Ch. 8
POV: KORI
After class gets out on Friday, Zack comes up behind me and knocks my shoulder with his. "Howdy, howdy."
"Hey, Zack," I say. I've been shuffling around like a zombie for the past two days, but I manage a tight smile.
Zack immediately frowns. "Whoa. What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing," I say a bit too quickly. I haven't told anyone that Kansas is leaving soon, but I’ve never been good at keeping things to myself. But every time I try, my throat gets dry and my mind goes blank. I still think I've only half processed what's happening.
Zack continues staring at me with a funny look. Thankfully, Nevaeh and Grace walk up at that moment, Archer trailing a few feet behind.
"What do you think, Kor?" Grace asks as she comes up to my side. She holds up her phone to me. "Too much?"
"Too much what?" Zack is still staring at me, now with his arm comfortably around Nevaeh's shoulders, and my response comes a beat too late. Luckily, Grace doesn't seem to notice.
"Too much anything!" She flings her arms out to her side with a huff, taking her phone with her.
Nevaeh smirks, braiding her dark hair down her shoulders. "She means her Halloween costume for Colin's party."
"Oh." I look over at Grace, and she brings the phone back down to my eye level. After a moment of confusion, the realization dawns on me that it's a picture of a devil costume. I blink again. "Where's the...rest of the costume?"
Nevaeh bursts into laughter, and Grace groans.
Archer comes up on my other side and looks over my shoulder at the picture. "Grace," he says, his cheeks flushed red, "you know it'll be, like, 30 degrees Halloween night, right? Shouldn't you wear something with...layers?"
"It looks like a bathing suit," Nevaeh teases.
Grace rolls her eyes. "It's not my fault. You have no idea how hard it is to find a Halloween costume that's sexy but not slutty!"
Zack looks at Nevaeh with a grin. "Why not both?"
She whacks his arm. "That's enough out of you." Nevaeh turns back to me and Grace. "Just wear it, girl, no one really cares. There'll be a bonfire too, anyways."
I'd totally forgotten Halloween was even coming up. That last two months have zoomed by in the blink of an eye. As the rest of the group continues talking, my eyes narrow on Ryland down the hall. He's standing by one of the doors leading to where the buses park, a skateboard at his side. He's typing away furiously on his phone, an annoyed look on his face.
"Hey, guys, I'll see you tomorrow," I say, not waiting for a reply as I start making my way towards him.
Just as I take a step in his direction, he turns and walks out the door. I quicken my stride through the crowd of kids. He's a few feet into the parking lot when he suddenly stops, pulling his phone out again. I slow to a walk as I get close to him. When I'm a few feet behind him, I open my mouth.
458Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCuPs5qBJWL
458Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG8cB2sk49e
POV: RYLAND
458Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj7a4jv24oP
458Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnP28MUhFkT
Sometimes, it feels like there's a big-ass target on my back from the universe.
458Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGcrJYkxvTQ
I will call you when I am out of my meeting.
458Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyVSzNS5Dsk
One sentence. 12 words. And it's over text, so I can interpret it anyway I want.
But I can feel the crushing weight of the words. I can hear my father's voice as I read the text over and over again. And the slow realization sinks in that, after letting me come back to town two and a half months ago, he finally wants to talk.
My mind's racing a hundred miles an hour. It doesn't help that kids won't stop staring at me. A group of girls flat-out glare at me as they walk past. One leans over and starts whispering to the group, and I see the words Austin Montgomery pass her lips. A sick, nervous pain settles in my stomach, but I ignore it.
Then, a cold chill suddenly runs up my right side. I turn around and come face to face with a familiar green-eyed girl. It's insane as hell how she always pops up right when I'm about to blow my shit.
I take a step back. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Hey," Kori says in that nonchalant tone she gets whenever she's trying to play it cool.
I shake my head. "Oh, no. No, no, no. I'm not dealing with you right now."
She crosses her arms. "No project today then? The due date's coming up."
Fuck the due date. I open my mouth to tell her just that, but she's not looking at me anymore. She's staring at my skateboard, working her jaw. "You know, I've always wanted to learn to skateboard," she says, "but I was always too scared."
"That's truly heartbreaking." My phone feels like a block of cement in my pocket. I think I’m finally losing it.
Kori steps closer to me. This feels like the wrong time to notice, but I kind of like how her face always flushes with color right before it scrunches into a glare. It makes her look twice as distracting as she already does on a regular basis.
"We need to finish the project," she says again, like I'm deaf. "I can't take a bad grade on this. It's 20% of our final grade."
"You really haven't change at all, have you?" I say with a raised eyebrow. Even in elementary school, anything less than an A- sent her into a temper tantrum.
She frowns at my statement. "I guess not. Now let me ride your skateboard to your house so we can get started."
"What?" I wrinkle my nose. "No."
"Come on." I don't know why it surprises me when she takes a step towards me again, but it does. "Just let me try."
"You may not."
"What's the big deal?"
"You're not allowed to get on my board," I say as she places her foot on my board. "If you fall and break your neck, I'm not calling an ambulance."
She's not listening. She's entirely in my space now, and we're almost chest to chest. She's got her head craned fully back to look up at me. (I like her like this.) She looks down at her foot on my board for a second, pushing it back and forth. Then, she slowly looks up at me again.
"Here," Kori says softly, sticking her hand out towards me. It takes up the full space between us.
"What?" I can feel myself blushing. I’ve truly finally lost it.
"My balance isn't great, but once I'm on, I bet I can stay steady." She wiggles her outstretched fingers at me. "Come on, help me."
I snort. "No. I might push you off."
"What?"
"I. Might. Push. You. Off. I'll finally settle Ryland vs. Kiwi for good."
Her mouth drops open slightly, but she doesn't drop her hand. "Jesus, you really are crazy, aren't you? Why is that what you're thinking about right now? I thought we were on a break from all of that."
I open my mouth, and from the way she grabs my hand, she knew what I was about to say. I want to pull away, but I also don't want to pull away. I watch as she pushes off the ground and stamps her other foot onto my skateboard. Instantly, she's sticking her other arm straight out for balance, and she tightens her grip on me as she catches her balance.
"Ha! Ha ha!" she exclaims, breaking into a wild grin as she looks at me. Now she comes up to my chin. "Look, I'm on it!"
"So you are."
Kori looks down at her feet. "Okay, I'm going to move a little. I just push off with my foot, yeah?"
She plants her right foot on the ground and pushes slightly, and I move alongside her as the board starts to wheel off. She laughs again. "Holy shit!"
She keeps pushing and wobbling on the board, and the board keeps moving, and I stay by her side. Most of the kids have already left, so the parking lot is empty enough that she shouldn't run into anything expensive.
I've never seen her laugh so much. I wonder if she's forgotten she's holding my hand. Every two seconds, I think about pulling away. We've been moving for a while, so it would look normal for me to let go so she could try and balance fully by herself.
But at this point, she could light fires in my hand, and I still wouldn't let go.
"Ryland," Kori says. I’ve lengthened my stride, so we're still at a pace that I can walk to keep up with. "I'm going to try and go faster, okay?"
The wind's blowing her hair out of her face, so I can see her eyes and rounded cheeks fully. The curve of her nose. The imprint of dimples from her smile. I don't know what's going on, but she's looking at me in a way she's never looked at me before. Like I'm something worth looking at.
It's strange how accustomed I'd come to her scowl that just the sight of her grin is enough to knock me senseless. That effortless grin she flashed at everyone as she passed by was now being directed at me. Honestly, this whole English project gave me an annoyingly strange sense of comfort, knowing that we were being forced to interact. We'd been in the same friend group for years, but now it feels like I've been stuck in place while they've all moved forward.
She's still looking at me. Still holding my hand. I want to tell her to stop, to let go. But I can't. I'm happy to have her close, even if it hurts. Even if I know it'll only end in flames. Even if I know I can't hold her the way I've always wanted to.
But just this once, I'll let it happen. My father could send me away with one word tonight, and that terrifies me. So I'll let whatever this is happen.
Without another thought, I start to laugh. A kid-like, snorty type of laugh. Because I'm weak. Because I'm a constant disappointment to myself. Because she's right next to me, and she hasn't let go of my hand yet, and this feels like the type of moment they write love songs about.
"Alright, Kiwi. Let's see what you can do."
458Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWXXw3lfcuh
458Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡozaaqJT2uT
Archer swings the door open wide and eyes me. "Who doesn't keep their house key on them?"
Kori waves at Archer, and I walk past him. "My keys aren't my top priority," I say. It ended up taking almost an hour to get from the school to my house, and if Archer notices either of us out of breath, he doesn't say anything.
"That's dumb." He follows behind us as we walk, and I’m oddly relieved that he’s up for banter. We’ve been skirting around each other for the past two days, only speaking when we had to, but maybe we can finally put that argument behind us. I’d really like to.
Then, I hear Archer’s breath catch suddenly. "Oh, Ry, wait-"
I turn the corner into the living room and freeze in my tracks.
Hannah Brown looks up from her phone, eyebrows raising when she sees it's me. "Hey, Ryland," she says. "I thought you were in your room this whole time."
"Why are you here?" I ask immediately.
Hannah's face scrunches up in a look of concern and a little offense. Kori comes up to my side and lets out a breath of surprise. Hannah's eyes dart to her, and her eyebrows raise higher.
"She's my partner for the project," Archer says quickly, coming up on my other side. I look at him sharply, and he can definitely read all the nasty thoughts I'm thinking. He coughs. "I was going to text you that we were working here, but I forgot. Honest."
Hannah's picking at something on her shirt, trying and failing to look inconspicuous. I keep looking back and forth between her and Archer. Archer looks at me, his cheeks flushed bright red, and his mouth flops open and close. No doubt to give some dumbass excuse.
I look up at the ceiling and pinch the bridge of my nose. "We'll work in my room. Let's go." I pull out my phone to check the time. "We've already lost an hour-"
I blink.
3 missed calls from Dad
It feels like the target on my back has just been struck on the bullseye.
I instantly spin on my heels and start walking, and I'm dialing his number a second later. Archer calls after me, but I ignore him. My heart's pounding so hard, I'm surprised my rib cage hasn't cracked yet.
He picks up on the third ring, the bastard. "So you decided to finally respond?"
"Don't start with me right now," I instantly snap, and then regret it. "What did you want to talk about?"
He's silent for a moment, and I can feel my breath wavering against my will. Is he going to send me back to Burley? Seems like a shitty thing to do over the phone. I'd been mentally preparing myself for it all day, but the thought of it now has my hands shaking.
But when he finally speaks, it's so much worse than I could've imagined. So, so much worse.
"It's your mother," he says, his voice steady. "She's in the hospital again."
458Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjihJOrNbGh
458Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzC50X5FqP5
TO BE CONTINUED...
458Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdnbi1YcsS0
458Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUj0ZrOqSDj
I feel kind of evil, introducing you guys to Ryland's mom and then hospitalizing her a chapter later. Oh well.
-Zuffy <3
458Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKtq0X4bilv
