𝐁𝐎𝐘𝐈𝐒𝐇// 𝐄𝐃𝐃𝐈𝐄 𝐌𝐔𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐗𝐎𝐂

𝐱𝐥𝐯𝐢. ✭ 𝐒𝐔𝐙𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐄

He wobbled for a moment before catching his balance. Spinning on his heels, the boy snatched up a handful of my hair, jerking me back toward him.

"Why are you so mean to us?" My voice was guttural, accompanying my shaking body. Only I wasn't trembling from sadness. I was angry. I was God damned angry and I wanted answers. The pain on my tugged scalp didn't matter anymore. Only the truth did.

"Why do you think?" Jason drawled in a cruel manner. "Even a dummy like you should be able to figure it out."

MARCH 21, 1986; CHANCE
3:42-8:50 p.m.

"Chance?" My name was called out from a distance. Whirring followed, the sound of spokes spinning around a bicycle. "Chance!" My pursuer was confident that it was me the second time he shouted my name. I could hear him nearing, getting closer to the section of the parking lot I had gotten to. "Chance, wait up!"

Is that?
Uh uh.
No.
No way.
No way on God's green earth.
Fuck.

Nash Thistle-Berry sidled up next to me, his legs ceasing the intense pumping they had been working to catch up with me. He was wearing a taffy-yellow jacket along with a dorky pair of male biking leggings. The blue helmet affixed to his head was clipped on at an angle.

"Nash?" I squinted at his lean figure in the harsh daylight. My pace slowed down involuntarily like I was trudging through a thick sludge of quicksand. "What? What are you doing here? Ain't you supposed to be in New York or something?"

For the past month or so, Nash hadn't been in school. All his AV friends said that his daddy took him to Manhattan on some big official business trip. We all assumed that he was on some long, independent study-filled vacation. One of his regular rich boy siestas.

"Nope." He kept pedaling to follow my route, glancing over as he balanced on his sleek bicycle. "But I was- Well, I've been looking for you, Girl."

"You been looking for me?"

"Yup."

"Why?" My boots lacked against the dark asphalt. Good background noise for our conversation. Students milled around, buzzing from the release of our last Friday classes.

"I wanted to-" Faltered Nash, swerving around a couple of girls to tail after me. "I wanted to talk to you." He paused, leisurely riding the bicycle for a moment. "Explain some things. Tell you the truth and some other stuff."

"Really?" I snorted, hands shoved in my daddy's comfy old coat. "What do you reckon you need to tell me about?"

"Well, for one, I haven't been in New York." He said with a large sigh, palming at his handlebars. "I have been right here in Indiana. Somewhere with lots of culture and new...strange people."

"What? Wait- What are you talking about?" The tip of my tongue rested on the roof of my mouth, languishing thereafter questions bled out of it. "I thought- Everyone was saying-"

"That I went to the Big Apple?" His gait straightened out, shoulders shrugging as he revealed. "My dad made that up to protect me. He booked me a suite at Penhurst after our...well, you know." At that moment I was sure my jaw was scraping against the grit of the cement that I strolled across. "After I pulled the whole I'm gonna end it over a girl gag, my dad wasn't too happy."