3000 Miles for the Boys [completed]

Chapter 36

My curiousness was actually a curse.

I groaned and watched TV. When it was about 45 minutes before we were going to leave I started to get ready. I pulled on a white and black striped sweater and leggings. I put on my boots that had been hiding in my closet and went into the bathroom. I pulled my hair into a pony tail and went downstairs to eat.

I made myself some toast and chowed down in the living room as I watched some of the kid shows that William had been watching earlier, I assumed. They were so stupid. They made absolutely no sense. I mean how can Dora even stand up with that big head of hers?

When it was time to leave I grabbed my bag and went to the car with Lydia. She said one last time, "You don't have to go," before we pulled out of the driveway.

I just laughed at her. "I'm going. I have a project that I have to work on anyway."

We drove to school and the car ride was pretty quiet. She wished me a good day and I smiled as I walked into school. I handed the late note Lydia had written me to the woman in the front office and she wrote me an excused tardy slip then waved me off to class.

When I walked into the classroom, all eyes were on me. "Miss Houghton," my teacher said. "Do you have a late slip?" I handed it to him and he nodded in approval.

I took my seat next to Paige and she smiled at me. "Where were you all morning?"

"I was saying goodbye to some of my friends that were in town. They had a flight at seven so I went to the airport with them." I took my notebook out of my bag and set it on my desk. I looked over at Paige to see what she was working on. "What are we doing?"

"Working on the projects that we started last week," she answered.

I nodded and flipped through my notebook for the papers that I had lodged inside. They weren't there. "Uh, I don't have mine. They aren't in here." I started to flipped back and forth frantically. Why was everything such a mess? I asked myself.

Paige looked at me with worry in her eyes. "Ellie, calm down. It's alright, class is almost over. We have like 15 minutes left then we go to lunch." I nodded. She slid a paper over to me to make it look like I was working. "Here, that way he won't ask you about it," she said motioning to the teacher. Paige was actually really good at hiding stuff like this, considering she was such a good student.

15 minutes passed and the teacher didn't notice a thing. He just sat at his desk scrolling through his phone, acting like he was doing something productive, but I'm pretty sure I heard the dinging sound from Candy Crush.

Paige and I left the room when the bell rang and walked to the lunch room. Ethan and Chase were already sitting at our usual table. I sat down next to Chase with Paige on my other side. Chase looked over at me and smiled. I smiled back. It was nice seeing him smile. I hadn't seen it in a while.

Things seemed better between us all. Ethan and Paige were being their cute couple on one side of the table and Chase and I seemed like friends again on our side. He told me stories about the last couple of days. We hadn't really talked much. I missed a lot, I guess.

"I talked to Keaton. He said he heard us. He said he was angry that I hadn't said anything to him, that I didn't tell him the truth. But then he said that he was scared. He said he was scared because Jared said something to him." He paused. "Jared said that he would make you feel the same way." Chase looked up at me and his voice was quieter as he continued. "He said that he would make you feel the same way that Brandy did right before she killed herself. He said that he wanted to get back at the Johnson's for ruining his life."

I was beyond confused. What did that mean? "Jared can't make me feel like that," I said before I could even comprehend what he just said. I had no idea why I said that. Was it true? Was that really what I thought? I felt inside myself that it was true. That I was better. Jared was a small part of my life and I knew that he couldn't mean much from the beginning of it all, but I really believed now that there was someone in my life that made me feel better. Someone that made my problems disappear. Chase.