Falling

44

TRIGGER WARNING: brief mention of sexual assault/rape

Carson Hughes

Football games just weren't the same without Logan sitting beside me while the two of us thought about being anywhere but on the crowded bleachers watching a game neither of us cared about. He was the only one I could complain to about it. Even Isaac seemed to quietly enjoy watching Seth throw a ball for three hours. I didn't get it. Neither did Logan and he wasn't even here to suffer with me.

Logan had said he wanted to spend the day with his family, telling us they had a rough therapy session the day before and he didn't feel like going out today. Of course, we all understood that, but I couldn't help the slight irritation in the back of my mind that Vinny hadn't told me it was a rough session when we met up last night. I didn't need to know the details, I just wanted to know that he was okay. Maybe I wasn't even justified in wanting to know that.

Without Logan here to entertain my complaints, the game dragged on longer than usual. Our team was winning, but I couldn't find it in me to care.

I managed to slip away just as the second half started, finding Spencer against the fence taking pictures for year the yearbook.

"Hey," I greeted him, causing him to lower the camera from his face.

"Hey," he replied. "Happy Thanksgiving."

"You too," I said, sliding my hands into the pockets of my sweatshirt. "Are you coming to my house today with your dad?"

Spencer paused for a moment before replying. "I was planning on it. Unless there's a reason I shouldn't."

"No, it's fine," I said. "Vinny will be there for dessert."

Spencer sighed. "Great."

I quirked an eyebrow up, glancing at him with confusion.

"Is that a problem?" I asked, probably sounding more rude than I intended.

"No," Spencer said, shaking his head. "I'm going to have to get used to it."

"You know, Vinny told me what happened with you two," I told him.

"Carson, I don't even know what happened," Spencer said, putting his camera down and letting it dangle from the strap around his neck. "We fought, we were both emotional, but there's something else that I don't know, something he's not telling either of us."

I hated the thought of Vinny hiding the entire truth from me, but Spencer was probably right. Vinny kept a lot of things inside. It wasn't a far fetched idea that he had kept some of this story on the inside as well.

"I don't want to argue with you, I'm sorry," I said. "I shouldn't have brought it up."

"I feel bad enough about it," Spencer said, picking his camera back up. "And confused."

He snapped a picture of Seth just as he was throwing the ball, then quickly turned and got one of Darren catching it.

"Do you like taking pictures of the football games?" I asked, hoping a subject change would ease the tension that was suddenly between us.

"Not really," he admitted.

"Then why do it?" I asked. "Aren't you in charge of photography for yearbook? You can have someone else do it."

Spencer shook his head. "The school wants perfect shots of the players. The principal wants the players to have a lot of good shots for newspapers or whatever, make them look good to colleges. Since I'm head of photography, that falls on me."