Drowning

Guess Who's Back, Back Again?

Today was the day. It was finally happening. Months had gone past since the school fight and yet Finley still felt Miguel's absence. But no longer. Today was his first day back and Finley hadn't been able to stop smiling since she woke up that morning. She was leaning against a wall in the school lobby, waiting for Miguel to walk through the door- on his own two legs. Weeks of conditioning and training and he had finally done it. Miguel was finally walking on his own two legs, no wheelchair, no crutches, not even a brace. She was scrolling through Instagram when a banner for a text message appeared at the top of her screen. The smile fell and she clicked on it.

Eli 🦅
Careful... without your
resting murder face people
might think you're actually
approachable

Her eyes lifted from her phone, scanning the faces in the hallway, but she couldn't find him. With the red hair she couldn't exactly miss him, so she just ignored the text and went back to Instagram. She didn't want to be rude, but she also was trying to stay strong in her decision to not be all buddy buddy with him. He broke Demetri's arm and he shoved you into a locker. She could still be his friend when he absolutely needed her, but other than that she was gonna cut him off.

Eli 🦅
Hawks fly

Finley swiped the message away, not even bothering to open it this time. She knew what he meant, he wanted her to look up, likely he was on the balcony. Part of her was tempted to, but thankfully a murmur began among all the students in the lobby before everyone started clapping. She turned her phone off, stuffing it into her back pocket, before a grin broke out onto her face as she saw Miguel making his way through the crowd. She watched as a couple of kids came up to him, patting him on the back and giving him fist bumps. He smiled awkwardly at them as he continued walking, but when he saw Finley, a genuine smile came onto his face.

She quirked an eyebrow at him. "Did you know any of those people?"

A snort escaped Miguel as he shook his head. "No, not really."

Miguel's eyes drifted towards the stairs where he had fallen, so Finley quickly spoke up again. "I've been giving your teachers all your homework and papers like you asked, so you should be good."

His mocha brown eyes darted back to her and he smiled slightly. "Cool, thanks."

"Oh, but you should know that some of them were a little skeptical why I had the same answers as you on everything, so I just told them that you copied off me. Figured they'd be more lenient on you."

The deadpan face with which she spoke would have been enough to fool just about anyone, but Miguel simply chuckled, rolling his eyes at the girl. "Great. Thank you so much for the welcome back present, Finley."

The sarcasm dripped off his voice so thickly, that it might as well have been molasses. Finley grinned at him, already feeling like things were finally normal now that he was back.

"El Serpiente!"

Both of them turned to look at Hawk as he came down the stairs, a grin of his own on his face as he pulled Miguel into a bro hug.

"What's up?" Miguel smiled at his friend.

"Welcome back man."

"Feels good to be back."

Miguel still couldn't wipe the smile from his face. He was back in school, finally, surrounded by his friends, and despite some doubt from the doctors, he was walking on his own two feet.

"They give you bionic legs or some crap like that?" Hawk teased, the smile still on his face.

Miguel chuckled, his head dipping down slightly. "No, same old boring human legs."