Loose Change~ Montgomery De La Cruz / Zach Dempsey/Scott Reed

Part 4 Chapter 4b

Ani stepped closer, and lowered her voice. "Maybe tonight at the game we just need to get them really, really angry."

Charlie immediately felt himself tense. "I don't think that's-"

"I've got to go," Ani told him. The smile still etched on her face. "See you at the game, yeah?"

Charlie couldn't figure out what else to say besides, "Um, yeah?"

He watched Ani hurry off down the hall.

Charlie ran a nervous hand through his hair.

"Fuck..."

*****

"Justin got into a fight with Diego?" Ophelia asked, shocked. "Why? What happened?"

Marisa leaned against the wall of the girl's bathroom as she told Ophelia, "I don't know why. I just heard Diego complaining that he got kicked out of the locker room or something, even though Justin started it."

"He didn't even mention it to me this morning," Ophelia said. She washed her hands in the bathroom sink. She shook her head, disapprovingly. "I should yell at him for that later. Why do boys get in so many fights?"

"Your boys get in fights," Marisa laughed. "Not mine."

Ophelia smiled at her. "Oh? And how is Paul?"

"He's good," Marisa said. "He says the people at school still miss you."

It felt like a million years ago that Ophelia went to Hillcrest.

And a million years ago since anything felt normal.

"I miss that school," Ophelia admitted. "And I do miss cheer. Kind of."

"Well, you'll get to see me cheer tonight," Marisa said, happily. "And then I heard you're going to the after party?"

Ophelia groaned. "Did Estella tell you that?"

"Yes," Marisa told her. "And you have to go. It's really so fun."

"Parties are for drinking," Ophelia said. "I can't drink. If I went, I'd just be a buzzkill the whole time."

"You don't have to drink," Marisa told her. She gasped. "How about you be the DD?"

Ophelia groaned. "Are you planning on getting blackout drunk like last summer? I can't carry you now."

"I'll just have a few drinks," Marisa said. "But look, if you're DD, no ones gonna pressure you into drinking at all."

No one who drove was ever pressured into drinking anymore. Not even one beer at the beginning of the party. Not since Jeff Atkins.

Ophelia thought about it. "I don't know, maybe."

The two girls stepped out of the girls restroom. It was passing period between third and forth period. Marisa turned to walk to her class down the hall.

"I'll see tonight, okay?"

"You'll see me at the game," she clarified.

Marisa just laughed.

Ophelia turned to head to class. She spotted Winston in the hallway, standing at his locker, collecting one of his textbooks. She slowed.

She hadn't spoke to him since before the vandalism happened at school, when he said he too believed Montgomery was innocent. She figured it was only natural for someone to cling to that notion. She would too if possible.

Ophelia stopped when she neared him. They had been friends at Hillcrest. She wanted to break the tension, and be friends with him again.

They had something in common, after all. They both grieved a man who they should never have fallen for.