The Reclamation

11

Tuesday went by faster. Once again, my mom drove Mia and I to Starbucks before school and we prepared for the day ahead. We walked through the doors together, stopped at each other's lockers, and I walked her to class. We even had our men's bathroom trip again.

I had been working out what I would say to Nick in my head all day. This time I would be prepared to talk to him, to apologize for the way I'd been acting, to ask him to reconcile our friendship. But when I got to my last class, Nick wasn't there. I waited patiently at my desk for him to walk through the door, to slide a hall pass across the teacher's desk and take his seat. But he never showed up.

Then Wednesday came. Going to school was becoming slightly more bearable for Mia and I. My mom, Millie and I picked her up, the two of us sat at Starbucks while the sun rose, and we started the school day together. It was becoming the new normal, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying it a little.

Then my last class rolled around. I prepared my speech, added a few things that I hadn't thought of yesterday, and waited patiently for Nick to walk in. Once again, Nick never came.

I knew it was ridiculous to think that he was avoiding me, that he was purposefully skipping  class so that he didn't have to see me. I couldn't help but blame myself, though. Did he hate me that much? How badly had I fucked up?

Mia and I round the corner off of school grounds as I walk her to dance class. She is being especially quiet today. Her hands are stuffed into her jacket pockets and her eyes follow her feet mindlessly as we walk.

"Are you okay?" I ask, pulling her from her trance. She looks up at me and her eyes seem tired.

"Yeah, just stressed." She looks down at the ground again.

"About what?" I ask. A thousand things could be bothering her right now, her life hasn't exactly been slow lately.

"My dad texted me during lunch. Their flight gets back today and they'll be landing a little after I get out of dance."

"That's great, you must miss them." I say, trying to pry out more information. This doesn't exactly sound like a bad thing.

"Yeah, totally. I do. It's just... I don't know. I love having them back, sure it's rough when they try to micromanage me, but I'm happy that they're coming home overall. I guess I just don't want them being home to affect... us." I take a second to try tracking her thought process, but I can't seem to figure out how they correlate.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we hang out at my place all the time because my dads aren't home. And now that they're coming back, we're gonna spend less time together." Her eyes stay on the sidewalk.

"Mia," I start, taking her hand in mine. "Just because your dads are going to be back doesn't mean I'll be around any less. I come over to spend time with you, not an empty house. And if the micromanagement ever becomes too much, just come to mine," I squeeze her hand. "Okay?"

"Okay," she says back, finally removing her eyes from the sidewalk to meet mine. She cracks a smile, and the worry washes away from her face. "They want to go out for dinner tonight once they get home. Do you want to come with?"

I'm taken aback by the sudden invitation. Her dads are just coming back from a month-long business trip tonight and Mia already wants them to meet me. My stomach flutters. "Oh, I couldn't. They haven't seen you in a month, you should spend tonight with them. I don't want to crash."

"You wouldn't be crashing. They were actually the ones that invited you." My hand grows cold in Mia's.

"They want me to come?" As soon as I ask my question, a hundred more pop into my head. Why would they invite me? How do they even know I exist? What has Mia told them about me?