As soon as I got into school, I knew Clarissa had talked to the Hawkettes. Usually, they waited for us guys to come in, sometimes even with breakfast foods, but now all we got were glares.
That’s okay with me. Just leave me the fuck alone so I could figure out how, where, and when I would be able to talk to Morgan.
“Dude, I guess she really did it.” Jason swung his arm around my shoulders and nodded to the girls who were keeping their distance. Brandon and two of our other soccer starters followed behind him.
“Doesn’t matter.” I stared back at a Hawkette who was giving me the evil eye, death stare. “I don’t want part of this anymore.” I left them all standing there on their own. I was so done with this whole high school shit.
&n
I knew I wouldn’t be able to pull the ‘I’m sick’ game off forever. I managed to stay home one week before mom told me that I had to either get a doctor’s excuse to go back to school or make sure that I’m in attendance Monday morning.Here it was, almost seven days after I found out what Ethan had done. How everything about us was just a lie. How I was now the laughing stock of probably the entire school or at least the soccer team.I felt used.I felt abused.And I felt a pain that I never felt in my life before. One that hurt so bad that I didn’t think I was going to be able to make it through another day, it was like I’d lost my best friend and my lover all at once.Well, I sort of did. Ethan and I had become both of those. He was my lover, the only one that I ever had. And I felt closer to him than I did my friends, even Tara and Rynae.Speaking of my friends, they called every day wondering
My knuckles were red and swollen from denting the locker with my fist. I went down to the locker room and put a bandage on the wound. I had five minutes to run back to first-class before I was late.Maybe, just maybe, Morgan would talk to me.The buzzer sounded as soon as I walked into the room. Morgan was at the teacher’s desk, and it looked like she was having a paper signed. I took my seat and waited for her to come over.“It was a pleasure having you in my class. I wish you the best in all your courses.” The teacher handed Morgan back the slip of paper.‘What the fuck, she’s leaving.’ ‘Fuck!’‘Fuck!’‘Fuck!’Morgan took the paper and walked over towards the door.‘Look back.’ I silently screamed at her in my head.Morgan turned the doorknob, stopped, and looked back over her
I was late getting out of the computer lab, but I’d managed to finish all the classwork and homework that I’d missed for the past week.AND I was able to avoid seeing Ethan.I mean I wanted to see him, but I knew each time I did my heart would die a little bit more. The last time I saw him today, when he followed me down to the lab, it took all my self-control not to run back to him.Tara said she spoke to him right after that, she said he didn’t look like he was doing too well. She’d never seen him so wrecked up. It was like this whole circumstance had ruined us both. ***Ugh
I walked into the house, thirty minutes after I’d made a total ass of myself in front of Morgan. Hope was already home and sitting on the sofa watching TV. She was still pissed off at me and glared at me every time our eyes met.“Ethan, honey, your home.” Grandma still spoke to me decently, even after everything that she knew that I did.“Yeah, practice was canceled because of the weather.” I sat down beside Hope, who inched herself away from me.“How’s school going?”I shrugged. I hadn’t put too much effort into any of the assignments lately.“You need to keep your grades up. College isn’t that far away.”I looked from the TV to Grandma. She was actually concerned about my well-being and my future. “I know. Things have been going okay.”Grandma nodded. I guess I sufficed her with my answer.“How is your other situation going? With your gi
I finished the last of my literature assignment that was due tomorrow and managed to get some studying done for the debate meet that was coming up in two weeks. This was the next to the last one for the year. I was excited, yet depressed about not having to do this anymore. I’d been debating since ninth grade, and it had become part of my life.Everything was changing so fast. First, debate meets, and state competitions would be over, then we would start graduation preparation, and then before we knew it, we’d be walking across the stage to begin another chapter of our lives.Five months ago, I thought I was going to have someone to share all of my life adventures with, I honestly thought Ethan would be there forever.My call button lit up on my cell phone, the number came up as unknown. I always ignore those sorts of calls, they are usually those bot calls or someone trying to sell me something, but this time, I answered.“Hello.”
“Are you sure? Don’t be lying to me, Hope.” I couldn’t believe it when Hope got off the phone with Morgan, and she said that Morgan had told her that we could come over.“Oh my, God, Ethan, let’s go. She wants to see us.” Hope grabbed her hoodie and pulled my hand towards the door. “Grandma, we’ll be back. We’re going to Morgan’s house.” Hope rushed out the door before our grandmother could respond.I didn’t know if I was going to get us there alive. My hands shook the whole time I drove Hope and me to Morgan’s. I kept replaying everything in my head that I wanted to tell her.I’m sorry.I never told anyone about our times together.I never took the money.I love you.The question was, would she listen to me?“C’mon, Ethan, hurry up.” Hope’s push on my shoulder brought me out of t
Except for Hope’s random bouts of laughter over the silly, immature jokes, we watched the rest of the movie in silence. I really had no idea what was going on with it since my thoughts were elsewhere, like on Ethan and our situation.Even though she kept having severe bouts of yawning, Hope kept talking about everything and nothing all at the same time. I think I missed her youth and naiveness as much as it seemed she missed me.Finally, after numerous threats of telling their grandmother that she wasn’t listening, Ethan got Hope to leave around nine o’clock, thirty minutes after the movie ended. We all said our goodbyes, Hope clinging like she’d never see me again until Ethan took her hand and pulled her away.Then, I watched as the taillights faded off into the darkness.&nb
Ninety minutes and ninety-seven questions later, our team was losing by two. There were three questions left, and we had to win all three to take the lead and win. If the other side won any of them, it was over.“Our last three questions will come from the subject matter of Human Anatomy.” The spokesperson for our debate announced what the last topic would cover.I breathed a partial sigh of relief. Not that I was too confident that we would win, the other team had been kicking our ass all day, but at least I had a general knowledge of the topic of interest.I glanced over at Ethan, my anatomy partner in more than one way. He gave me a big smile and thumbs up. He was more confident that we would win than I was at the moment.The first question went to the opposing side. They had to name all the facial bones.Unbelievable! After they finished their answer and said they were done, I realized that the other team forgot the lacrimal bones.