The Payback or The Adventures and Pranks of Zachary O'Connor

Chapter Thirteen: Everything Goes to Shit

My story so far has been lucky. Nothing has gone terribly wrong. Nothing has spiraled totally out of control. Nothing has broken our characters. Naturally, that has to change. Things come back to bite you in the ass. My friends and I know this better than most. We weren't ready for when the shit hit the fan.

The day we were supposed to meet up with Laurel, Reagan seemed agitated. I pulled her aside when we were walking to third period together and asked her what was wrong.

"Hey, what's going on?"

Reagan avoided my eyes and shifted her books between her hands.

"Nothing," she lied.

I eyed her.

"Okay, look, this is kind of awkward, but, um... I know that I was originally on the Hit List," Reagan said.

"The Hit List? That's what you think of it as?" I responded.

"Zach," Reagan said, "that's not the point."

"Okay, fine," I admitted. "We were originally gonna get revenge on you. You were there that night. You were with your asshole friends when they attacked Laurel. You know why."

"I just felt like I had to address the elephant in the room. That thought was kind of plaguing me," Reagan said. "I'm nervous about seeing Laurel tomorrow."

"Why? Surely you see her almost every day at school?"

Reagan bit her lip and shook her head.

"Hey, you two," a teacher barked at us, "keep moving!"

The two of us resumed walking.

"I don't have any classes with her, and I purposefully go out of my way to avoid her in the halls," Reagan said.

"But how can you be scared of her?" I asked.

"Zach, you were there. I have never even seen anyone abused like that before, much less participated. She fucking hates me."

"Yeah, and most of the school did, too, before you stopped being an asshole."

"It's different."

"You're Reagan Hamilton. You got this."

She swallowed and nodded.

"Thanks, Zach," she said.

I hugged her, and she went into her class while I kept walking.

Once I got home from school, I was working on homework and texting the others. Everyone was really excited except for Reagan. Meghan and I lived very close, so we weren't gonna head that way until about 6:55. John, Anti and Gabby announced they were heading out at around 6:45. At 6:53, I pulled up at Meghan's house. We arrived at the park at 7 o'clock exactly. John, Anti and Gabby were standing under the pavilion where we had all met.

Laurel and Reagan were nowhere to be seen. Meghan and I exchanged glances and hurried over to our friends.

"Any word from either of them?" John asked me and Meghan.

"Nah, I'm sure they'll be here soon," I replied. "Anti, you haven't heard anything from Reagan?"

He shook his head and said nothing.

"Don't worry, man. They'll be here," John said.

7 o'clock slid into 7:15, and neither Reagan nor Laurel had made contact yet. We were sitting at a table playing cards at this point. Gabby requested that I call Laurel, and I reluctantly pulled my phone from my pocket. No answer from Laurel. My table mates shook their heads. Reagan didn't answer either. Anti was started to get a little worried, but the rest of us tried to reassure him.