Hmmm, must have headed straight for the showers,” Finn decides, unfazed like he’s only now noticed too after another student mentions it.
None of them have said a word to me about it, but I can tell their friendship has strained since coming back. A rift settling in their once-perfect dynamic.
It’s in the small ways they interact. The familiar easiness of before is no longer present.
I doubt anyone at school has noticed, them ruling the same as before with a fistful of iron. But I have, and maybe it’s because I know them each on a deeper level.
Saw things most do not. Know more than what they appeared to give on the surface. It’s clear that a side has been chosen, and Cole’s isn’t facing the counter.
“Ah, well, who cares? His loss. You all did awesome!” Hailey gushes, dismissing him.
“Anyone up for celebrating with some food?”
My stomach gurgles at Finn’s suggestion of not having more than a few handfuls of popcorn, but I decline.
Finn shoots Eli a tight-lipped frown when he thinks I’m not looking.
Clearing my head, I decide not to read too much into it. Too many other things are already on my mind, despite that pinch in my chest turning into a knot.
After that, it isn’t long before I push out my goodbye and head toward the parking lot.
I swallowed up my nerves and did what Hailey wanted, staying after. Now I get to do what I want. Go home and forget about everyone.
“Odd that we didn’t see Cole,” Hailey observes on our walk to the car. Her mind stuck on the one track that I’m trying to forget about. “Usually, the first game Boone’s more lenient. Letting the guys hang out for a bit before heading to the locker rooms.”
Yes—that is strange indeed.
twenty-two
Rory
“Areyounotgoingto eat that?”
I shove my tray over, letting Hailey have whatever she wants from it.
The question is not something I’m not used to by this point. Her taking food from my plate how our friendship started, and the tradition hasn’t let up since.
Most days, she claims something for herself before I even have time to decide for myself if I want it.
Today it’s an orange.
“You know, where I grew up, we are known for our oranges,” she raves. Shoving a piece in her mouth. “An orange fresh off the tree is always the best,” she muses.
Hailey speaks in the present tense. Like she lives there now and not here with her family as she has for over four years.
I think that’s how most people who grow up with stable family lives are though. Nostalgic of the past because it’s hard to miss something when you still feel so a part of it.
A home that will always be there, a place to come back to. Hailey’s lucky she has a “we” to fall back on.
Mine has always only beenme.
That’s a lie. I’d had Alma for a few years and maybe that’s why I had the urge to go back to the diner after that bus dropped us at the rest stop. She was my we.
“What about orange juice? How’s that?”
She moans her approval. “Don’t even get me started on that. There is nothing better than fresh orange juice. Swear.”