(FEATURED)
It's been months since the unceremonious fall of Kimie Sato's older sister. The whole of Ridgerock High knows it, and by now, the majority have moved on. But Kimie still watches those who had a hand in it continue to walk free, and the mo...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Delinquent.
It wasn't a word I was supposed to think too much about, but now that Jamie had put it in my head, it was hard to forget. I'd never thought of West and the word delinquent together; it didn't sound right. But something told me there was a reason Jamie said what he did. Maybe it was just paranoia, but I couldn't get it off my mind.
Finding Jett Foster in the yearbook with a dangerous, maniacal look in his eyes wasn't helping either. How did West know someone like him? And, most especially, what was the relationship between them?
I thought coming to work today would help me clear my head, but when I got to the ice cream-smelling place and didn't see Tybalt, I knew I'd made a big mistake. I asked Norman if he knew why he didn't show up to work, but he only shrugged, avoiding my eyes like the plague. My first thought was that he had made that silent decision some girls made whenever one of their friends was mad at someone—he was going to act like he was offended, and refuse to talk to me.
I got it, really; he and Tybalt had been friends for a long time, and he probably felt guilty for urging him to call me.
After figuring I wasn't going to get anything more from him than that simple shrug, I gave up and focused on working. That commitment died after a few minutes, though, and I found myself calling Tybalt. With my current boy situation, I wasn't too surprised when he didn't pick up. Saying I was exhausted was an understatement. Everything that had happened since the beginning of April was piling up, leaving a wobbly stack of issues that threatened to crash to the floor anytime soon. I was scared of what would happen when it finally did.
A shift later, I was putting away some rags when my phone rang from the pocket of my pants.
It was Kairi calling, and, confused, I picked up.
"Hey, Kai," I said, injecting life into my voice for her benefit and trying not to sigh from how tired I was. I avoided her this morning, not ready to face her after last night, or ready to ask her why she was screaming at night, and now that she was on the other side of the phone, I couldn't help but feel guilty.
"I didn't see you this morning."
"Yeah. I left early."
"Okay." Her voice was low and soft, like she didn't want anyone else to hear her.
I waited for her to speak, but she didn't, so I said, "Do you want to tell me something, Kai?"
"Yeah," she replied without hesitating. "Um, I went to see Mom today."
I stopped what I was doing, the mention of my mom changing my mood. "Okay." I kept my voice plain, not wanting her to know how much the topic affected me.
"I took her her favorite flowers and told her you miss her a lot."
The way her voice shook at the end made tears suddenly fill my eyes, and I knew that if I stayed here for one more minute, I would turn into a weeping mess Norman wouldn't be able to clean up.
