Casey only manages to pull himself from his huddle when he feels his phone buzzing. He pulls it from his pocket and checks the caller ID; Andy, calling him back. He answers.
"Hey."
"Casey! Geez, at least leave a message when you call," Andy scolds. He purses his lips, tired eyes closing, and he hears her blow out a breath. "Sorry, sorry, I..." Another breath. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," he says. "Uh, it's nothing. I'm sorry I bothered you."
"You haven't been bothering me enough, honestly," she teases. "Actually, I should've bothered you more. School just picked up pretty quick."
"I get it," he says. It's good to hear her voice. She sounds happy. "How are Sam and Dylan?"
He swears he can hear her smile get bigger. "They're great! We met this super cool girl. Her name's Ash. She's a total sports bro. Kind of reminds me of you, actually. You'd love her!"
He nods. Andy's little misfit group grows larger every day. Good for her.
"Hey, um," he starts. "Speaking of sports bros, do you remember a girl named Zilla?"
She pauses. When she speaks next, her voice is soft. "Yeah. I remember her."
"She...disappeared right before Taylor did, huh?"
"Mhm," she hums. "It was scary. Police came in and talked with us, wondering if we knew anything about why they would run away. The teachers gave us this special seminar about human trafficking and signs to look out for. I was pretty scared for...I dunno, years. I'm glad Taylor came back, but Zilla...they never found her."
"I..." He swallows the sudden lump in his throat. He doesn't remember anything like that. "I don't...I didn't—"
"I'm not surprised you don't remember," she says. "You, uh...didn't really pay attention to me or my life all that much."
His eyes itch and he blinks hard. He hugs his knees closer to his chest, hunching into himself as he tries to take careful breaths, tries to keep himself together. "I'm sorry, Andy," he whispers.
She laughs. "Ehh, you were pretty self-centred back then." When he doesn't reply, he hears her let out another laugh, more awkward and breathy than the last. "I don't hold that against you. I wasn't exactly the most selfless person ever. I'm still not."
"Right."
Silence. He wants to talk, he just can't. If he felt like shit before, now he feels like a pile of it. He's an idiot and even though Andy says he used to be self-centred, she's wrong. He's selfish. It's his selfishness that put him in this situation.
"Casey?"
"Sorry, I've gotta go."
"Oh. Okay, yeah. Talk to you later."
He lets his head fall back as he disconnects the call, staring up at the sky. Not only did he not notice Zilla at all, but he cared so little about others than he didn't even offer comfort to Andy during such a scary part of her life. Hell, when has he ever talked to her about how she felt about everything? Casey made it through an alien invasion but never bothered to ask his family how they were holding up.
There isn't a damn thing he can do to change it, either.
That doesn't even begin to touch how he handled talking to Zilla. He was so excited, so relieved to feel like he had finally figured something out. Finally, all the mixed messages and her strange attitude started to make sense, and...he couldn't leave well enough alone. He lost her again.
A rush of cold air tickles his skin and his breath catches. Her name touches his tongue, but he forces himself to stay silent even as he unfolds from his hunched posture. He's been sitting here for so long that his butt aches, his back and knees pinching with the strain of movement as he gets to his feet. The sun has long since sunk behind the buildings surrounding him.
YOU ARE READING
Shadow Mutation (Book Seven)
Fanfiction"Try not to be stupid next time, okay?" When he's told shortly after graduation that he didn't actually pass and, in order to truly earn his diploma, he must redo his senior year math credit, Casey Jones isn't sure how things could get worse. He kno...
