I wish I was there to see her face after she got the text. What joy it would've given me! It feels so good to finally do that.
P.S. I finally got my HalloWiener ticket! It costs a dollar, and I got two, one for a very special person.
It was officialâBella was being watched.
She stayed up late trying to come up with the meaning of YWN, but, after her effort was beautifully crowned useless, she came up with a suspect: Cody. It couldn't have been anyone but him. The way his text interrupted her and Beau, the way the text from an unknown number came in immediately she shut the door of her house... all of it was too, too perfect to be a coincidence. She wouldn't put it past Cody to track her phone or hire someone to watch her from a corner, and it was probably a Halloween-inspired prank aimed to scare the crap out of her.
But the question was, how did he know she would be with Beau?
She mentally grunted, then figured she shouldn't be overthinking something like that in Honors Math. She looked up from her textbook, not paying attention to what Mr. Dylan was saying. Nothing that man said sounded interesting. Even if he was talking about a viral video on YouTube, he would still manage to make a person yawn a thousand times a second.
She distracted herself by staring at the back of Jake's head. His head bobbed up and down a few times, a sign that he understood what the teacher was saying. He had become Viola's new friend after replacing Stephanie, and Bella knew it wasn't his fault, but she couldn't help but resent his arrival. If he hadn't come, she would've found a way to talk to Viola, but, since he was, her ex-best friend would probably stop noticing she was alive in no time.
When the bell rang, signaling the end of class, Bella almost jumped out of her seat and did a happy dance, and she would've, if not for the scowl Mr. Dylan suddenly sent in her direction. He hadn't looked at her all period so what now?
She slid down her chair, wanting to escape those eyes that said, "I know what you did."
The honors math teacher finally turned to his desk and she sighed in relief, after which she gathered her books. But life is never fair, even to those who deserve it.
"Belinda Kimberly Quincy," Mr. Dylan called in an excited voice, and Jake turned to her for a brief second. Bella already dreaded what the thirty-something-year-old teacher was about to say. "Can I talk to you for just a little second?"
Oh, glamberry pie!
Bella then became a sloth on purpose. She took her books, then her backpack, moving like she had all the time in the world. Her lazy and sorry self finally made it to Mr. Dylan, and she immediately put on a grin that was supposed to look flirty, but ended up making her look like there was an ice pack in her top.
"Hey, Mr. D."
"That's not working on me," he said, turning to face her. "You weren't in class yesterday. May I ask why?"
She swallowed, hating every second of that moment. "Well, I had some... issues."
"Were those issues so important that you missed the whole of class?"
She looked around the emptying classroom, not sure if crying and being comforted by a special boy was important enough for her to miss the oh-so-delightful honors math. It probably wasn't important enough for Mr. Dylan.
"Well then," he continued when she didn't speak, "since you don't have an excusable reason, I'm delighted to invite you to come keep me company here after school."
It was possible for her to throw a very child-like tantrum right there, but she was sensible enough to hold herself together. Mr. Dylan would only worsen her punishment.
"And the good news is," he said, "you'll have time to catch up on what you missed."
How was that good news?
She nodded, then made her way out of the room, careful not to push the door open too frustratedly. That was what it took to make Mr. Dylan madâsomething as little as that.
Bella groaned when she was far enough away from the door. Why were things so unfair?
"Well, I guess I don't have to bother you anymore."
Bella turned around, recognizing the voice. Jessica stood a few paces behind her, scrolling through her phone like she didn't just speak. She wasn't in her Parrots T-shirt like the last time they saw each other in the hallway, but her dress still looked tailor-made.
"Where are you headed?" Jessica asked, glancing up at her.
Bella's eyebrows furrowed. "My locker?"
"Good. Let's go, then."
"What? But you said you didn't have toâ"
"Shoot that. I just said it. Come on, let's go to your locker. I have something to tell you."
Bella already knew she wasn't going to like whatever Jessica wanted to tell her. "O... kay."
She led her to her locker, but something wasn't right. Jessica was walking behind her, not beside like she usually did with people.
When they got to her locker, she turned to Jessica, lifting an eyebrow. "So what's up?"
Jessica cleared her throat, obviously nervous. "Um, it's... it's about last Fridayâat the sleepover."
"What about it?"
"You remember what Stephanie saidâabout Viola's issue?"
Bella's heart skipped a beat at the reminder. Of course she remembered. That was the day the fate of her and Viola's friendship was decided. "Yeah, why?"
Jessica looked away, then pulled on the neckline of her dress. "It was pre-planned."
"What?"
"I think they all talked to Stephanie beforehand, and, when they found out, Amparo decided to use it against you."
Oh, how much Bella hated that girl.
"Why?" she asked, almost glaring.
Jessica shrugged. "They wanted me to make a story out of it, I guess. You know, I filmed the whole thing too, but, after you left on Saturday and I went back to Fleur's room after breakfast, the video wasn't on my camera. Someone deleted it."
"But if they wanted you to make a story, why would they delete the video?" Not that she wasn't happy the video didn't exist anymore. She just had to ask.
"I don't know, Bella. But I think one of them has it."
Jessica's confession left Bella frozen for a while. What did they want with the video?
Jessica shrugged again, her shoulders lifting her wavy blonde hair, and Bella almost thought she had voiced her question. "I just thought I should tell you. You know, so you'd be careful around them."
"Thanks," Bella said.
Detention was like school jail; there were so many restrictions. Mr. Dylan was grouchy, obviously disappointed he didn't find more students to 'keep him company'.
She had to solve various equationsâincluding ones from topics he was yet to teachâout of boredom, and if that wasn't enough to make her pass out for a long time, his constant complaining was.
He complained that she was thinking too loud at firstâa comment that had her jaw droppingâthen complained that she was solving too many equations next, and just settled with taking her phone instead of complaining the next time.
What a relief to be out of there.
As she made her way towards the exit of school to begin her walk home for the first and half-th time since freshman year, her text alert went off.
I'm in the parking lot waiting
It was Cody. She briefly thought about his (maybe) prank from the previous day, but not even that could prevent the fuzzy feeling spreading across her chest.
She typed back a reply.
You came back?
No, actually. I never left. I'm trying to make it up to you
Aw! That's sweet!
She looked up as she approached the exit, and at that moment, her breathing and walking stopped. She stared at the door warily, not sure if it was right to look at the boy who broke her heart the previous Friday. Boy, the previous Friday had a lot of sour memories.
Travon had stopped by the door, and he stared at her, a delicate look in his eyes. "Hey, Bella," he finally said, glancing away from her for a moment, then stepped away from the door.
"Hey, Travon," she replied.
"Um... you're still here?" he asked, not moving away from the door.
"Yeah. I kinda had detention. You?"
"I had to stay to clean up the robotics lab."
"Okay."
They awkwardly stood where they were for a moment, before Travon approached her. His movements were a bit tentative, but he made it to her without changing his mind.
She continued staring at him, trying not to focus on their proximityâthey hadn't been that close before.
"I was, um, hoping we could talk about Friday," he said, studying her face.
"We don't have to, Travon. It's fineâ"
"No. I know it's not. I was a jerk, and it's been killing meâ" He abruptly stopped, then shoved his hands into the pockets of his pants. "I'm sorry, Quincy," he said with a sigh. "Things are just really rough for me right now, and I know that's a dumb excuse, but I'm really sorry."
She hated the look on his face. He looked so regretful and dejected, so not-Travon Justice. "It's okay. I forgive you. IâI know it wasn't your fault. I shouldn't have eavesdropped."
"You shouldn't have, but I was being a jerk acting that way."
She didn't say anything, just listened to him speak.
"I'm confused," he said. "I need to talk to someone about it." He locked his eyes with hers. "And since Friday, I've been hoping you'd be free to listen."
His statement surprised her, but she said, "Go on, then. I'm listening."
He studied her, giving her time to take back her words. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah. Definitely."
After a few seconds, he gave her his hand, and she stared at it, wondering if she was really seeing that. She blinked, expecting the daydream to end, but his hand was still there.
She blushed as she put her hand in his big one, and his hand tightened around hers.
"Come on," he said, then led her out the door.
Throughout the walk to the school lawn, the only thing she could think about was whether or not that was really happening.
He sat on the only bench on the lawn, and she took the spot beside him and stared at one of the sprinklers.
"So, um, my parents are... getting separated," he said, looking down at the grass. "I found out, like, a month ago, and I've just been losing focus since then. At first I thought they weren't serious about it, but I soon found out they were. I'm doing terribly at school, the coding club's complaining, and Mr. Justin's threatening to tell my dad about my dropping grades.
"The thing is, my dad's... tough, and he'll blame it all on my mom and I don't want that."
Bella gave him a small smile. It warmed herâthe way he cared about his parentsâand she could understand what it would feel like to have her parents separate.
"I'm eighteenâold enough to not give a damn about this," Travon continued, "but it still hurts to know I grew up caring about them, and suddenly they realize they don't love each other anymore." He was silent for a while, before turning to her. "Do you think divorce is the go-to solution for all marital problems?"
That was big talk. She couldn't believe that once upon a time, Travon was just a guy she admired, and today, they were talking about marriage and divorce at the ripe old ages of fifteen and eighteen.
"I... don't think so. Counseling works, too," she said. "Divorce isn't always the best option. One of my aunts had a divorce last year, but during our winter family get-together, I saw the way her and my ex-uncle acted around each other. I wonder why he was invited." She smiled. "I also think my aunt was jealous because of the uber-chick he brought as his date."
Travon laughed, then shook his head. "No way to get a lady than to make her jealous."
Bella joined him because, somehow, he was right, and they laughed for a few seconds before entering a comfortable silence.
"So... what do you think I should doâgo see a counselor, too?" he asked, his face suddenly serious again.
"I think it's all right for you to feel the way you do, but you should try focusing more on other aspects of your life, like school. If you talk to your parents and they still want to go ahead with it, then maybe you should accept their decision and pray they regret their mistake very soon." She was quiet for a while, then she said, "Yeah, that sounded terrible. You should see a counselor."
He laughed again and his eyes crinkled at the corners. "You're great at this, you know."
"No. It's lame advice, really."
"No. I mean you're great at talking. You have the pretty voice and everything."
She tried hard not to go red in the cheeks at his compliment, and he stared at her for a few seconds, before his eyes settled on something behind her.
She turned around to see what had his attention and couldn't help but freeze.