Unravelling

Chapter 18 - Friends

The rest of the week goes by really fast. After my disastrous Monday and the much-needed ten hours of sleep that night, my mood had significantly improved by Tuesday. Even I was surprised by that, because I was not expecting a good night's sleep on Monday night at all, seeing as my mind was still reeling from everything that I had discovered and then discussed with Noah – not to mention the unfairness of Alex forbidding me to stay at Josh's.

Which is still an unresolved issue, actually. At first, I was naïve enough to believe that Alex only made me stay at home on Monday night to punish me for being grumpy. But I learned the hard way on Tuesday evening that he had no intention of letting me stay the night away from home during the rest of the week, either.

I went all out to make him see the error of his ways – I begged, I batted my eyelashes, I tried bribery and I even resolved to let a few tears slip down my cheeks – all to no avail. On the contrary, actually, since it resulted in a lecture from my guardian on how I was sorely mistaken if I thought he would let himself be blackmailed or manipulated by a twelve-year-old.

Soccer try-outs were on Wednesday and, not wanting to sound conceited, I aced them! We will not know until later today who has made the team, but I am pretty sure that I will be one of them.

Jordan came to watch the try-outs, which made me a bit nervous, to be honest. After it was over, he claimed that the main factor in my getting through them successfully must have been the drills he put me through – and his being a walking and talking lucky charm. I only laughed at that and pointed out that maybe me being a talented soccer player might have been the actual reason.

However, my two new girlfriends wholeheartedly agreed with my brother's second claim when I told them about it, seeing as they were busy making googly eyes at him from afar throughout the full 90 minutes of the try-outs. I guess I have to count my blessings that they didn't end up sitting with him, because, luckily, some of the boys from our grade came to watch, too, and they decided to hang out with them instead. Lauren is still working on getting Matt to ask her out on a date.

"I hear congratulations are in order."

I jump at the voice that is pulling me out of my thoughts. I have been busy stuffing all my things into my locker so that I can go home as soon as I have checked out the notice board with the soccer try-out results. Taking a slow step back to close my locker door, I come face to face with – Finn.

A groan escapes me.

"Go away," I tell him quite rudely.

Instead of doing that, he just leans back against the row of lockers and looks at me. His arms are folded in front of his chest and he is wearing that meanwhile familiar, annoying little smirk on his handsome face.

Hang on...did I really just think of him as handsome?

I groan inwardly, hating that he is able to do that to me. Ever since our first encounter on Monday, he has become a daily reminder of the disturbing discoveries I made about my family. I don't know what I did to him, but for some reason he seems to take great pleasure from popping up when I least expect it.

I look around, hoping that none of my friends are anywhere nearby.

"Looking for something?" Finn asks.

"Yeah, for somewhere to escape to," I mutter.

"To escape from what?"

I know that he is deliberately pretending not to get what I am hinting at. Unfortunately, I am not the bigger person and simply ignore him, but I make the mistake of replying to him. This has happened to me all week and I am starting to think that I am losing my touch.