𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 • 𝘣𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘴 [✔]

chapter seventy six.

A WEEK LATER

Claudia was over the moon. All her kids were so happy school was finally over for summer, but they had to say goodbye to their favorite teacher. George had sneaked in a small vanilla cake while Lily brought her Polaroid pictures of everyone in the class. They would still see Claudia around the school, but they would have a different English teacher. To them, it wasn't going to be the same.

Now, Claudia was busy putting her wall decorations into a plastic container. She rolled up several posters and dusted the empty bookshelves. She wasn't moving classrooms, but she thought it was time for a change of decor.

She was too busy cleaning her bookshelf when Garrett knocked on the door. He noticed she had her headphones in so he walked up to her and tapped her shoulder, giving her a slight scare.

"Sorry, I knocked, but you didn't hear me," Garrett chuckled, "another school year gone by too quick, right?"

Claudia stopped her music and put her headphones in her bag. "Yeah, my kids said the same thing. What about yours?"

"Most of them just wanted to leave since the first day of school," he said, "by the way, hows your mom? Is she doing okay?"

Claudia stood confused. She knew why Ben asked about her mom, but now Garrett? He didn't know anything, at least that's what she thought. Maybe he did know something or maybe Claudia was being paranoid about everything.

"She's fine . . . Why'd you ask?"

"Your grandma? The night of the dance? Your mom told me you had a family emergency and you had to leave. I explained it to Principal Howard since he was looking for you. He wasn't happy that you didn't tell him, but I got him to understand that family emergencies are unexpected." Garrett continued.

It made sense to Claudia now. She had completely forgotten about Grandma Donna's fake death. Actually, she wasn't even sure if either of her grandparents from her mom's side were alive.

"Oh. Oh! Yeah, thanks so much for understanding. Yeah, my mom took the news pretty hard. Cried for a weeks straight, poor woman. She finally stopped so that's good." Claudia tried her best for her lie to sound believable.

"I'm sorry for your loss. My grandma died when I was two so I didn't really know her. Then my uncle died when I graduated college, which was so sad because we got the news an hour after my ceremony then my cousin died a month later . . ."

Holy shit, does this make me a bad person if i don't want to listen to his whole family dying? I'm so sorry Garrett's family who died, wherever you are.

"So yeah a lot of people died in my family. Surprisingly, no one has died this year, which is great because my parents' wedding anniversary is coming up and they're going to celebrate big," Garrett said a bit loud so Claudia could get the hint he was so bad at dropping, "wedding anniversaries are so emotional, right?"

"Don't know, I've never experienced one," Claudia said, she looked clearly annoyed, but Garrett didn't notice.

"Oh, how come?"

"My parents' failed relationship."

"Oh."

Yeah . . .

Again, Garrett didn't take the hint. "My parents are celebrating big, I don't know if you want to, you don't have to, but it would be so cool-okay, I'll get to the point. Would you like to accompany me to my parents' wedding anniversary party? It's this weekend."

Claudia didn't know how to answer. She hoped something would interrupt her sp she would have to answer like someone barging in or the world ending, she just needed something.