Till All Hours

i. today's hard

"Hey guys, how was your summers?" I asked, stopping to try to fill the gap that two people should fit.

"A bit odd really," Jeffery was the first to answer with his mild English accent.

"We didn't do too much," George and Jackie answered together. They'd been dating since sixth grade and it was a total barf fest, but Hazel had found it endearing.

"It was weird going to the pool," Kat bluntly stated.

Jackie jabbed her out of the corner of my eye, causing Kat to wince. Jeffery looked away like he knew this was going to be awkward but didn't know how to go about it. George just shot Kat an icy glare as if it was enough to shut her down. I was thankful for their attempts, but I knew that people were going to talk about Hazel. There was no way I could get away from it, so I spent most of my time preparing myself for it.

"Yeah, I bet it was," I replied with a slight nod.

A bag brushed mine and I was almost hopeful, but as I turned to see a girl an inch shorter than me that looked exactly like me, I was met with a tanned arm and shoulders covered by gray sleeves. My eyes traced up to look at the side profile of what I could only assume was a very attractive, very new student. I noticed people were greeting him but only vaguely. What I actually noticed was how quick they were to replace Hazel with this piece of meat.

I turned and looked at them all. "I thought it was cool that you guys would try to be my friend this year, but seriously?"

"Hayley," Jackie said softly, reaching out to me. "We aren't trying—"

"To replace my dead fucking sister?" I snapped, pulling away from her touch. I looked to the guy with a fake, sarcastic smile. "You're probably really nice, but today's really hard."

With that, I made my way down to Mr. Garner's for maybe a decent first day in college algebra. That was sorely ruined when Mr. Tall, Tan, and Chiseled followed me into class and plopped down into the seat beside me. He didn't say anything, but he looked at me with his dark eyes that looked like he hadn't slept in weeks. I had absolutely no room to complain about the bags under his eyes when the dark circles surrounding mine were just as bad.

"Today's hard for me too," he said, setting his bag on the back of the seat and the thermos on the desk.

I tried not to sigh but did anyways. "I'm Hayley."

He gave me a tired smirk and looked at me from the corner of his eye since he was now fully facing the front of the classroom. "I know. We're neighbors. Your dad and my dad hang out in our garage a lot."

"Oh," was all I could manage. That probably meant he knew why today was hard for me. Dad had a rather large mouth when he started working on cars, especially if he knew he was all alone. And he was. I'd left him alone. I should have known my mother would dive into her work. She never did handle loss well.

"I'm Will," he said, stopping my train of thought.

"I'll be over today or tomorrow to tell you dad thanks for taking care of mine," I replied.

I heard my phone begin to buzz in my bag and look up at the clock. We had ten minutes before any student would even think about stepping foot in here, so I gladly took the call. It was saving me some awkward time chatting and avoiding subjects I knew he was aware of.

"Hello?"

"How's today so far?"

I tried not to smile at the sound of my brother's voice, but instead mouthed who it was to Will.

"It's hard."

"I know, kid. I know. I called Dad first."

"I miss you."