Someone Will Remember Us

Dirty Laundry

Chapter Four

Scott seems to be getting the hang of this 'don't ask too many questions' thing. But I'm also starting to understand the 'you can talk to me whenever' thing.

And who knew that it could actually help.

Scott doesn't comment, he doesn't try to give me advice and he tries his best not to give me any pity looks even though they do occur sometimes.

It's been almost a week since that night and I've been too focused on football to be able to think about anything else. I wake up, go to school, go to practice, go home and go to bed.

We've won our first game of the season and we felt good about it. Zach was sure we were going to reach the playoffs. Yeah, it'd be weird if we didn't.

Scott doesn't play football, not anymore, but that doesn't stop him from waiting for me after practice. He says he doesn't mind, that he likes doing his homework in the library. But I doubt he spends all that time doing homework in the library. Nevertheless, I keep my mouth shut and I don't ask questions.

Charlie walks with me all the way to the parking lot where we're supposed to meet up with Scott. He seems to be happy babbling on about football and I nod and hum here and there so he doesn't think I'm ignoring him. Which I am.

I still haven't gotten my jacket back. Every day Charlie asks me where my jacket is and every day I come up with a new excuse. Scott must have caught on and he shuts down Charlie pretty quickly whenever he even thinks about mentioning the jacket.

I wish Winston would just give it back. Maybe the blood stained it so badly that he had to throw it away? I wouldn't know, I haven't seen him around much and even if I did it's not like I could just walk up to him and ask him to give me back my jacket.

Maybe he's hoping that I'll come to his house again to ask for it back. The very thought leaves my hands sweating. He could keep on dreaming, I'm not going anywhere near his house ever again and he knows better than to show up at my house to give me back the jacket.

Either way, I miss it.

Scott is nowhere to be seen when we reach my car and I'm already annoyed with him.

"He said he was gonna wait," Charlie says and he looks me up and down wearily like he expects me to lash out just because Scott is a few minutes late.

"Yeah, no shit," I sigh and Charlie quickly looks away.

I don't have anything against Charlie, he's actually kinda cool.

Still, I don't understand how he can just be gay and not be ashamed of it. Does he really think it's okay to hold hands with a boy in public? Did no one teach him how wrong that is?

Scott finally appears after a few more minutes of waiting and even Charlie looks annoyed. We just spent hours in practice and we couldn't wait to go home and yet we had to wait for this dummy to show up.

"Sorry. Sorry, got caught up," I hear Scott shout. Charlie and I have to turn because Scott's approaching us from behind.

Library, huh? Unless he decided to circle the whole school building, he definitely wasn't coming from the library.

"Monty and I were starting to get worried," Charlie whines and he glances at me and then back at Scott.

He's thinking the same thing that I am. But he knows that if he asks Scott where he's been, Scott will probably ignore him. Charlie is only two years younger than us but we still treat him like an annoying younger sibling.