The Renegades

Chapter 24

Hunter picks Wesley up from the Harpers' house. It's a depressing sight for Wesley to see his best friend, who usually is a constant spring of happiness, with clearly tear-stained cheeks and eyes that have already become puffy from crying. Landon suddenly jumps into the backseat of the car.

"She texted Rae," Landon says. "How are you doing?"

"What happened?" Wesley asks.

Hunter puts the car in reverse and starts backing out of the driveway. "I don't want to talk about it. I want to drink about it."

Wesley nods his head slowly. "Okay, I think we can do that."

And they do that. They go to a homecoming after party and drink until Hunter can't remember Marley because he can't remember anything.

Landon stayed sober and drives the other two back to his house. Rae's gone. She went to Marley's. Landon practically drags Hunter to the couch in the living room before going downstairs to his own room. Wesley drags himself up the stairs to Sabina's room. She wakes up when he opens the door and rolls over to face him when he climbs into her bed next to her.

"You smell really bad," she says, half-smiling into her pillow.

"Do you still love me like this?" he asks.

"What do you mean?"

"Like this," he repeats. "All drunk and messy. Like how I was before I started being good for you."

"Of course I still love you like this. I love you, Wes."

"I try so hard to be good for you because I'm scared you're going to wake up one day and realize you deserve so much better than me."

"You think I'm not scared of the same thing?"

"But you know I think you're the best."

"You've never thought that I think the same about you?"

He smiles. "You think I'm the best?"

"Of course I do, you goof."

And Monday at school, Marley finds Hunter in the hallway. She's been texting him all weekend. He hasn't responded once. She keeps texting.

"Can we talk?" she asks.

"I don't really think there's anything to talk about."

"My dad knows about us," she says. "He's known the entire time, apparently. I guess we weren't too good at hiding, but now he knows and we know he knows. That means we can be together for real now. Like how you wanted us to be."

"That doesn't change the fact that you didn't want him to know, Marley," he says. "Nothing can ever change that."

And at the end of the week, the Renegades get on a bus and travel a few hours for their playoff game. The entire town of Ruby goes too. The Renegades end up losing.

Rae is waiting for Landon when he gets off the bus after the loss. She wraps her arms around the back of his neck.

"You played well, babe," she says. "You sad the season's over?"

He shrugs. "A little, but now I get more time to spend with you."

So this is quite possibly the worst ending chapter ever, but I just wanted to finish it already. Thanks for reading, you lovely humans.