Apex

26 | dead zone

"It's been two years. It doesn't matter anymore."

"It does for me. The Fourth of July wasn't a good night for me."

Hadley feigned surprise. "Really? I didn't notice. How was that cigarette, by the way?"

"Awful," I recalled. "My clothes reeked even after I washed them."

The waiter returned with our orders, and I picked up my fork to begin picking at my muffin.

"I could've been nicer," Hadley admitted, expelling a sigh. "What I said about you finding someone to tolerate your self-destructive bullshit was out of line."

I hummed, taking a moment to swallow a small bite of the warm muffin before speaking again. "It's okay. Are you excited to go back to Seattle?"

"I'm so ready," she lamented, toying with one of her curls. "I used to complain about Friday Island being too sleepy and off the grid, but now it's on every travel blogger's Pacific Northwest bucket list. This summer changed everything."

"You mean Apex has changed everything, right?"

At the mention of the show, Hadley stiffened, and her eyes darted around the room. It had become a sort of taboo on the island.

"I don't know what to believe anymore," she eventually said. "What went down with Maud, that old guy from Pacific King, and the paparazzi, is crazy to me. It's something you'd expect to see on TV, not here."

"That's how I felt," I confessed, managing a thin smile. "In the beginning, I tried to keep my distance, but it was inescapable."

The look Hadley gave me was indecipherable. "The six of you must be close, and some of you closer than before. I know all about your wolf pack from high school."

A small, awkward silence settled between us. I adjusted the napkin in my lap while Hadley checked her phone. It was no secret that the Class of 2019's cool kids once again occupied the center stage of Friday Island drama.

I cleared my throat. "For better or for worse, those were the days that bound us together."

There wasn't much more that I was willing to divulge on that front. I couldn't risk saying something that could possibly come back to haunt me or my friends later.

Thankfully, Hadley took a hint and started talking about how she was going back to college early because she needed to prepare for sorority recruitment (apparently, door chants were a serious task). She also mentioned the fact that she was in an engineering class with Syd during Autumn quarter.

I didn't mind listening to Hadley talk about how much she loved college and her excitement for game days. It gave me hope that my return to college would stir up similar emotions. I was still waiting for them to appear.

"Are you going back to NYU?" Hadley asked after ten minutes of talking. The slight hesitation in her voice almost made it seem like she was expecting me to be uncomfortable. She wasn't too far off the mark.

I nodded and tried to smile, securing a stray lock of hair behind my ear. "That's the plan. I'll fly back to New York in the last week of August."

"That's pretty soon," Hadley remarked. "Well, sooner than me, at least. I sort of hate the quarter system"

"Right." I stabbed at my half-eaten muffin with a fork, my appetite wavering. "It'll be nice to leave all of this behind."

We continued to make easy small talk while finishing our coffee, and the light in the luncheonette changed with late afternoon shadows creeping across the walls. When it was time to pay the bill, I covered it without asking, and Hadley didn't protest. After all, today was my idea.