The New Separation (Book 2)

Chapter 6

Colton

There was a timid knock on the door and I looked up from the game I was playing on my laptop to glance at it. Who was knocking? And what did they want from me? Deciding I wouldn't get any answers without first getting off my ass to open the door, I made myself get up.

On the other side of the door was Aleena. I honestly hadn't talked to her since Monday when she accused me of lying and now it was Friday. Well, I guess I kinda did lie, but that's not the point. We didn't even say anything to each other in our class on Wednesday, but whether it was her not talking to me or me not talking to her, I wasn't so sure.

"Hey," she said softly, which was an unusual tone coming from her. "Can we talk?"

I nodded my head before letting her come into my room. Thankfully Danny wasn't here too, or else we'd have to figure out another place to talk. I had a feeling something might come out with this talk that I'd rather didn't.

"I'm sorry, Colton," she said as soon as I closed the door, taking a seat in my desk chair. "I'm sorry I called you a liar. Sometimes I just say things without thinking, like about your mom. Can we be friends again? You're, like, the only real friend I've made here so far and I would hate it if you hated me because of what I said."

I sat down on the edge of my bed. "I don't hate you, Aleena. And it's not you're fault you didn't know about my mom. It's not something I usually share in the first couple days of meeting someone. So it's totally fine. Don't worry about it."

She seemed to visibly relax. "I'm really sorry to hear about her, though," she said, sounding more like her normal self again. "Were you two close? How long has it been since...?"

"Almost two years. And at the end, not exactly." It's as far as I really wanted to go with the conversation. Any further and it'll be too close to secrets I needed to keep.

But of course, she didn't stop there. "Oh, I'm sorry. What happened that made you drift apart? It wasn't whatever... well, I don't want to say whatever killed her because I don't know what happened... but, what did happen, anyway?"

I shook my head. "Can we not talk about her, please?"

She seemed to get the message this time. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry. Just, like, hit me if you ever need to me shut up. Actually don't. You're a lot stronger than me. Just yell at me or something. Anyway, have you started the homework for history yet? I was looking at-"

There was a knock at the door, making her stop mid-sentence. Now who was here? What do all these people want from me? When I opened the door, I found Marcus, one of the captains of the soccer team. I didn't even know that he knew where I lived.

"Hey," he started, "so the team's having a party tonight. You know, celebrate beginning of season kinda shit." He handed me a piece of paper. "Address is on here. Don't bring guests." But even as the words came out of his mouth, I saw him notice Aleena behind me. "Except you. You can come, beautiful."

"Thanks, Marcus," I said before Aleena could say anything. "I'll see if I can make it."

With a nod of his head, he turned and walked away down the hallway. I watched him go for a second, wondering if that actually happened, before finally closing the door.

Aleena let out a high pitched squeal the second that door closed. "We got invited to a party! A college party! And he was so cute, too! What's his name? How do you know him? What year is he? Is he a senior? He looks like he could be a senior. I can't believe he called me beautiful. Me!"

"I don't know about this, Aleena," I said, sitting back down on my bed. "Do you really think it's a good idea to go? I mean, it's a soccer party. He said no guests." And, from what I knew of Marcus, he'd probably forget that he invited Aleena long before the party even started, but I didn't know how to tell her that.