MD, Theo, and Sean started hanging out after that.
Penny looked surprised at first, but she has always been friendly so she took it in a stride. She glanced at me sometimes and shook her head fondly, saying, “I’ll never get you, Roo.” I didn’t think I would ever either.
Jay was harder to convince. He watched them warily in our lunches while they were busy bickering with one another. So blatantly, too, it was bordering rude so I swatted his head. “Hey!”
“Stop staring and brooding in any chance you’ve got. Give them time.”
He huffed. “You’re being too naïve, Rumon.”
“I don’t think I am.”
“I know them. Or at least, I’ve heard of them on the streets.”
“So?”
“So—bad news, not good, dangerous. I know,” Jay added that with a glare.
“Well, so do I, but they’ve been nice enough so far. MD is funny.”
“MD is funny,” he grumbled with high-pitched voice. As if my voice sounded anything like that. Seriously. “Fine! But if they or anyone hurt you again, I would burn their lockers and cars. Just you see. And don’t give me that bullshit about nothing happened anymore either. I’ve collected enough evidence to blackmail them into submission.”
I winced. “Jay, you’re ruthless.”
“Well, you’re hopeless! Just let me do this.” He seemed calmer then. His voice lower, gentler, like he did sometimes when he talked about you, so I knew what he was thinking. It was a bit funny to see how each of us moved and made our choices now, like everything led back to you.
So I told him, “Okay.”
But he really didn’t need to. Right after we all started hanging out together, the attacks stopped. I didn’t know what happened. Maybe it had something to do with MD street cred, who knew?
But at those last months at school, I had never felt so peaceful.
YOU ARE READING
Wearing My Smile | ✔
Teen Fiction"I wondered if you'd ever thought that the name your parents had given you felt like sharp knife twisting through your heart in its prayer. I'd never asked you that before, now I'd never get to." Having been together since forever, Roo struggles in...
