Anomaly

Show and Tell

I felt like a new person walking back into school after winter break. Everything in my life had been thrown up in the air, but the pieces had miraculously fallen back into place, even clearer than before. I had a future now. Of course, I still wanted justice for my father, but it was no longer my only goal in life. I had started looking at colleges, thinking about where I wanted to live and what I wanted to study. It was as though a whole other world had been opened to me.

I also had friends now. The basketball team had a couple of practices during the break, and I had grown close to some of the guys on my team. Even Emmett had gone back to being friendly with me. I was part of the group now, to the point where they had asked me to join in a prank planned for the Welcome Back assembly today.

And now that I had things in my life – friends, college, and missions – to look forward to, I decided that it was over with Alora. I didn’t hear a word from her all break, and, despite being upset at first, I had since moved on. She couldn’t just run away and expect me to wait around until she reappeared. I deserved better.

“No Alora still, huh?” Jenn asked as she walked past my locker. “You two were practically conjoined, and now nothing?”

“She must have found out how nasty he is,” Sierra replied with a smirk.

I rolled my eyes. Their words didn't bother me. I was over her.

“Are you talking about me?”

My neck hurt from the speed at which I turned my head. Sure enough, there was Alora – dressed in her standard attire of an old t-shirt and jeans, her stony eyes as cold as ever.

She marched towards me, putting her hand in mine. “You were saying?” she asked Jenn confrontationally.

Now it was Jenn’s turn to roll her eyes. She and Sierra wandered away.

“Are you okay?” she asked me after they were gone.

“Okay that a shallow girl said something stupid to me or okay that the first girl I said I love you to ignored me for nearly a month?” I asked, prying my hand out of hers. “Because I have to be honest: one of those things bothers me way more than the other.”

“I know,” she said, hanging her head. “I thought about it a lot over break, and I want to apologize. Can we talk?”

The bell rang, causing any students still left in the hallway to scatter.

“The basketball team is doing something during the assembly,” I told her. “After that, okay.”

Relief passed across her face, like the sun emerging from behind a cloud. “Thank you,” she said gratefully before running off.

As I watched her leave, I felt my anger fading. She could apologize, and we could go back to being friends. But romantically, I had moved on.

At least that’s what I told myself that morning when I started thinking about all the times I had made her laugh.

And when I daydreamed about going to college together.

And when I imagined how her body felt pinned underneath mine during our movie night pillow fight.

I wonder if she's thinking about me too.

Finally, right before lunch, it was time for the assembly. All of the students filed into the gymnasium. Alora had sat by herself, and I probably would have joined her had it not been for the basketball team prank. Instead, I sat next to my teammates.

The assembly included different speakers highlighting student and faculty achievements. The theater department performed a song from their upcoming show that was actually not half bad. Then the lights went out while some pop song began to play.