The Ice Cream Pact

Chapter Thirteen

C O N N O R
• • •

Last night I was somehow able to leave the Monroes' and get home without Jake or my mom seeing me. He had still been at practice and she was already asleep when I left. Ashton had given me one of his shirts to wear so that I didn't have to keep looking at the red splotches on mine, which I appreciated. Although, me and Crystal both had a thing about blood, so it wasn't too surprising that it was basically second nature to him at this point.

I fell right asleep when I got home, not caring to do any of my homework. If my teachers tried to give me crap for it, I'd just point at my face and and tell them to screw off.

Yes, I know that I wouldn't have the guts to actually, but I would do that in my head.

You would've thought that since I'd gotten a lot more sleep than usual, I would've felt better this morning.. but that wasn't even remotely the case. I felt worse, if anything. After brushing my teeth, I popped 4 Advil, grabbed a few more to bring with me, grabbed my skateboard, and headed out the door. I had told Jake that my mom was going to drive me today so that he wouldn't see my face.

I had said that I didn't care if Jake knew it was Bruce who did it, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that he would probably commit murder if he knew. And I didn't really want my best friend to get thrown in jail already. I mean, knowing him it was probably inevitable at some point, but I didn't want it to happen yet at least.

I didn't mind skating to school, anyway. On the way there I listened to some music in my headphones, trying to not let myself get too anxious about both seeing Lucas and avoiding Jake. Not to mention the fact that I was about to be the center of attention in this stupid place.

When I finally got to the school, I instantly snapped into my keeping-head-down mode, and put my hood on as I kicked my board up as I approached the front doors. No one had paid much attention to me yet, which was good. I was able to quickly put my board in my locker, and then focused on keeping my breathing steady as I made my way to the auditorium for first block.

Lucas wasn't there yet, so I sat down at the piano. My mind was focusing completely on shoving down my thoughts, and I was scared that if I started playing a song it would break my floodgates... so I just stared at the keys, drowning in the thick silence around me.

But then I heard the auditorium door open, and my heart dropped in my chest.

"Hey," Lucas said from behind me, gently, as if he was both relieved to see me and scared that I would run off again. I hated that he probably felt like he had to walk on eggshells around me now.

"Hey," I said back over my shoulder, not entirely facing him so that he couldn't see my eye and nose.

"I'm, uh," I heard him put his bag down, his footsteps then coming closer. I ducked my head down a little bit further, swallowing the lump in my throat. "Yesterday when you, um... are you okay?"

"Yeah- yeah I'm fine. It was nothing," I shrugged, but seized up when he sat down on the bench. I accidentally looked over at him, and his eyes immediately widened.

He swore under his breath, his eyes glancing around my features. I hid my cringe, my face heating up while I felt like I was sinking into the floor.

"It's fine, I just fell," I explained before he could gather his words, only he didn't buy it. I turned to duck away again, but he reached and gently turned my head back towards him. His fingers left a tingling sensation on my jaw as they lingered there.

"Connor," he started, and I decided not to cut him off this time, swallowing again as we held each other's gazes. The pain in his eyes made me feel seen... but I couldn't let myself fall for that again. "Who did this to you?"