Ned Gets Stood Up

Chapter Twenty-Nine

NED

Once Chad escaped the parade line, the whole gang was back on the road, heading to the Hines household. Ned chest was tight, but he needed the pinch to know this was all really happening and he was covered in chills. He was squeezing Sam's hand a bit too hard as his heart pounded bruises on the inside of his chest. Looking out the window, Ned noticed Jason and his brother catching back up.

Originally, the plan was for Sam to grab The Gregor and run... it was a gutsy move to assume Sam would try to save the gnome after that fight... but Ned knew Sam as well as Sam knew him. He just had faith.

"Our parents are back," Sam said, squeezing Ned's hand back.

Eventually, they arrived on a desolate street like any other. All the neighborhoods in their town were beginning to blur together. Chad parked and they all started piling out. Ned put one foot on the ground and a mob rushed him, breaking him apart from Sam.

"You bastard man!" Nisha shouted as her and Addison rushed for him. Ned backed into the car with a thud and shimmied off the side as the parents arrived too, peppering them with more and more questions.

The footballers noticed the cheerleaders and they immediately picked a fight. "Mind your own business," Rex said.

"The Gregor is our business!" Addison insisted. "Get a life!"

"Get a better mascot!"

Nisha snapped, "Eat glass!"

The fight was louder than it was important, devolving into stuff about the bad blood than anything actually going on in the moment. Sam's parents were on him, listing everything he's done wrong all night and how he needed to be more mature and how they needed to get this night behind them. "I now understand why my father had a stroke at forty," Sam's dad said.

As soon as Ned's parents saw John, they were aghast, realizing he must've had something to do with this too. John started a fight with them too about keeping secrets and defending Ned. John shouted, "This is ridiculous! Ned didn't do anything wrong! Stop making him feel bad because you did something shitty in high school!"

Their mother gawked.

Margaret stomped to the Hayes, lamenting over being abandoned again and again. "THREE TIMES!" By far, Margaret was the loudest. "YOU FORGOT ABOUT ME THREE TIMES!"

"Maggie, please," Sam's mother begged, "We can't do this right now."

"Four times! You're trying to ignore me again. I'm your kid too and you have to look at me too. You have to deal with me too."

This seemed to be news to them, and she let them know how upset this made her. Her parents still found a way to blame Ned for it, but Margaret wasn't falling for it anymore. "Ever think maybe you should take responsibility!"

They made faces like they rather she slapped them.

Ned was going to get whiplash from looking back and forth and getting his attention snatched up every half a second. It was an unbearably overwhelming pile on, and Ned had enough. He raised his free hand, still clutching The Gregor close to his chest as Nisha tried pulling him by his legs.

"ENOUGH!" Ned shouted, but he still didn't have the floor. He shouted again, louder this time with his full chest. "ENOUGH! I'm talking now! Enough!"

Climbing up onto the curb, Ned addressed the crowd, despite trembling and flushing and feeling like this could all fall apart. He just straightened his shoulders. "I have to do this. I have to see the end of this, okay? It's right there!" He pointed to the house behind.