The Good Side Of You | Monty and Winston

Chapter 6: Regret

The Monday after Bryce's funeral, the police held a press conference officially naming Clay Jensen as a person of interest in the murder investigation. This juicy piece of news was all the students of Liberty High could talk about, and Monty watched as the whole school whispered and stared at Clay.

Ani, that girl that was always with Clay, spent all morning nosing around and asking people questions, no doubt trying to find out something that could help her friend. To Monty's annoyance, she seemed to be talking to a lot of football players. Monty leaned against his locker as he watched Ani corner Kenneth near the Spanish classroom. The way they both turned their heads towards him made Monty think they were talking about him.

"Don't worry, we got your back." Luke said, startling Monty out of his paranoid thoughts.

"Shit, Luke. Don't sneak up on people like that."

Luke laughed. "Relax." He looked in the direction of Ani. "That girl has asked most of us the same question, and every time she has gotten the same answer. You went with us to Charlie's house after the Homecoming game. And that's that. We got you."

Monty nodded, grateful. "Thanks, man."

"Anytime." Luke smiled as he patted Monty's back. "Come on, we're gonna be late to class."

Monty decided not to give the matter any more thought. He knew he could count on his team. Besides, he had something more important to worry about: the fact that Winston had not forgiven him yet.

Unfortunately, Winston had taken a page out of Estela's book and wasn't taking any of his calls or responding to his texts. It was hard to apologize to him if he couldn't reach him, but that hadn't stopped Monty from texting Winston every minute of the day.

Monty: "Lunch's over. I'm going to class now."

Monty: "Charlie has been pestering me all morning, making sure I have everything that I missed last week. He says I can't afford to let my grades drop because this is the time when college recruiters look for talented football players to offer them scholarships. As if I had a shot at that."

Monty: "I guess he's just being a good friend."

Monty: "Anyway, I'll talk to you later."

This monologue had been going on since Bryce's funeral last Saturday. After Monty had sent a long text apologizing, and after trying to call Winston without success, he resorted to this relentless spam. He texted Winston "Good morning" as soon as he opened his eyes, he updated him on everything that happened throughout the day, and he texted him "Good night" before going to sleep, all without receiving a single reply back. Monty wasn't worried about annoying Winston, because an annoyed Winston could maybe reply back, even if it was to tell him to back the fuck off. What worried Monty was something worse: that he may have lost Winston forever, that he may never see or talk to Winston again. Instead of grappling with that possibility, he was in a stubborn kind of denial, because he couldn't face the fact that he may have ruined the best thing he had going on in his life.

At that moment, Winston was at Hillcrest getting into class himself. He thought it was ironic how Monty had been avoiding him last week to hide the fact that his father had beat him up again, and this week it was Winston who was ignoring Monty. Admittedly, it was a hard thing to do when your phone buzzed every few minutes. He had had to switch it to silent mode so his teachers wouldn't take his phone away.

What Monty had texted him at Bryce's funeral had really hurt his feelings. It had been evident that Monty was really upset when those girls protested the funeral, and for a moment Winston had forgotten all about hiding. All he could think about then was to do something to comfort Monty, and he had stood up without thinking, and had taken a few paces in Monty's direction. He had remembered himself in time, though, and had sat back down.