After Hours

4 - but now I can't stop thinking about you

"It is Wednesday, my dudes." Teo said when he sat down at lunch, and proceeded to make the annoying noise of "Aaaahhh!"

"It's Tuesday, dumbass," Bailey said and put a fry in her mouth. Teo pouted.

"I knew that," he mumbled.

I looked down at my lunch of what was probably rock hard pizza, and my brain refused to let me take a bite. So instead I looked over at Harbor's lunch, only to realize it was no better. They had pasta, but it looked as if it had been run through a dishwasher, and I presumed it probably tasted about the same.

"Ugh, I'm tired of school lunch," I complained and pushed the tray further away from me.

"That's why you guys have to start bringing," Orly commented and pulled out her homemade PBJ. I shrugged in her direction.

"I'd suggest we leave and go eat somewhere else, but we all know someone has been spending all her money at a certain bookstore," Harbor said, and I knew they were talking about me. It seemed that everyone else did as well because then all eyes were on me.

This morning Harbor had asked to head to Dunkin during our free period and I had said no after taking one glance in my wallet. I had hoped they weren't still feeling salty about it...

"Oh come on, guys! Don't blame this on me!" I argued. "If you guys wanna leave, go ahead, I'll just steal some of Harbor's anyway."

"No, she has a point." Bailey nodded. "It's probably too late to leave now though."

"True." Teo nodded sadly. "Do we have lunch together tomorrow? Cause let's go then instead."

"Dunkin grilled cheese, here I come!" Bailey cheered, and we all chuckled.

"Still don't get how you like that stuff, but I'm here for it anyway." Harbor smiled at her.

I ended up eating about half of my rock pizza. I needed fuel for practice today. Although I was only able to eat most of it due to Harbor's encouragement, so go them.

"How's it going with Bailey?" I asked Harbor at the end of the day as we stood at their locker. "Have you told her yet?"

Without looking at me, Harbor shook their head. "I haven't found the right time to do it yet." They sighed.

"You should say that you wanna hang out sometime and do it then!" I offered. "Or if you wanna mask it a little, we could make plans for the three of us and then I'll bail last minute."

Harbor turned to me. "You'd really do that?"

I smirked. "Of course I would, you know me." I nudged their shoulder, and they smiled.

"Thanks, dude. Seriously, I owe you so much." Harbor said, and I shook my head.

"We're best friends, that's what we do for each other."

Harbor threw on their jacket and hat, then I walked them out to the entrance of the school.

"You're probably dying to talk about Ruby, I just know it." They teased. "That was the whole reason you brought up Bailey, right?"

"No!" I defended myself. "I'm genuinely interested in you guys' thing, that's why I mentioned it." Then I paused, before saying, "Although, I wasn't gonna be upset if you mentioned Ruby."

"I figured." Harbor laughed.

After my night with her, I had immediately asked Harbor if I could come over. We sat on their porch together, talking for over an hour. I was gushing over the night for a long time, constantly pinching myself because honestly, it felt like a dream. It sounded like something straight out of a movie, I really had to convince Harbor that it actually happened.

But they were happy for me, of course. Although I figured that they were probably going to want to meet Ruby eventually, and that thought was simultaneously nerve-wracking and exciting.

But as I headed to practice, I tried to keep the thought out of my head. I played a lot better when I wasn't distracted.

The beginning of practice went on as usual: we changed, chatted for a bit before we started, and worked on practicing plays for our upcoming game. But I guess when everything is going well, it's inevitable that something's about to go wrong, right?

"Pass it!" I yell to my teammate. She looks between me and the net before throwing me the ball. I'm about to catch it, before my teammate from the opposing team whams into me, and I trip over my own feet as the ball slams into my arm and we both tumble to the ground.

That's when I feel the sharp pain shoot up my ankle, and I yelled out in pain.

"Aaah," I groaned as my teammates surrounded me, and my coach rushed over.

"I think it could be sprained." I heard my coach say, and I refused to let myself look at it. I knew that if I did, everything would feel so much worse.

"Zoe, help me get her up," Coach said, and then I'm being helped up to my feet. Or foot, that is.

It's only a matter of time before I'm taken to the nurse's office, then to my mom's car, and back home.

"It's only sprained," my coach told me. And I could probably return to playing after a couple weeks, but I was still pretty bummed. I was given a brace, and I was frowning down at it when my dad walked into my room with a cup of tea.

"Hey, kiddo." He said to me and set the mug down on my nightstand. "How are you doing?"

"I'm okay, I'm just bummed," I said and laid back on my bed. My dad took the opportunity to sit down next to me.

"You'll be able to return in a few weeks, and pretty soon it'll feel like nothing at all." My dad soothed me. And I knew he was right.

"Thanks, Dad." I sighed but offered him a smile. He ruffled my hair just like he used to when I was a kid, before leaving.

I got through the rest of that afternoon just fine, but it was coming straight home the next day that really had me feeling crummy. And not only that, but it was also just such a weird experience. My dad was at work but my mom was home with Dylan, and they were eating crackers together in the kitchen when I got home.

"Carmel, you're back!" My mom greeted me when I entered the house. "It's so weird to see you home on a Wednesday."

"I know right." I tried not to grumble, but it came out as one anyway. And it wasn't like I had any problem with being home, it was just thinking about what I could be doing at practice while I was stuck at home.

After I'd changed into leggings and an oversized tee, I was sitting in the living room eating grapes when the doorbell rang. Both my mom and Dylan had presumably left the kitchen, so I took the responsibility to answer the door. I'd expected it to be a package, or maybe our neighbors coming to say hi or something.

What I didn't expect at all was to open the door to be faced with none other than Ruby.

A/N: soo not gonna lie I didn't really have a song for this chapter haha but this one's kinda nice!