One For The Road

Chapter Four

"You're lucky you didn't get suspended."

My mom was home early today. She'd been called about the fight and wanted to get home to talk to me. Granted, 6:00 at night isn't considered early for some people, but it was for us.

"Honestly, I'm surprised I didn't," I said. It's not like I wanted to be suspended, but it was what I'd expected. "But I have to serve a detention on Saturday."

She bit her lip, her gaze glued to my right eye, which was now swollen shut and throbbing painfully. "At least neither of you got too hurt. Why did you start the fight?"

"I don't think I did," I mumbled. "I don't remember who threw the first punch. It was all a blur. But he wouldn't stop making fun of..." They weren't my friends. I didn't think they'd ever want to be, especially after that. "Some people I met today," I finished slowly.

"Well, I'm glad you could stick up for them, but I wish you'd done it less violently." She leaned over the counter to kiss my cheek before heading into the living room to spend some time with Kaleb.

I rested my chin in my hand, gazing down at my phone. Before I'd left the school, Heidi had approached me, her eyes stern.

"I can't believe you did that," she had hissed, and I winced. "You could've gotten so hurt!"

"But I didn't," I mumbled.

"No, you didn't." She heaved a sigh. "Thank you for sticking up for us. No one..." She paused. "No one has ever really done hat for us before."

"You guys don't deserve to be talked to like that. Jacob didn't know what he was talking about, anyways. He's trying to seem tough, but if no one had stopped us, I bet I would've won that fight, easy peasy. When worst comes to worst, he's all bark and no bite."

That had brought a smile to her face. "Yeah, okay. Thanks again. Just..." She sighed. "Try not to get into any more fights, okay?"

I had thought back to my endless number of scenarios where I'd lost all sense of logic to the white anger I was so used to feeling. "No promises," I said. She rolled her eyes.

She pulled a pen out of her pocket and grabbed my wrist, and before I could object, she began scrawling something onto the back of my hand.

"If you need anything," she said as she put the pen away and let go of me, "shoot me a text, okay?"

I looked down at the phone number that had been scribbled onto my hand. "Thanks," I said.

"No problem. See you at school tomorrow, and if not, then have fun in detention on Saturday." She had smiled quickly before rushing off.

I'd put her contact into my phone and texted her after I'd gotten home, and she had responded a while ago, saying I had the right number. Now, I didn't feel like talking to her, or anyone, really. It was nice of her to think of me.

I think the most annoying part of the entire ordeal was that I'd had to wash the number off of my hand after she'd confirmed that it was her. I stood at that sink, scrubbing for about the minutes until my hands were raw and there was no trace of the pen. If my mom saw the markings, she'd start asking questions, and any girl I told her about would instantly be assumed as some sort of crush, especially since I wasn't out to her yet.

Now, I looked down at my phone again as it buzzed loudly against the graphite counter. It was a text from an unknown number.

[Unknown]: Hey, is this Chase's number?

[Chase]: Who's asking?

[Unknown]: It's Just. Heidi gave me your number

Of course she did. That seemed to be a very Heidi thing to do. I could imagine her going to Just and explaining what I had said to her, and offering to give him my phone number after she got it.

[Chase]: This is Chase. Can't talk right now.

I turned on "Do Not Disturb" before walking away from my phone altogether. I didn't need to talk to anyone right now, especially after all that had happened that day.

•••

SINCEREST APOLGIES FOR NOT UPDATINF THIS IN A MILLION YEARS!!

okay more like a month but still

This one is shorter because I was running low on inspiration and I didn't wanna keep you waiting much longer, but I also didn't wanna throw together a crappy ending.

Don't expect another update soon

Or maybe do idk I'm still on vacation so I might be able to write :>