A Tale Of Water

Chapter 3

"There aren't any bears in Scotland."

I glanced over at Fitz from the top of my laptop. He was splayed out across the floor of my room, twiddling with his phone.

"Cool."

It was the first thing he'd said to me all night. This had been his typical response since we'd come back stateside.

Everyone had been super interested in hearing what the five of us experienced during that outing. Marnie even got interviewed by the school paper.

We hadn't talked about it though. Not with each other.

Vivian had taken a week off when we got back, Steve sulked and ran away whenever I tried approaching him, and Marnie used the exposure to her advantage. She stopped even looking at Fitz though.

Fitz got lost inside of himself. Or at least that's what I think is going on. He won't talk to me, he shuffles about, sighs loudly, and tries to text Marnie.

She blocked his number, so try is the nice way to describe what he's doing.

"Yep," I closed the laptop and peered down at him. It was almost February, and we only had a few more months till graduation.  Something harped into our brains by the school's guidance counselor.

"Did you finish the science homework? Mr. Buener wanted us to submit those physic -"
"Cool."

He didn't even let me finish.

I sighed.

"This was an amazing conversation, Fitz"

He still didn't look my way, he just continued messing with his phone. That was enough for me.

"Get out."

He finally looked up.

"What?"

"Oh, now you're listening to me? I said get out."

A flash of something I'd describe as fear crossed his face, but it soon transformed into anger.

"Fine."

He stormed out, slamming the door behind him. Causing my mother to dart up the stairs angrily, he gave her a halfhearted apology and that was it. He was gone.

That was the last time we spoke until March.