My mom had left California on Monday morning. She had dropped me off at Noah's house before she started her venture out of California. As soon as she pulled out of the driveway I felt a twinge of regret. I still had two more months left in school and that's two months I wouldn't be able to see my mom everyday afterschool.
I know she had promised to drive down on her long weekends but that still seemed too long of a time to see my mom. This was really the first time I had gone without her and I'm not going to lie. It was a little scary to me. Today was Wednesday. After I had gotten through the first couple of days of missing her it began to feel normalized. I would still miss her a lot but I began to get used to the idea that she wasn't going to be there with me. Noah was happy for that because in his words "I was finally getting out of my stupor" even though it had been less than three days since my "stupor" started.
School hasn't gotten back to normal yet. I was hoping that since everyone had gone on Spring Break we had all relaxed a little bit, but as it turns out the exact opposite happened. Elie was still selling secrets except this time since all the people weren't around each other to confront them; They let their anger simmer and pressurize. When we got back to school on monday everything that sat on a fragile foundation of betrayal and understanding collapsed, and in the dust of everything, fighting broke out.
As Noah and I walked into the courtyard on Wednesday I could immediately tell that something was wrong. Dylan, Trevor, and Tanner were sitting at a table in the corner of the courtyard just staring down at their hands folded neatly on the table.
Noah sat down next to Dylan and poked him. Dylan turned to stare at Noah and you could tell he was miserable. What had happened here?
"Hey, where are the girls?" I sat down and looked at Trevor and Tanner.
Tanner remained staring at the table and Trevor looked up at me. I waited quietly for Trevor to do or say anything. Finally after a few moments he hesitantly lifted a finger and pointed all the way across the Courtyard to a small park bench where I saw Payton and Evie with their arms wrapped around Shiloh.
"What happened?" I asked them and they remained silent this time.
After a few moments of silence I looked over at Noah and he shrugged. I decided that I was going to find out for myself so I walked over to the bench and Evie looked up from Shiloh and glared at me.
She got up and met me a couple of feet from where Shiloh was sitting, and by the poison beneath her eyes I could tell that she wanted to kill me or at the very least tell me off for a reason I don't understand. I looked over at Shiloh and she looked miserable. Her eyes seemed dark and swollen. It looked like she had been crying for a long time. She had mascara trails down her face but she didn't appear to notice or care. I bit the inside of my cheek, what had happened?
"What are you doing here? Can't you see you aren't welcome?" Evie stared intensely at me and Shiloh didn't look up from her lap.
I paused in my steps. Payton wouldn't meet my eyes. She instead chose to focus on a nearby patch of weeds in the concrete. Shiloh hadn't looked up at all. I looked back at Evie and anger simmered in her face. It distorted her face and made her light blue eyes turn icy and cold. I shivered as I tried to face her.
"Shiloh?" I asked and I tried to make my voice sound as comforting and vulnerable as possible.
Shiloh shivered but her eyes still didn't move from the spot of her jeans she was focusing on.
"Shi, can you look at me please? Whatever this is, we can talk through it." I tried to reach for her but Evie stepped in front of me, blocking my path.
YOU ARE READING
The Grace in the Fall
Romance"Shiloh." I held her chin in my hand so she would have to look at me. Shiloh flinched and it reminded me of the first time I had talked to her. Slowly rain began to fall but I could hardly feel their cold bites. She was looking up at me and I was f...
