these troubled bones | s.m.

x. carrier

towards the end of the  chapter, you'll see some weird dialogue that doesn't always have capitalization or proper spacing between words; that's because it's a poem, and that's how the poem was originally written. :)

xxxxx

x. carrier

WHEN THE BELL for lunch rings, Areta's already waiting for me.

Seeing her leaning against the lockers like she currently is takes me back to the beginning of the year, when she would wait here for me every day. We used to switch off between eating with her friends (which I hated) to eating with my friends (which she hated) to making out in my car or behind the school (which neither of us had any complaints about). She dutifully steps aside when I walk up to her so I can put in the combo on my lock.

"I thought you didn't like talking to me anymore," she says, voice even. Her eyes are dangerous, but then again they always were.

"I have a question for you," I say, getting straight to the point.

Areta ignores this. She tries to bring her fingers up to my bruise, but I duck and she drops it, cheeks burning. "What happened to your face? There's a rumor going around that you and Tommy got into a fight."

Fuck. Did Jones do anything about the videos people were taking like he said he would? I doubt it. Bastard.

"Irrelevant," I dismiss her question. "Look, you have Spanish with Ryland, right?"

She blinks. Clearly she wasn't expecting this, but it's been itching at me the last few days since I saw the cagey way Elliot was acting in the parking lot. "Oliver?" she clarifies.

"Yeah, him," I say.

"Yeah, but I don't talk to him much. Why?"

I look around to make sure Elliot isn't in the hallway before I continue. "What do you know about the guy?"

Areta pauses to think. She looks as put-together as ever, ponytail high and tight. She narrows her eyes at me as I wait for her answer. I still haven't changed out my books, and my locker door hovers open between us.

"That's the magical question you wanted to ask me?" she finally says. I wince, remembering how vague my request to Sydney was. Her friends probably built it up to be something more than it was, like me asking her out again. I feel kind of bad for her, but not enough to apologize.

"Yeah. I want to know, like, what his deal is," I say. It sounds vague, but I'm really not sure what kind of answer I'm looking for. I guess any possible connection to Elliot will work.

Areta huffs, but complies. "I don't know. Like I said, we don't talk much. I just know he's on the soccer team and his sister's really nice. I think he got suspended for getting in a fight last year, though. With some other kid on the team who was expelled."

This makes me still. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't this - Ryland never seemed violent to me, and especially not in the parking lot with Elliot. And sure, Elliot hangs around with Tommy's gang and me, and obviously we're not always peaceful, but Elliot wouldn't seek out that type of friend. Right?

"Do you know why they were fighting?" I ask.

"No, Shawn," Areta says. "I told you, that's all I know."

"That's it?" I say, disappointed. It's a start, but I want to know more. Elliot obviously won't tell me, and confronting Ryland would be way too awkward. Maybe I could ask Marin. Wasn't she in their class too?