She's So Gone

~ Chapter 9 ~

Past

"Okay, okay, so I think In the video it's more like this," I tell Rylinn as I demonstrate the way the girl in the volleyball video had her thumbs placed vs how we were originally doing it when practicing.

Rylinn nods, "yes I see, that works so much better," we're currently in the backyard, she convinced her parents to get her one of those portable, easy to set up volleyball nets so we could practice. She presses play on the video again then looks at me, "should we practice that dive thing, or like no?"

"I mean it couldn't hurt, or well it could hurt literally, cause like I imagine they wear knee pads for a reason, but we could try." I shrug looking at her, thinking about how maybe trying out for a sport that neither of us have any idea about, might not have been a good idea.

She nods, "yeah, I mean we could try it." She suggests and right before we attempt to even try, her mother walks out.

"Girls dinner is ready so why don't you come in and wash up." She calls out the back door.

"Mom, can't we practice for a few more minutes, please," Rylinn objects.

"Sorry, but I have to get Dani home by a certain time, so you girls need to eat now, and then I'll take her home after." She explains and Rylinn frowns.

"Urgh, fine, come on Dani, let's go wash our hands." She pulls me along with her.

While we're washing our hands, I notice that Rylinn has gotten unusually quiet, then she turns to me. "So, what's it like, living in a group home?" Then she immediately regrets it. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked, just forget I mentioned it."

I shrug, "it's fine, and I don't know, it's okay I guess, anyways did you know that a goldfish only has an attention span of like three seconds, which is good when you think about it, because they'd probably get bored swimming in that small bowl all day if they didn't."

She laughs, "why do you know so many randy facts?"

"There's no such thing as a random fact, just random placements of facts, and I don't know, I read a lot I guess." I shrug as we enter the dining room, her family already there, waiting for us.

Present

I decided to skip P.E. the next day. The reasonable part of my brain told me not to, but the irrational part told me that avoiding Langdon was a good choice. Every time I talk to her, I end up telling her more then I want to, and I'm afraid that I'll eventually end up telling her about what happened with Zeke. It would be one thing if it was just myself that was at risk, but it's also Leo and Scarlett that would get in trouble too, and I can't risk they're futures because of my guilty conscience. Maybe coach Langdon was right when she said I was punishing myself more then anyone else could. Despite what Leo said, about how I did the world a favor, what I did  still feels wrong. I think the part that feels the most wrong about it though, is that if I had a chance to go back and do things differently, I would have made the same choice.

I'm sitting outside the school towards the back, leaning on the wall with my legs pulled up and my arms around them. My chin on my knee while I think about everything. I'm contemplating skipping second period as well when I hear someone talking and I turn my head to see who it is. "I wasn't really feeling gym today either."  Bronwyn Thomas says as she sits down next to me. "People still stare and whisper and this guy keeps hitting on me."

I laugh, "that's my friend Bryan and he's pretty harmless, just tell him you're not interested and he won't bother you ever again. He's really into respecting girls' boundaries. Which is kind of different and refresh for a highschool guy."

She smiles, "that's actually kind of cool, and if I'm being honest, I kind of think he's cute, I'm just not into the whole dating thing at the moment, but tell him to try again in a couple months."  I nod and She then picks up a rock off the ground and times it around in her hands for a bit, as if it was extremely fascinating. "So you're on the volleyball team right?"