Beside You

Outburst Aftermath

I pretty much contain myself to my room for the rest of the evening and most of Sunday. My parents will be home in the late evening and we have a tradition where I always make them dinner when they come home for trips, so I make lasagna. As it is cooking I set out to complete my homework. I finish just as Grayson and Mitch wearily enter the kitchen. I give them a smile to let them know that I'm okay and they instantly look relieved. 

 "Hey Hadley." Mitch says cheerily. 

 "Hey." I sigh. 

 "Was that Ryder's mom's car that we saw pulling out of the driveway when we got home yesterday?" Grayson asks me.

 "Yeah, probably."

 "Why was he here?"

 "He said he forgot something, so I let him in to get it." I shrug and pray that they don't ask any more questions. I decided that it would be best not to tell them the truth and get them worked up over nothing. I don't know how they would react to finding out that their best friend slept in my bed and then tried to get me to go to the dance with him. Before they can pry any further we hear a car driving on the gravel of our driveway, just as the oven beeps to signal that the lasagna is done. 

 Mitch and Grayson go out to help our parents with their bags. I take the lasagna out of the oven and set the table. After putting their stuff in their bedroom my family joins me in the dining room. I give each of my parents a hug and we sit down to eat dinner. Our parents tell us all about their trip to Seattle. I'm happy to hear that they had a good time.

After dinner my parents call it an early night and I go up to my room. I finally plug my phone in, it had died early in the morning. It vibrates a few times, but it seems as if most people gave up after I didn't answer them yesterday. I decide to get Maddi and Arya out of the way first by sending them each a quick text letting them know that I'm fine and I'll talk to them tomorrow. Then I go to a conversation that's a little more... complicated. Ryder's.

Before last night our conversation had just been a few quick texts from when one of us was having trouble getting a hold of Mitch and Grayson, it now had quite a few new messages. The first one was from yesterday, asking if he could come over after work to talk to me. Clearly he had decided that it was. Then there were more from early that morning, like 2:30, calling me some very interesting names and telling me to never talk to him again.

 My eyes begin to tear up again. I'd said some pretty awful things the day before but I hadn't meant to ruin whatever friendship we had. I had been planning to apologize to him in Functions the next day but I guess I should have done it sooner. Now it's too late.

 My phone begins to vibrate. I look at the screen expecting to see Maddi or Arya's name, but instead I see Ryder's. Great. I hit the decline button. I don't really feel like being yelled at right now. 

                                                      ~*~

The following morning I arrive at school just before the end of the first class. I received a phone call this morning informing me that my car was done in the shop so my mom took me to pick it up. My first class is a spare anyway so it really didn't affect me. 

I manage to get to my locker and grab my functions stuff right before the bell signalling the end of first period sounds. It only takes a minute before I see Arya and Maddi coming towards me. 

"Hey." I say.

"We were starting to think you weren't coming."

 "Well, here I am." I move out of the way as Grayson and Mitchell come to their lockers. Our school lockers are all in the commons and ordered alphabetically by grade, ensuring that I'm stuck with my brothers even more often. We begin walking in the direction of Maddi and Arya's lockers. Arya is a few lockers down from Ryder and Maddi, luckily Ryder is not at his locker. I say goodbye to my friends and continue on my way to my most dreaded class, Functions. Mr. Dawson is a stickler for order so we have assigned seating, and what I thought was a blessing at the beginning of the year is now a curse. I'm sat next to Ryder. It's good because he's a math genius, but this whole "never talk to me again" thig may be a bit tricky. I sit down and make a point of opening my books and looking straight at the chalkboard.

Functions drags on forever, as well as biology, and it seems like years before lunch starts. Preston splits lunch up between periods four and five under the pretense that we'll behave better that way, and not all of my friends have lunch at the same time as me. I usually end up spending lunch with Maddi and a couple of our other friends that we aren't quite as close with. This usually ends up including some of my brothers' friends, although neither of them have lunch with us, they have it period five, like Arya.

I quickly grab some food and go to our usual table and sit beside Maddi. I begin to eat and talk to Maddi about our French paper due the next week. 500 words on a controversial subject of our choosing. A few moments later I hear the sound of a tray being set on the table and look up. Even though I know that Brody doesn't have lunch at the same time I instinctively worry that it's him. Instead I find myself looking into Ryder's green eyes. After a few seconds of awkard eye contact I turn to Maddi.

 "I just remembered that I need to ask Mr. Dawson about one of the questions he gave us today. I'll see you in French class." I exit the cafeteria, throwing almost a full meal out as I go. I spend the rest of lunch on a bench at the other side of school where I know tha Maddi and Ryder won't find me.