This Can't Be Good

Chapter 59

I always knew the day I started associating myself with Jayden’s friends I would regret it. I knew I would regret only having friends a year above me because they were all going to leave-for good-one day. I was right. Aside from Max, all of the boys I had come to know like brothers were leaving me.
This week wasn’t about me though. No matter what I was feeling, nothing compared to what all the boys were feeling. They may not have always showed it but deep down they were realizing that their time at Mass High was ending.

It was lunch and all the boys had been MIA, leaving us girls alone at the table. Ash and Sam were launched into a conversation about when they were leaving for college. Leaving Mir, Ava and I to converse amongst ourselves.

“I still can’t believe you’re going to California at the end of the month,” Ava marveled.

“Jayden’s going to New York and hasn’t even mentioned me going up there when he moves in and Parker’s buying you plane tickets to go watch him practice,” Miranda grumbled.

“I payed for my ticket! And I’m not going to the practices I’m just going to go,” I said.

Our conversation had sparked the interest of Sam and Ashley who were intently staring at me. After Parker and I bought the tickets last weekend, we had been getting blank expressions every time we told someone. You’d think he proposed to me. When we told Jason, he went on a ten minute tangent on how college is about finding yourself not keeping your high school girlfriend, which did not go well with all the couples present at the table.

“Wait you’re going to California with Parker?” Sam questioned.

I nodded, “He has to go down there for a week this month for something and he asked me to go.”

“Correction, he begged her to go,” Ava interjected. I shot her a warning glance that she simply shrugged off. I was glad Ava was comfortable around all of us now, but I didn’t need her telling them that Parker begged me to go to LA with him.

“I never thought I’d see the day where Parker was in a committed relationship,” Ashley said.

She didn’t think she’d see the day Parker was in a committed relationship and neither did I. Yet, here I was in a committed relationship with Parker after so many years. This year was crazy.

***

I was half expecting to find the boys at my house when I got home. I was surprised when I walked in to find the house empty. After getting something to eat I headed up to my room to work on the slideshow I was making for Jayden and Parker. My mom had insisted on throwing them a graduation party even though we were all going to end up at other people’s houses. Somewhere along the line I ended up getting suckered into creating a slideshow of old pictures.

I had pictures scattered all over my room. If there is one thing I got from my mom it was my love for pictures. I was currently working on scanning all the pictures into my computer. I was trying to do them in some kind of order. Mixed in the pile of football and baby pictures was a picture of me at my eighth birthday party. I couldn’t help but laugh at the picture. The picture that ultimately started it all.

My phone rang half an hour later, scaring me half to death. I got up from my desk to find it. I hadn’t heard from the boys all day so I was happy when I saw Parker’s name illuminated from the screen

“Are you busy?” he asked.

I looked around my room, the stacks of pictures staring back at me. “No, what’s up?”

“Drive down to Mass High. Bring a football and your jersey.”

I grabbed the keys off my desk and walked towards Parker’s room to grab the football I knew was lying at the foot of his bed. I walked back into my room to grab my jersey but stopped in front of my closet. Which jersey was he referring too; his, mine, or my captain one?