Lights like Stars [BoyxBoy]

Chapter 7

I expected to be kicked out of band, but I wasn't. The season was ending anyway, and apparently everyone knew what happened but nobody said anything. Even if someone said something Garrett would deny it, as much as he hated me. We only had one game left and then we had to march in a Christmas parade. Luckily rehearsals were cancelled more because they were less needed. The week after the party was Thanksgiving. We were meant to have a game that Saturday after, but since I was originally from West Virginia I volunteered to stay home, and the directors approved, probably wanting to get rid of me.

I was from a small town called Romney. It was in Hampshire County and had a population of 1,840. There was one high school in the entire county, Hampshire High School, and so everyone else who lived out in the country attended Romney, making the high school population about 1,200. When people said they went to Hampshire, they said they were from Romney even if they weren't because nobody knew any of the smaller towns. It was along the edge of South Branch Potomac River, which was nice growing up. It took less than an hour to drive across the whole county, and sometimes when I was younger and wanted to see a friend I would ride my bike two hours just to go see them. It may have been in West Virginia but it was only two and a half hours from Washington D.C., three hours from Pittsburgh and Baltimore, four and a half from Philadelphia, and five and a half from New York. 

I used to love riding my bike. I rode it four hours one day all the way to Winchester, Virginia. I took a train from there to Martinsburg station and went all the way to Philadelphia, all by myself. I woke up at four in the morning just to make the trains on time. I made it to Philadelphia at noon, spent a few hours there, made it back to Martinsburg at eight, biked all the way back until one in the morning. It was one of the best moments of my life, even if it was scary. My goal was to make it to New York one day.

My parents lived in an old house on the outskirts of Romney, by the river. It was kind of a crummy house but it was in a beautiful area and the trees were still red and orange from Autumn. Dad worked for the scenic railroad. Mom worked at the Bank of Romney. When I was younger I worked at the library, reading to kids and keeping the kids section clean and quiet. I had two younger sisters and a younger brother. Mary was twenty and she went to Potomac State College, a branch of West Virginia University. She drove the thirty minutes to her classes everyday and then came home to her husband, Michael. They lived in the room above our garage. Michael worked at Advance Auto Parts. My brother was Flynn, and he just turned eighteen in October. He was a senior in high school and was the star of the football team. He hated me and I hated him. My youngest sibling was Sierra, my fifteen-year-old sister. She kept quiet to herself.

West Virginia had a surprisingly large number of families with Italian heritages. Dad was Italian and dark with dark hair and dark eyes. Mom was just from a hillbilly home like the rest of the state, and had blonde hair and blue eyes. They got married when she was twenty and he was twenty-six. All of my relatives lived close by and we got together often. My mom's parents lived in Romney too, same with Mom's two sisters and all their kids. Dad's family lived in Martinsburg. Thanksgiving came and went by fast. I didn't talk to my family that much or any of my friends from high school. I went back to school, saw Garrett only during band and the Christmas parade, and then pretty soon after finals I was already back in West Virginia. I volunteered at the library every now and then. Sierra picked up a job there as well so I didn't have as much to do but the manager liked me and kept me around.

Cassie texted me. She texted me a million times after the fight but I didn't respond. She gave up and completely ignored me along with Garrett, so I thought she was done with me. "Do you want to get dinner tonight?" she asked.

"I'm already back in West Virginia," I said. It was Thursday. My last final was yesterday. Finals went on until Saturday.

"Oh ok. How are you?" she asked.