Concerning Chance ✔

TWENTY-THREE

I spend the rest of the week doing the same thing — convalescing outside in the last of the September sunshine. Thankfully though, I don't have to tell Lexa again that I'm not interested; she seems to have taken the hint. By Friday night, she's already heading out with some guy in a leather jacket on his motorbike.

By the time Monday morning rolls around, my head is almost completely recovered — except for struggling to sleep — and I feel as if I'm ready to face Max again. Well, facing him isn't really the issue, unless it includes actually talking to him.

At least Lilia will be there, I remind myself on the way to school, watching the rows of houses flash by. Mum insisted on driving me to school today, but I don't have to talk to her much. The excuse of 'my head hurts' still seems to be working pretty well, so far.

"Have a good day at school, love," she tells me softly, smiling as she reaches over and lightly tousles my already messy hair.

"Thanks, Mum." I smile and don't pull away like I usually would.

The morning air is crisp and cool with anticipation and the preliminary pangs of anxiety bubble in my veins. It's not just talking to Max that worries me; it's also everyone else — the rumours that would now be hovering around my presence.

And yet they can't disregard Chance's disappearance as a suicidal act anymore. Because she didn't die. She just... took a break from reality. It's easier if I think of it like that.

"Rory!" Lilia shouts over to me and breaks into a run from her mum's car to catch up with me.

"Hey." I try not to wince at her loudness, but it rings in my ears all the same. Today's gonna bring me one hell of a migraine.

"You won't believe what happened after you ran off at the bonfire the other week," she exclaims, linking her arm through mine and dragging me unwillingly into school.

"Go on," I barely even have to prompt her.

"After you left, Heather made her move, and she told Max that she loves him," Lilia explains quickly. "So you're in love with Chance, who's in love with Heather, who's in love with Max, who's in love with you!"

My heart stops but Lilia continues frogmarching me into school so I can't catch my breath before we're off again. My thoughts race at a hundred miles an hour.

We're caught in this crazy love triangle. I'm in love with Chance. Chance is, presumably still, in love with Heather. Heather is in love with Max. And Max is in love with me.

It's funny how life comes around in circles.

"It's more of a love quadrilateral than a love triangle," she tells me pointedly, reading my thoughts directly. Then she explains, "Never before have I been so glad I'm aromantic, so there's no chance of me getting caught up in that love fest... Then it'd become a love pentagon..."

Dismissing the fact my brain screams that 'a love pentagon' seems like a concept from Orwell's 1984, I point out to Lilia, "You know, you can't get out of it that easily, Lilia. Just because you don't have romantic feelings, that doesn't mean you can't experience platonic love. So, if you platonically love me and Max as your friends, and you're trying to help Chance while avoiding Heather, then technically you are part of it."

"Scheisse!" Lilia rolls her eyes in mock annoyance, then bumps me with her arm. "I mean, there are worse people to be caught up in a love pentagon with."

But Lilia bumps my shoulder a little too hard and I somehow lose my balance. The doctor warned me that my concussion would've impacted my peripheral system, meaning that I could experience dizziness and lose my coordination (more than usual) at any given time.