Thursday (Sequel to 'From Eden')

seven

*IMPORTANT! Paige's pov again!** :D
- -

"At least your pen pal isn't the reason you're in this place," I grumbled, swirling the cheap fried rice around on my plate with my fork. Carla rolled her eyes, and I shrugged. "Just saying, it could be worse."

"True," Liam chimed in, shoveling his own food into his mouth. "Although I have to admit, this project just feels like an extra burden on my shoulders on top of recovery. It feels like"—he shuttered dramatically—"school."

"That's what I'm saying...my life feels like a project," Carla sighed. "My pen pal is just so boring! She literally wrote in her letter that she was just taking the class to fill a credit requirement, and she doesn't care about me." My jaw dropped, but then she backed up. "Well, she didn't straight up say she doesn't care about me, I just could tell from the credit requirement comment."

"That's dumb, isn't it like a journalism class? Who's just taking a journalism class for a credit requirement?" Liam asked. "Uh...english credit?"

"My guy's kinda cool. Like, at least he wrote a little about himself on the page." Nick said quietly, flipping his hair to the side. "He's actually not even from America, he's an exchange student from Italy."

"That's sick," I muttered halfheartedly. "Wanna trade?"

Nick shook his head, a ghost of a smile on his lips. "If I have to do this project like every time I'm in rehab, I wanna...bask in the interesting people."

"Maybe stop relapsing, and going to rehab?" Liam rose his eyebrows, which caused me to chuckle. Everyone was in a good mood today, joking with one another and laughing about the pen pal project. I just wish it wasn't such a burden, like Liam had said; it was even moreso for me.

Every day I dreaded when the mail came in, hoping Chloe hadn't gotten my letter yet. Or better yet, maybe she had, but she just wasn't going to respond. That would take a weight off my shoulders. Liam nudged me. "You okay, Paige?"

"Yeah, just thinking about my pen pal," I sighed. Everyone made a twisted face of disgust, and I almost smiled. "I'm holding onto hope that she won't reply. Maybe I was mean enough?"

Carla shook her head, her pink hair flopping to the side vigorously. "Man, if I could get my paws on her..."

I laughed, but the look fell off my face as soon as I realized one of the receptionists was heading straight for my table. My initial thought was my mother was trying to reach me for some reason, since whenever my close family visited, we planned it. My second thought was maybe she was approaching one of my friends. I didn't reach my third thought before she got to me, beaming.

"Good afternoon, Paige!" Olivia greeted me, stopping about a foot away from me. "You have a phone call. I figured I'd come tell you myself, since the office is just around the corner."

"Okay, let me clean up," I nodded, starting to grab my things. "Who's on the line?"

"A Chloe Lukasiak?"

I froze, and Olivia's face dropped. Before she could get a word out, I started shaking my head vigorously. "Um, no. No, I can't take that."

"Well—" Liam began, overhearing.

"No!" I yelped, my eyes wide. I knew my face was drained of color just by how fast my heart was pounding. "Sorry, no. Please say I'm not here." Olivia nodded furiously, looking shaken, and rushed out of the mess hall.

"Fuck!" I groaned, sitting back down and placing a hand over my face. "I guess she got my fucking letter."

"Damn," Liam whispered. "I wonder what she was gonna say. Are you okay?"