Quiet || hs

30

"Hey Rylee," someone calls me while I made my way to first period.

"Hey Will." I smile warmly. He walks next to me then hands me a disk. "Oh, what's this?"

"It's a favorite movie of mine." he tells me. "I was thinking that if we're going to be friends then we'll have to talk about something."

"Okay, we can watch it today." I promise. "I'll text you my address and you can come by around seven because practice doesn't end until five or six."

"It's a plan." he nods. "I'll see you later then."

He walks away during the warning bell. I look up to see Harry watching me with crossed arms.

"Wilfred Evans?" Harry shakes his head. "What happened to Brennen?"

"Oh I'm sorry coach, but from what I recall, you didn't want to be involved with my personal life anymore, especially my love life." I mock and he laughs dryly.

"I just don't want my players distracted by wandering around with different boys every night." he fires back, shrugging with a teasing smirk. The bell rings and he playfully gasps. "Looks like you're late for class, Eversteen."

I roll my eyes, stepping into his classroom. This firing each other up like this has been going on these past two weeks. I don't know what happened between the night we had our decent conversation to this.

Harry teaches his lesson, which was difficult. He made it seem so simple when he gave examples, but I was completely lost because I kept getting a different answer. The class was coming to an end and I was still confused. Soon the bell rings, so I just gather my stuff to leave. Then Harry stops me, standing up to walk around his desk.

"If you need help Rylee, I'll be here." he says, leaning against his desk. "I saw you struggling over there." he chuckles.

"Then why didn't you come help me?"

"I was waiting for you to ask." he shrugs. "There's no need to be shy about asking for help."

I inhale, glaring at him. "I'll see you at practice, coach."

I leave the classroom, feeling his stare stabbing my back. It made it hard for me to walk straight until I knew I left his sight. Throughout the day, I focused on my other classes. I even finished applying to some universities. It was something my counselor kept asking me to do, but I got caught up in other things.

Now that was over, all I have to worry about is keeping my grades and winning the playoffs for volleyball. We had discussed that before we started our scrimmage. Playoffs was coming right around the corner and it was a new set of pressure on me. Since I was the captain, the other girls depended on me.

The practice went on until Harry got a phone call. He calls coach Payne over from the other gym and invited the JV team to scrimmage with us. Harry leaves the gym to his office. I know whatever that call is about is none of my business, but I can't help to be curious.

Coach Payne gets through practice smoothly and he dismisses us right on time. I text Will to start heading over to my house, but then I was stopped. Harry was halfway out his door when he called me over. I groan, slowly walking over to him.

"Coach, I have plans." I tell him. "What is so important now?"

Harry slightly pushes his door open for me then invites me in. I enter the office, spotting my dad sitting on the couch. He had his usual collared shirt on with his sweater over it. The redness in his eyes was something new.

"Rylee, you should sit down." Dad croaks out softly and I shake my head.

"I think I'll stand here." I say, scared of whatever the bad news was that made my dad cry. "What are you doing here dad? You said you were working late tonight."

"I-I didn't want to leave you alone."

Harry walks up to me and puts his hand on my lower back to push me toward my dad.

"Sit down for this Rylee." he demands and I oblige, sitting next to my dad and face him.

"Rylee sweetheart," Dad grabs my hands gently and a tear falls. "It's your mom,"

"Mom?" I frown. "Is she okay? What happened to her? Please don't tell me something happened to her." I beg on the verge of tears. "Please,"

Harry sits behind me and rubs my shoulders. "Let your dad speak." he says lowly in my ear.

I keep my mouth shut and listen to him. "Your- your mom left."

"She left?" my eyebrows twitch from confusion. "She left where?"

My dad shrugs. "I got a voicemail, saying she was leaving. I didn't quite understand it until I went home for lunch and something was different. I realized stuff was missing and half our closet is empty."

"No!" I pull my hands away. "She wouldn't just pack up and leave like that. Maybe you heard the message wrong. She probably went to go visit Grandma Susie for an emergency."

"And she brought her whole wardrobe?" Dad snaps, standing up. "Your mom left us with no explanation. She left us, Rylee."

"No she didn't!" I raise my voice, standing up as well. "Mom would never leave me alone. She never wanted me to be alone. She used to come home, risking her job so I wasn't alone and she took care of me. I know you need to work to keep that roof over our heads, but mom was right. Your job always came before us."

"That's not true." he crosses his arms.

"Yeah?" I sniffle. "When was the last time you've ever came to one of my games since I joined volleyball?"

"Th-that isn't fair. You had a lot of games."

"None is the answer." I spit. "Mom tried her best to come whenever we had home games. She'd come toward the end, but at least she came."

"Well now she'll never come because she's gone." he reminds me. "She's not coming back and you're stuck with your horrible dad."

"Alright," Harry jumps in. "I think enough has been said."

My dad sighs. "I think we both need some time apart and think about this situation." he says, walking toward the door. "Do you mind watching after her?"

"No problem," Harry nods.

My dad walks out and I wipe my fallen tears before Harry saw them. I turn around about to leave too, but Harry grabs me. He pulls me into a tight hug.

"I don't know why he came to you about this." I say into his chest, holding my tears back. "I know you don't want to get involved with my personal life, so I'll jus-"

"Enough with that." he stops me. "Your mom was my friend and out of all people, I thought she'd be the last to hurt you, but I guess I trusted the wrong person."

"Thank you, Harry."