Just the Beginning [Complete ✓]

Chapter 17

I haven't seen or heard from Sawyer since the last time he was here. The rest of that week, I stayed home and I spent two or three days of the following week at home as well. I just couldn't bring myself to get up and go to school, which is what I told Carmela the first week. The second, I claimed I wasn't feeling well. 

It's the third week, and while I was planning to try and stay home, Carmela informed us that my father was coming home. That got me back into the routine of going to school faster than one could imagine possible. Even so, the few days that I was at school, I hadn't run into Sawyer once. It felt strange and while there was a side of me that felt a tinge of panic considering I wanted this assignment done as fast as possible (that way I wouldn't have to brace myself to meet up with him more than I need to), the other side of me was relieved.

When I walk into school, I'm practically tackled.

"You do not worry a person like that," Monique whines, her arms wrapped tightly around me and it's the first time I realize we don't have each other's numbers. We hadn't been in contact since those days I did come in, and even then, those were the days I had less classes with her.

"I'm sorry," I say as she pulls away. Her face is creased in concern as she takes in my entire appearance and then, relief washes over her, replacing that concern. Lips tugging upward, she hooks our arms together as we start walking to the lockers.

"I'm just glad you're alive," she says. "But seriously, don't do that again, okay? We're exchanging numbers. How we haven't done that yet is beyond me," she rambles on, all the while tugging me along. She stops speaking when we get to her locker, but every now and again her gaze flickers over to me. Eventually, I give in.

"You have something you want to say," I state. Her eyes somehow seem so much brighter in that moment as she furrows her brow.

"You never said how it went," she starts, a hesitant look crossing her face. "With the whole Sawyer thing."

Oh. Right. It never really occurred to me to speak to Monique about it. It barely occurred to me to speak about it at all after everything, and I suppose of course I should have known she'd be curious what with how she assured me he would come through and he did just that, sort of. In that one moment.

"He didn't show," I say.

"What?" Disbelief flames in her eyes. When she shuts the locker, its a lot louder than either of us expect, both of us flinching at the sound. She automatically pulls herself together as she looks back at me. We walk to my locker. "But he said"

"Yeah." I sigh. "The worst of it was when I got home. Him and Adrian were on the couch. Playing some game."

"Now that is a dick move," she comments, shaking her head and crossing her arms as she leans against the lockers. "But you did your work in the end?"

I stop mid-way of taking a book out. Staring inside the locker, I don't know why I'm only realizing it now. That we never ended up working. I told him to leave, so how could I have forgotten?

"Uh, no," I mumble. "And that was the last time I saw him."

"Well," she starts. I whip my head around in her direction, frowning as I wait for her to continue; wait to hear what it is she's going to say. Seeming to realize, her lips tug up at the corners. "He hasn't shown up to school the past few days."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. I didn't think much of it," she says. "But did something happen?" The way her face scrunches up, her nose crinkling, forehead creasing and lips pulling to a corner, it's an odd expression. Though I know she doesn't want to think something happened. Somehow, I just know. She's giving me the benefit of the doubt.