Forever Yours

chapter eight

Present

The next day, I pass Joel as I'm walking into the school and he's exiting. "Hey Joel!" I'm honestly really happy to see him, but he looks irritated. His face is really bruised, it looks painful. He almost walks right past me without saying anything, but I stop him. "Hey, what's your problem?"

He turns around and softens up when he looks at my face. "I just got suspended; and so did Ryan. They're probably going to want to talk to you too."
"Suspended?!" I sound shocked, mostly because I didn't think anyone saw.

He reads my thoughts, "The school's security cameras picked it up. I guess they watch the footage every morning to make sure nothing like that happens."

"Well, shit," I simply say.

"Yup," he agrees and continues, "That means no school OR football for two weeks!"
"Two weeks?! You're going to miss two games."

"And all practices," he adds.

"Shit, I'm sorry Joel. I wish I could do something to help."

"Don't worry about it Willow," he says as he's walking away. Out the door he goes, and I won't see him for two weeks? I don't think I can do that.

I'm in the first class of the day, when the school's secretary calls me out of class to come to the principal's office. Great.

"You wanted to see me Mr. Star?" I ask as I walk into the principal's office.

He's turned around looking out the window. "Yes, Miss Moreau, have a seat." He finally turns around and takes a seat in his large swivel chair, built for a king.

I take a seat in the same chair, just smaller. Another, identical one sits next to it. I've only ever been in here one other time. That was to talk about me being bullied. He said he heard the rumors and knew how people were treating me. I shook him off and told him not to worry about it and walked out of his office without another word.

"So, you must know why you're in here?" He begins.

"Yes, I think so." Please don't suspend me!

"The fight between Joel and Ryan was unacceptable." I'm afraid he's going to say that I was an accomplice or something and suspend me too, but all he says is, "Are you alright?"

I furrow my brows in a confused way. "I'm fine, why?"

"Well, the tapes showed that Ryan pushed you down. I just wanted to see how you were doing with that."

"You're not suspending me?"

He gives a deep chuckle that matches his deep voice. "Not at all, you didn't do anything wrong Willow."

I let out a—little too loud—sigh of relief and say, "Well, thank you so much. And don't worry, I'll be okay. Thank you for checking on me though."

"Of course, that is the principal's job." He laughs again and I join him because he intimidates me. "Well, you're free to go." He gets the door for me, and I make it out okay. I didn't want to have to explain to my dad what happened, had I been suspended.

♥♥♥

These past two weeks have gone by really slow, and I find myself missing Joel—weirdly enough. We text a bit here and there, mostly about how our days are. He asks what's going on at school, I tell him not much. By the middle of his second week of suspension, I'm over it. I want to see Joel.

I remember where Joel lives from my drive around the neighborhood a couple weeks ago. He's just right around the corner from my house. I pull up in front of the small house and I'm feeling extremely nervous. What if he refuses to come with me and I look like a total idiot? I can't think like that. Just do it Willow. I get out of the car, to face my fear of being spontaneous and fun. I knock on the door timidly. Too timid, I think because no one answers. I knock louder this time and Joel opens the door seconds later. "Willow?" Joel groggily questions. He rubs his eyes, like he's just woken up. His hair is a mess and he's in just shorts. Oh my god, Joel is shirtless. My eyes widen and I find myself staring at his six pack. Shit! "What's up Willow?" He looks at his phone noticing what time it is. "Shouldn't you be at school?" He sounds concerned. It's nine in the morning on a Wednesday.