Into the Velvet

Twenty-Eight Days Until

There's no denying it; a lot of what transpired had been entirely my doing.

Henry was constantly on my mind. The twenty-eight days towards the finish line of adulthood seemed to drag on and on. I wanted to attain that magical number more than ever, seeing it as a talisman for all the things I could only hope to want. The big one-eight. It was the step up I needed, the peak I had to climb to take my place by Henry's side — equals at last.

Even then, I knew my logic was flawed. My age wasn't the only issue we had. So many other things stood in the way — but they had all felt so inconsequential.

I could handle the age difference, I thought. It never mattered to begin with. I could endure the scandal we would cause in this small town. And as for Jordan? My phone was full to bursting. I vowed to give him an answer to his pile up of messages, which I'd left unread for too long. I would end things properly. I'd clarify that my heart couldn't belong to him.

Not anymore.

To hell with it, then. I was determined to hope for a future where Henry and I could give in. No more sleepless nights. No more desperate messages and half-spoken longing. It wasn't enough. I wanted the real deal. It would all be worth it, I assured myself. I would make sure.

Everything started with a letter.

"Louise? You listening?"

I blinked my glassy eyes, turning to find Bianca. She pressed her mouth into a thin line.

"Have you been paying attention to what we're discussing?" she asked.

I looked around in bewilderment. Members of the student council were seated around a U-shaped table, with notepads in hand. There was a whiteboard with color-coded sticky notes. Amos stopped to stare, an uncapped marker still in hand.

I cleared my throat. "Ah, yes?"

Bianca crossed her arms. "What did Sami just say?"

I blinked again, trying to remember literally anything from the past five minutes. "Sami was discussing... swapping to recycled toilet paper in the student bathrooms?"

Sami had the grace to smile. "I brought that up two weeks ago."

I sunk back into my seat, feeling defeated. "Oh. Sorry."

The lack of sleep was getting to me. Spirit Day was twenty-four hours away, and I hadn't paid attention to a single meeting in weeks. The festival would happen just before the Thanksgiving break. Bianca had done most of the planning in my place — it wasn't even fair of me to assume the student council presidency title.

Bianca re-arranged the sticky notes. "So the apple-bobbing contest will have to be before the Spirit Race. Then the scavenger hunt. That'll tie in with the student barbeque." She looked over her shoulder at me. "Before we complete any changes, does our president approve?"

Feeling like I'd come out of a coma, I nodded dumbly. "Yeah. Good idea. Apple-bobbing before the race."

These days, the actual world carried on around me while I stood still.

"Have we all got our outfits ready?" Jessie asked.

I whipped my head between the council's many faces. "Outfits?"

Sami smiled patiently again. Bianca sighed. "The theme is school colours," she answered. "Seniors are dressing as their favourite teacher."

The face of my favourite teacher came to my mind, and it hadn't been the first instance that afternoon. I swallowed. "Sounds fun."