Chasing Shadows

Part One ~ Chapter Twenty-One

“I’m fine.”

-Amy

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Stepping off the airplane, I instantly felt a wave of happiness that I couldn’t help but express without a smile. I looked over to Julia, who was also smiling. I walked down the terminal into the baggage area, where we all stood waiting. It’s hard to think it’s only been a week, when in some ways its felt like a lifetime. In the taxi on our way back to school, I watched as we passed the mountains and green trees. The excitement inside of me was building up as we got closer and closer to the entrance.

            “Right here is good,” Matt told the taxi driver as we stopped in front of the school entrance. He handed him the fare, and we all got out to grab our bags. Stepping back onto school grounds, seeing so many familiar faces, made me sigh in relief.

            “It’s almost dinner,” Julia looked at her watch. “Sign in and put our stuff away; meet back in twenty?”

            “Sure thing.”

            “It’s been awhile since we’ve seen Kyle and Andrew,” Julia said as we made our way up to our cabin.

            “Yeah,” I nodded.

            “We’re going to have to catch them up on all they’ve missed.”

            I stopped, making Julia stumble a bit and look back at me.

            “Sorry.”

            “It’s okay.”

            “I was just… what exactly are we going to tell them?”

            “Everything?” Well, I thought…” Julia looked at me and put down her suitcase.

            “Right, right. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

            “Amy… does this have anything to do with Tim? And Andrew?”

            I put down my suitcase too and sat down on it. “Maybe.”

            “You can talk to me, you know that.”

            I shook my head. “I’d tell you if I knew myself what I was thinking. It’s just, me and Andrew have a rough past when it comes to discussing Tim. He basically called me a slut for the whole thing.”

            Julia sighed. “I think Andrew has some troubles of his own… He deserves to know everything that happened over break, he’s only involved in this because of us. But if he says anything to you, tell me. I’ll give him a little talk.”

            “Julia-”

            “He can be an asshole, I know.”

            “That we can both agree on. But I can handle Andrew. Just the nerves, ya know?” I got back up. “Come on, we’re sitting in the middle of the path anyways. Maybe we can finish dinner early and head down to the beach to talk or something…”

            “Maybe you and Andrew can head down to the beach and talk.”

            I shot Julia a look and started walking, while she laughed behind me. Dinner was bound to be one thing- interesting.

***

            Sitting back in the dining hall could never have felt better. Julia and I got our food and sat down at our typical table. Johnny and Ethan decided to sit with us, since it was the first night all seven of us would be seeing each other again. Kyle came in behind them, and the three of them were smiling and laughing. It was great seeing the them reunited again.